Term
The Imagination then I consider either as primary, or secondary. The primary Imagination I hold to be the living power and prime agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM. The secondary Imagination I consider as an echo of the former, co-existing with the conscious will, yet still as identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate: or where this process is rendered impossible, yet still at all events it struggles to idealize and to unify. It is essentially vital, even as all objects (as objects) are essentially fixed and dead.
FANCY, on the contrary, has no other counters to play with, but fixities and definites. The fancy is indeed no other than a mode of memory emancipated from the order of time and space; while it is blended with, and modified by that empirical phaenomenon of the will, which we express by the word Choice. But equally with the ordinary memory the Fancy must receive all its materials ready made from the law of association. |
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Definition
Biographia Literaria
Samuel Coleridge |
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Term
I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
1804.
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Definition
I wandered Lonely as a cloud
William Wordsworth |
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Term
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. |
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Definition
London 1802
William Wordsworth |
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Term
I HEARD a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths; 10
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.
The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there. 20
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man? |
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Definition
"Lines Written in Early Spring"
William Wordsworth |
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Term
"WHY, William, on that old grey stone,
Thus for the length of half a day,
Why, William, sit you thus alone,
And dream your time away?
"Where are your books?--that light bequeathed
To Beings else forlorn and blind!
Up! up! and drink the spirit breathed
From dead men to their kind.
"You look round on your Mother Earth,
As if she for no purpose bore you; 10
As if you were her first-born birth,
And none had lived before you!"
One morning thus, by Esthwaite lake,
When life was sweet, I knew not why,
To me my good friend Matthew spake,
And thus I made reply:
"The eye--it cannot choose but see;
We cannot bid the ear be still;
Our bodies feel, where'er they be,
Against or with our will. 20
"Nor less I deem that there are Powers
Which of themselves our minds impress;
That we can feed this mind of ours
In a wise passiveness.
"Think you, 'mid all this mighty sum
Of things for ever speaking,
That nothing of itself will come,
But we must still be seeking?
"--Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,
Conversing as I may, 30
I sit upon this old grey stone,
And dream my time away," |
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Definition
Expostulation and Reply
William Wordsworth |
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Term
UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet, 10
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless--
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness. 20
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves; 30
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives. |
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Definition
The Tables Turned; An evening scene on the same subject
William Wordsworth |
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Term
| Five years have past; five summers, with the length |
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| Of five long winters! and again I hear |
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| These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs |
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| With a sweet inland murmur.*—Once again |
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| Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, |
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| Which on a wild secluded scene impress |
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| Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect |
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| The landscape with the quiet of the sky. |
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| The day is come when I again repose |
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| Here, under this dark sycamore, and view |
10 |
| These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, |
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| Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits, |
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| Among the woods and copses lose themselves, |
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| Nor, with their green and simple hue, disturb |
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| The wild green landscape. Once again I see |
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| These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines |
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| Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms, |
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| Green to the very door; and wreathes of smoke |
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| Sent up, in silence, from among the trees, |
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| With some uncertain notice, as might seem, |
20 |
| Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, |
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| Or of some hermit's cave, where by his fire |
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The hermit sits alone.
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| Though absent long, |
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| These forms of beauty have not been to me, |
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| As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: |
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| But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din |
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| Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, |
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| In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, |
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| Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart, |
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| And passing even into my purer mind |
30 |
| With tranquil restoration:—feelings too |
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| Of unremembered pleasure; such, perhaps, |
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| As may have had no trivial influence |
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| On that best portion of a good man's life; |
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| His little, nameless, unremembered acts |
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| Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust, |
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| To them I may have owed another gift, |
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| Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, |
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| In which the burthen of the mystery, |
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| In which the heavy and the weary weight |
40 |
| Of all this unintelligible world |
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| Is lighten'd:—that serene and blessed mood, |
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| In which the affections gently lead us on, |
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| Until, the breath of this corporeal frame, |
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| And even the motion of our human blood |
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| Almost suspended, we are laid asleep |
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| In body, and become a living soul: |
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| While with an eye made quiet by the power |
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| Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, |
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We see into the life of things.
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50 |
| If this |
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| Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft, |
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| In darkness, and amid the many shapes |
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| Of joyless day-light; when the fretful stir |
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| Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, |
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| Have hung upon the beatings of my heart, |
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| How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee |
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| O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the wood |
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How often has my spirit turned to thee!
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| And now, with gleams of half-extinguish'd though[t,] |
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| With many recognitions dim and faint, |
60 |
| And somewhat of a sad perplexity, |
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| The picture of the mind revives again: |
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| While here I stand, not only with the sense |
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| Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts |
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| That in this moment there is life and food |
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| For future years. And so I dare to hope |
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| Though changed, no doubt, from what I was, when first |
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| I came among these hills; when like a roe |
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| I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides |
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| Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams, |
70 |
| Wherever nature led; more like a man |
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| Flying from something that he dreads, than one |
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| Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then |
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| (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days, |
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| And their glad animal movements all gone by,) |
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| To me was all in all.—I cannot paint |
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| What then I was. The sounding cataract |
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| Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, |
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| The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, |
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| Their colours and their forms, were then to me |
80 |
| An appetite: a feeling and a love, |
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| That had no need of a remoter charm, |
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| By thought supplied, or any interest |
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| Unborrowed from the eye.—That time is past, |
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| And all its aching joys are now no more, |
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| And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this |
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| Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts |
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| Have followed, for such loss, I would believe, |
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| Abundant recompence. For I have learned |
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| To look on nature, not as in the hour |
90 |
| Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes |
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| The still, sad music of humanity, |
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| Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power |
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| To chasten and subdue. And I have felt |
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| A presence that disturbs me with the joy |
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| Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime |
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| Of something far more deeply interfused, |
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| Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, |
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| And the round ocean, and the living air, |
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| And the blue sky, and in the mind of man, |
100 |
| A motion and a spirit, that impels |
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| All thinking things, all objects of all thought, |
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| And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still |
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| A lover of the meadows and the woods, |
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| And mountains; and of all that we behold |
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| From this green earth; of all the mighty world |
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| Of eye and ear, both what they half-create,* |
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| And what perceive; well pleased to recognize |
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| In nature and the language of the sense, |
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| The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, |
110 |
| The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul |
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Of all my moral being.
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| Nor, perchance, |
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| If I were not thus taught, should I the more |
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| Suffer my genial spirits to decay: |
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| For thou art with me, here, upon the banks |
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| Of this fair river; thou, my dearest Friend, |
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| My dear, dear Friend, and in thy voice I catch |
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| The language of my former heart, and read |
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| My former pleasures in the shooting lights |
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| Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while |
120 |
| May I behold in thee what I was once, |
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| My dear, dear Sister! And this prayer I make, |
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| Knowing that Nature never did betray |
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| The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, |
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| Through all the years of this our life, to lead |
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| From joy to joy: for she can so inform |
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| The mind that is within us, so impress |
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| With quietness and beauty, and so feed |
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| With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, |
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| Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, |
130 |
| Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all |
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| The dreary intercourse of daily life, |
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| Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb |
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| Our chearful faith that all which we behold |
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| Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon |
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| Shine on thee in thy solitary walk; |
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| And let the misty mountain winds be free |
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| To blow against thee: and in after years, |
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| When these wild ecstasies shall be matured |
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| Into a sober pleasure, when thy mind |
140 |
| Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms, |
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| Thy memory be as a dwelling-place |
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| For all sweet sounds and harmonies; Oh! then, |
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| If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, |
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| Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts |
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| Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, |
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| And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance, |
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| If I should be, where I no more can hear |
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| Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams |
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| Of past existence, wilt thou then forget |
150 |
| That on the banks of this delightful stream |
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| We stood together; and that I, so long |
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| A worshipper of Nature, hither came, |
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| Unwearied in that service: rather say |
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| With warmer love, oh! with far deeper zeal |
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| Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget, |
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| That after many wanderings, many years |
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| Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs, |
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| And this green pastoral landscape, were to me |
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| More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake |
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Definition
Lines Written a Few miles Above Tintern Abbey
William Wordsworth |
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Term
| |
| THE FIRST volume of these Poems has already been submitted to general perusal. It was published, as an experiment, which, I hoped, might be of some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation, that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasure may be imparted, which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart. |
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| I had formed no very inaccurate estimate of the probable effect of those Poems: I flattered myself that they who should be pleased with them would read them with more than common pleasure: and, on the other hand, I was well aware, that by those who should dislike them, they would be read with more than common dislike. The result has differed from my expectation in this only, that a greater number have been pleased than I ventured to hope I should please. |
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| Several of my Friends are anxious for the success of these Poems, from a belief, that, if the views with which they were composed were indeed realized, a class of Poetry would be produced, well adapted to interest mankind permanently, and not unimportant in the quality, and in the multiplicity of its moral relations: and on this account they have advised me to prefix a systematic defence of the theory upon which the Poems were written. But I was unwilling to undertake the task, knowing that on this occasion the Reader would look coldly upon my arguments, since I might be suspected of having been principally influenced by the selfish and foolish hope of reasoning him into an approbation of these particular Poems: and I was still more unwilling to undertake the task, because, adequately to display the opinions, and fully to enforce the arguments, would require a space wholly disproportionate to a preface. For, to treat the subject with the clearness and coherence of which it is susceptible, it would be necessary to give a full account of the present state of the public taste in this country, and to determine how far this taste is healthy or depraved; which, again, could not be determined, without pointing out in what manner language and the human mind act and re-act on each other, and without retracing the revolutions, not of literature alone, but likewise of society itself. I have therefore altogether declined to enter regularly upon this defence; yet I am sensible, that there would be something like impropriety in abruptly obtruding upon the Public, without a few words of introduction, Poems so materially different from those upon which general approbation is at present bestowed. |
3 |
| It is supposed, that by the act of writing in verse an Author makes a formal engagement that he will gratify certain known habits of association; that he not only thus apprises the Reader that certain classes of ideas and expressions will be found in his book, but that others will be carefully excluded. This exponent or symbol held forth by metrical language must in different eras of literature have excited very different expectations: for example, in the age of Catullus, Terence, and Lucretius, and that of Statius or Claudian; and in our own country, in the age of Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher, and that of Donne and Cowley, or Dryden, or Pope. I will not take upon me to determine the exact import of the promise which, by the act of writing in verse, an Author in the present day makes to his reader: but it will undoubtedly appear to many persons that I have not fulfilled the terms of an engagement thus voluntarily contracted. They who have been accustomed to the gaudiness and inane phraseology of many modern writers, if they persist in reading this book to its conclusion, will, no doubt, frequently have to struggle with feelings of strangeness and awkwardness: they will look round for poetry, and will be induced to inquire by what species of courtesy these attempts can be permitted to assume that title. I hope therefore the reader will not censure me for attempting to state what I have proposed to myself to perform; and also (as far as the limits of a preface will permit) to explain some of the chief reasons which have determined me in the choice of my purpose: that at least he may be spared any unpleasant feeling of disappointment, and that I myself may be protected from one of the most dishonourable accusations which can be brought against an Author, namely, that of an indolence which prevents him from endeavouring to ascertain what is his duty, or, when his duty is ascertained, prevents him from performing it. |
4 |
| The principal object, then, proposed in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible in a selection of language really used by men, and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further, and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings, and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and, lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature. The language, too, of these men has been adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived; and because, from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than that which is frequently substituted for it by Poets, who think that they are conferring honour upon themselves and their art, in proportion as they separate themselves from the sympathies of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of expression, in order to furnish food for fickle tastes, and fickle appetites, of their own creation. 1 |
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Definition
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth |
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Term
She dwelt among th' untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.
A Violet by a mossy stone
Half-hidden from the Eye!
--Fair, as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky!
She _liv'd_ unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceas'd to be;
But she is in her Grave, and Oh!
The difference to me. |
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Definition
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Term
| A SLUMBER did my spirit seal; |
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| I had no human fears: |
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| She seem'd a thing that could not feel |
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| The touch of earthly years. |
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| No motion has she now, no force; |
5 |
| She neither hears nor sees; |
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| Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course |
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| With rocks, and stones, and trees. |
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Definition
A Slumber did my Spirit Seal
William Wordsworth |
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Term
| THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, |
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| The earth, and every common sight, |
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| To me did seem |
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| Apparell'd in celestial light, |
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| The glory and the freshness of a dream. |
5 |
| It is not now as it hath been of yore;— |
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| Turn wheresoe'er I may, |
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| By night or day, |
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| The things which I have seen I now can see no more. |
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| |
| The rainbow comes and goes, |
10 |
| And lovely is the rose; |
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| The moon doth with delight |
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| Look round her when the heavens are bare; |
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| Waters on a starry night |
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| Are beautiful and fair; |
15 |
| The sunshine is a glorious birth; |
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| But yet I know, where'er I go, |
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| That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth. |
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| |
| Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, |
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| And while the young lambs bound |
20 |
| As to the tabor's sound, |
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| To me alone there came a thought of grief: |
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| A timely utterance gave that thought relief, |
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| And I again am strong: |
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| The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; |
25 |
| No more shall grief of mine the season wrong; |
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| I hear the echoes through the mountains throng, |
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| The winds come to me from the fields of sleep, |
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| And all the earth is gay; |
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| Land and sea |
30 |
| Give themselves up to jollity, |
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| And with the heart of May |
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| Doth every beast keep holiday;— |
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| Thou Child of Joy, |
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| Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy |
35 |
| Shepherd-boy! |
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| |
| Ye blessèd creatures, I have heard the call |
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| Ye to each other make; I see |
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| The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; |
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| My heart is at your festival, |
40 |
| My head hath its coronal, |
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| The fulness of your bliss, I feel—I feel it all. |
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| O evil day! if I were sullen |
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| While Earth herself is adorning, |
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| This sweet May-morning, |
45 |
| And the children are culling |
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| On every side, |
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| In a thousand valleys far and wide, |
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| Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm, |
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| And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm:— |
50 |
| I hear, I hear, with joy I hear! |
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| —But there's a tree, of many, one, |
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| A single field which I have look'd upon, |
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| Both of them speak of something that is gone: |
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| The pansy at my feet |
55 |
| Doth the same tale repeat: |
|
| Whither is fled the visionary gleam? |
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| Where is it now, the glory and the dream? |
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| |
| Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: |
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| The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, |
60 |
| Hath had elsewhere its setting, |
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| And cometh from afar: |
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| Not in entire forgetfulness, |
|
| And not in utter nakedness, |
|
| But trailing clouds of glory do we come |
65 |
| From God, who is our home: |
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| Heaven lies about us in our infancy! |
|
| Shades of the prison-house begin to close |
|
| Upon the growing Boy, |
|
| But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, |
70 |
| He sees it in his joy; |
|
| The Youth, who daily farther from the east |
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| Must travel, still is Nature's priest, |
|
| And by the vision splendid |
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| Is on his way attended; |
75 |
| At length the Man perceives it die away, |
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| And fade into the light of common day. |
|
| |
| Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; |
|
| Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind, |
|
| And, even with something of a mother's mind, |
80 |
| And no unworthy aim, |
|
| The homely nurse doth all she can |
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| To make her foster-child, her Inmate Man, |
|
| Forget the glories he hath known, |
|
| And that imperial palace whence he came. |
85 |
| |
| Behold the Child among his new-born blisses, |
|
| A six years' darling of a pigmy size! |
|
| See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies, |
|
| Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses, |
|
| With light upon him from his father's eyes! |
90 |
| See, at his feet, some little plan or chart, |
|
| Some fragment from his dream of human life, |
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| Shaped by himself with newly-learnèd art; |
|
| A wedding or a festival, |
|
| A mourning or a funeral; |
95 |
| And this hath now his heart, |
|
| And unto this he frames his song: |
|
| Then will he fit his tongue |
|
| To dialogues of business, love, or strife; |
|
| But it will not be long |
100 |
| Ere this be thrown aside, |
|
| And with new joy and pride |
|
| The little actor cons another part; |
|
| Filling from time to time his 'humorous stage' |
|
| With all the Persons, down to palsied Age, |
105 |
| That Life brings with her in her equipage; |
|
| As if his whole vocation |
|
| Were endless imitation. |
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| |
| Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie |
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| Thy soul's immensity; |
110 |
| Thou best philosopher, who yet dost keep |
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| Thy heritage, thou eye among the blind, |
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| That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep, |
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| Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,— |
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| Mighty prophet! Seer blest! |
115 |
| On whom those truths do rest, |
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| Which we are toiling all our lives to find, |
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| In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave; |
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| Thou, over whom thy Immortality |
|
| Broods like the Day, a master o'er a slave, |
120 |
| A presence which is not to be put by; |
|
| To whom the grave |
|
| Is but a lonely bed without the sense or sight |
|
| Of day or the warm light, |
|
| A place of thought where we in waiting lie; |
125 |
| Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might |
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| Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height, |
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| Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke |
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| The years to bring the inevitable yoke, |
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| Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife? |
130 |
| Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight, |
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| And custom lie upon thee with a weight, |
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| Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life! |
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| |
| O joy! that in our embers |
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| Is something that doth live, |
135 |
| That nature yet remembers |
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| What was so fugitive! |
|
| The thought of our past years in me doth breed |
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| Perpetual benediction: not indeed |
|
| For that which is most worthy to be blest— |
140 |
| Delight and liberty, the simple creed |
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| Of childhood, whether busy or at rest, |
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| With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:— |
|
| Not for these I raise |
|
| The song of thanks and praise; |
145 |
| But for those obstinate questionings |
|
| Of sense and outward things, |
|
| Fallings from us, vanishings; |
|
| Blank misgivings of a Creature |
|
| Moving about in worlds not realized, |
150 |
| High instincts before which our mortal Nature |
|
| Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised: |
|
| But for those first affections, |
|
| Those shadowy recollections, |
|
| Which, be they what they may, |
155 |
| Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, |
|
| Are yet a master-light of all our seeing; |
|
| Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make |
|
| Our noisy years seem moments in the being |
|
| Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, |
160 |
| To perish never: |
|
| Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, |
|
| Nor Man nor Boy, |
|
| Nor all that is at enmity with joy, |
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| Can utterly abolish or destroy! |
165 |
| Hence in a season of calm weather |
|
| Though inland far we be, |
|
| Our souls have sight of that immortal sea |
|
| Which brought us hither, |
|
| Can in a moment travel thither, |
170 |
| And see the children sport upon the shore, |
|
| And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore. |
|
| |
| Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song! |
|
| And let the young lambs bound |
|
| As to the tabor's sound! |
175 |
| We in thought will join your throng, |
|
| Ye that pipe and ye that play, |
|
| Ye that through your hearts to-day |
|
| Feel the gladness of the May! |
|
| What though the radiance which was once so bright |
180 |
| Be now for ever taken from my sight, |
|
| Though nothing can bring back the hour |
|
| Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; |
|
| We will grieve not, rather find |
|
| Strength in what remains behind; |
185 |
| In the primal sympathy |
|
| Which having been must ever be; |
|
| In the soothing thoughts that spring |
|
| Out of human suffering; |
|
| In the faith that looks through death, |
190 |
| In years that bring the philosophic mind. |
|
| |
| And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves, |
|
| Forebode not any severing of our loves! |
|
| Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might; |
|
| I only have relinquish'd one delight |
195 |
| To live beneath your more habitual sway. |
|
| I love the brooks which down their channels fret, |
|
| Even more than when I tripp'd lightly as they; |
|
| The innocent brightness of a new-born Day |
|
| Is lovely yet; |
200 |
| The clouds that gather round the setting sun |
|
| Do take a sober colouring from an eye |
|
| That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; |
|
| Another race hath been, and other palms are won. |
|
| Thanks to the human heart by which we live, |
205 |
| Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, |
|
| To me the meanest flower that blows can give |
|
| Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. |
|
|
Definition
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
William Wordsworth |
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Term
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THE ARGUMENT
MAN has no notion of moral fitness but from Education. Naturally, he is only a Natural Organ, subject to Sense. |
1 |
| |
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I
Man cannot naturally perceive but through his Natural or Bodily Organs. |
2 |
| |
|
II
Man, by his Reasoning Power, can only compare and judge of what he has already perceiv’d. |
3 |
| |
|
III
From a Perception of only three Senses, or three Elements, none could deduce a fourth or fifth. |
4 |
| |
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IV
None could have other than Natural or Organic Thoughts if he had none but Organic Perceptions. |
5 |
| |
|
V
Man’s Desires are limited by his Perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceiv’d. |
6 |
| |
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VI
The Desires and Perceptions of Man, untaught by anything but Organs of Sense, must be limited to Objects of Sense. |
7 |
| |
|
CONCLUSION
If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic Character, the Philosophic and Experimental would soon be at the Ratio of all things; and stand still, unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again. |
8 |
| |
|
[Part the Second]
I
Man’s Perceptions are not bounded by Organs of Perception; he perceives more than Sense (tho’ ever so acute) can discover. |
9 |
| |
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II
Reason, or the Ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more. |
10 |
| |
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III
[Deest]
|
11 |
| |
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IV
The Bounded is loathed by its possessor. The same dull round, even of a Universe, would soon become a Mill with complicated wheels. |
12 |
| |
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V
If the Many become the same as the Few, when possess’d, ‘More! More!’ is the cry of a mistaken soul: less than All cannot satisfy Man. |
13 |
| |
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VI
If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, Despair must be his Eternal lot. |
14 |
| |
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VII
The Desire of Man being Infinite, the possession is Infinite, and himself Infinite. |
15 |
| |
|
APPLICATION
He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the Ratio only, sees himself only. |
16 |
| |
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THEREFORE
God becomes as we are, that we may be as He is.
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17 |
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|
Definition
There is no natural religion
William Blake |
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Term
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:
"Pipe a song about a Lamb!"
So I piped with merry cheer.
"Piper, pipe that song again;"
So I piped: he wept to hear.
"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.
"Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book, that all may read."
So he vanished from my sight,
And I plucked a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear. |
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Definition
Introduction
Songs of Innoncence
William Blake |
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Term
My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but oh! my soul is white.
White as an angel is the English child,
But I am black as if bereaved of light.
My mother taught me underneath a tree,
And, sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say:
"Look on the rising sun, -there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away;
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.
And we are put on earth a little space
That we may learn to bear the beams of love;
And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
For when our souls have learned the heat to bear
The cloud will vanish, we shall hear his voice
Saying: `Come out from the grove, my love and care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice!' "
Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;
And thus I say to little English boy:
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,
I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear
To lean in joy upon our father's knee;
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him, and he will then love me. |
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Definition
The Little Black Boy
William Blake |
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|
Term
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: so I said,
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."
And so he was quiet; and that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, -
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
And by came an angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, and never want joy.
And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm. |
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Definition
THe CHimney Sweeper
William Blake |
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Term
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
Once meek, and in a perilous path,
The just man kept his course along
The vale of death.
Roses are planted where thorns grow,
And on the barren heath
Sing the honey bees.
Then the perilous path was planted:
And a river and a spring
On every cliff and tomb:
And on the bleached bones
Red clay brought forth.
Till the villain left the paths of ease,
To walk in perilous paths, and drive
The just man into barren climes.
Now the sneaking serpent walks
In mild humility,
And the just man rages in the wilds
Where lions roam.
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
(Plate 3 )
As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years since its advent: the Eternal Hell revives. And lo! Swedenborg is the Angel sitting at the tomb: his writings are the linen clothes folded up. Now is the dominion of Edom, & the return of Adam into Paradise: see Isaiah XXXIV & XXXV Chap:
Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy.
Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell
THE VOICE OF THE DEVIL
(Plate 4 )
All Bibles or sacred codes, have been the causes of the following Errors.
1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul.
2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.
But the following Contraries to these are True.
1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3. Energy is Eternal Delight.
(Plate 5 and Plate 6 )
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer of reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.
And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire.
The history of this written in Paradise Lost, & the Governor of Reason is call'd Messiah.
And the original Archangel or possessor of the command of the heavenly host, is call'd the Devil or Satan and his children are call'd Sin & Death.
But in the Book of Job Miltons Messiah is call'd Satan.
For this history has been adopted by both parties.
It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was cast out, but the Devils account is that the Messiah (Plate 6) fell, & formed a heaven of what he stole from the Abyss.
This is shewn in the Gospel, where he prays to the Father to send the comforter or Desire that Reason may have Ideas to build on, the Jehovah of the Bible being no other than he who dwells in flaming fire.
Know that after Christs death, he became Jehovah.
But in Milton' the Father is Destiny, the Son, a Raio of the five senses, & the Holy-ghost, Vacuum!
Note. The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devils party without knowing it.
A MEMORABLE FANCY
(Plate 6 and Plate 7)
As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity, I collected some of their Proverbs; thinking that as the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell, shew the nature in Infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments,
When I came home: on the abyss of the five senses, where a flat sided steep frowns over the present world, I saw a mighty Devil folded in black clouds, hovering on the sides of the rock, with corroding fires (Plate 7) he wrote the following sentence now percieved by the minds of men, & read by them on earth.
How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?
PROVERBS OF HELL
(Plate 7 )
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.
All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap.
Bring out number weight & measure in a year of dearth.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
A dead body, revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Folly is the cloke of knavery.
Shame is Prides cloke. |
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Definition
THe Marriage of Heaven and Hell
William Blake |
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|
Term
Hear the voice of the Bard,
Who present, past, and future, sees;
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word
That walk'd among the ancient trees;
Calling the lapsèd soul,
And weeping in the evening dew;
That might control
The starry pole,
And fallen, fallen light renew!
'O Earth, O Earth, return!
Arise from out the dewy grass!
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumbrous mass.
'Turn away no more;
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watery shore,
Is given thee till the break of day.' |
|
Definition
Introducation
Songs of Experience
William Blake |
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|
Term
"Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair."
So sung a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:
"Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven's despite." |
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Definition
The CLod and the Pebble
WIlliam Blake |
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|
Term
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
A green and silent spot, amid the hills,
A small and silent dell! O'er stiller place
No singing skylark ever poised himself.
The hills are heathy, save that swelling slope,
Which hath a gay and gorgeous covering on,
All golden with the never-bloomless furze,
Which now blooms most profusely: but the dell,
Bathed by the mist, is fresh and delicate
As vernal cornfield, or the unripe flax,
When, through its half-transparent stalks, at eve,
The level sunshine glimmers with green light.
Oh! 'tis a quiet spirit-healing nook!
Which all, methinks, would love; but chiefly he,
The humble man, who, in his youthful years,
Knew just so much of folly as had made
His early manhood more securely wise!
Here he might lie on fern or withered heath,
While from the singing lark (that sings unseen
The minstrelsy that solitude loves best),
And from the sun, and from the breezy air,
Sweet influences trembled o'er his frame;
And he, with many feelings, many thoughts,
Made up a meditative joy, and found
Religious meanings in the forms of Nature!
And so, his senses gradually wrapped
In a half sleep, he dreams of better worlds,
And dreaming hears thee still, O singing lark,
That singest like an angel in the clouds!
My God! it is a melancholy thing
For such a man, who would full fain preserve
His soul in calmness, yet perforce must feel
For all his human brethren -O my God!
It weighs upon the heart, that he must think
What uproar and what strife may now be stirring
This way or that way o'er these silent hills -
Invasion, and the thunder and the shout,
And all the crash of onset; fear and rage,
And undetermined conflict -even now,
Even now, perchance, and in his native isle:
Carnage and groans beneath this blessed sun!
We have offended, Oh! my countrymen!
We have offended very grievously,
And been most tyrannous. From east to west
A groan of accusation pierces Heaven!
The wretched plead against us; multitudes
Countless and vehement, the sons of God,
Our brethren! Like a cloud that travels on,
Steamed up from Cairo's swamps of pestilence,
Even so, my countrymen! have we gone forth
And borne to distant tribes slavery and pangs,
And, deadlier far, our vices, whose deep taint
With slow perdition murders the whole man,
His body and his soul! Meanwhile, at home,
All individual dignity and power
Engulfed in Courts, Committees, Institutions,
Associations and Societies,
A vain, speech-mouthing, speech-reporting Guild,
One Benefit-Club for mutual flattery,
We have drunk up, demure as at a grace,
Pollutions from the brimming cup of wealth;
Contemptuous of all honourable rule,
Yet bartering freedom and the poor man's life
For gold, as at a market! The sweet words
Of Christian promise, words that even yet
Might stem destruction, were they wisely preached,
Are muttered o'er by men, whose tones proclaim
How flat and wearisome they feel their trade:
Rank scoffers some, but most too indolent
To deem them falsehoods or to know their truth.
Oh! blasphemous! the Book of Life is made
A superstitious instrument, on which
We gabble o'er the oaths we mean to break;
For all must swear -all and in every place,
College and wharf, council and justice-court;
All, all must swear, the briber and the bribed,
Merchant and lawyer, senator and priest,
The rich, the poor, the old man and the young;
All, all make up one scheme of perjury,
That faith doth reel; the very name of God
Sounds like a juggler's charm; and, bold with joy,
Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place
(Portentous sight!) the owlet Atheism,
Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon,
Drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close,
And hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven,
Cries out, "Where is it?"
|
|
Definition
Fears in Solitude
Samuel Coleridge |
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Term
Part I
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
`By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
Mayst hear the merry din.'
He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he.
`Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'
Eftsoons his hand dropped he.
He holds him with his glittering eye -
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
"The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse top.
The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.
Higher and higher every day,
Till over the mast at noon -"
The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.
The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.
The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
"And now the storm-blast came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong:
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.
With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And foward bends his head,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
And southward aye we fled.
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken -
The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moonshine."
`God save thee, ancient Mariner,
From the fiends that plague thee thus! -
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
Part II
"The sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he,
Still hid in mist, and on the left
Went down into the sea.
And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariners' hollo!
And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!
Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,
The glorious sun uprist:
Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down,
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the moon.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.
And some in dreams assured were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow.
And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung."
Part III
"There passed a weary time. Each throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye.
A weary time! a weary time!
How glazed each weary eye -
When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.
At first it seemed a little speck,
And then it seemed a mist;
It moved and moved, and took at last
A certain shape, I wist.
A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist!
And still it neared and neared:
As if it dodged a water-sprite,
It plunged and tacked and veered.
With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
We could nor laugh nor wail;
Through utter drought all dumb we stood!
I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail! a sail!
With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
Agape they heard me call:
Gramercy! they for joy did grin,
And all at once their breath drew in,
As they were drinking all.
See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more!
Hither to work us weal;
Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!
The western wave was all a-flame,
The day was well nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright sun;
When that strange shape drove suddenly
Betwixt us and the sun.
And straight the sun was flecked with bars,
(Heaven's Mother send us grace!)
As if through a dungeon-grate he peered
With broad and burning face.
Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud)
How fast she nears and nears!
Are those her sails that glance in the sun,
Like restless gossameres?
Are those her ribs through which the sun
Did peer, as through a grate?
And is that Woman all her crew?
Is that a Death? and are there two?
Is Death that Woman's mate?
Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.
The naked hulk alongside came,
And the twain were casting dice;
`The game is done! I've won! I've won!'
Quoth she, and whistles thrice.
The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out:
At one stride comes the dark;
With far-heard whisper o'er the sea,
Off shot the spectre-bark. |
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Definition
The Rime of Ancyent Marinere
Samuel Coleridge |
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Term
In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A stately Pleasure-Dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers was girdled ’round,
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But, oh! That deep, romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill, athwart a cedarn cover:
A savage place! As holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath the waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her Demon Lover!
And from this chasm with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this Earth in fast, thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced,
Amid whose swift, half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail;
And ‘midst these dancing rocks at once and ever,
It flung up momently the sacred river!
Five miles meandering with ever a mazy motion,
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean.
And ‘mid this tumult, Kublai heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
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Definition
Kubla Khan
Samuel Coleridge |
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