Wordsworth's Prose ...1901 - 60 pages |
Common terms and phrases
admire aesthetic theory artist attitude called Catholic Relief Bill charm classes clear Coleridge condemned Convention of Cintra conviction critical art critical essays criticism of Wordsworth's defending dignity Dryden Edition of Wordsworth's Education eighteenth century emotion England Epitaphs estimate ethical excite external nature Francis Jeffrey French Revolution genius ginal Grosart's ground Guide-Book heart heightened imagination individual inspiration intellectual element interest judgment Lakes language letter liberty literary criticism look Lyrical Ballads manent matter mind modern art-criticism mood moral nature of things noble original overflow of powerful passage passion phase philosophical plain pleasure poems poet poet's poetic diction poetic expression political papers praise Preface principle Protestantism qualities reader reading reason reformer rustic says seems sensations sense of beauty Sir Walter Scott Southey spirit sympathetic taste theme theory of poetry things thought tion truth verse Words Wordsworth Wordsworth's theory worth's writing yond youth
Popular passages
Page 16 - He is a man speaking to men : a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind ; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him...
Page 17 - Undoubtedly with our moral sentiments and animal sensations and with the causes which excite these; with the operations of the elements, and the appearances of the visible universe; with storm and sunshine; with the revolutions of the seasons; with cold and heat; with loss of friends and kindred; with injuries and resentments, gratitude and hope; with fear and sorrow.
Page 10 - Works, it is this, — that every Author, as far as he is great and at the same time original, has had the task of creating the taste by which he is to be enjoyed: so has it been, so will it continue to be.
Page 26 - ... impetuosity of mind, with an excellent ear. It may seem strange that I do not add to this, great command of language : that he certainly has, and of such language, too, as it is most desirable that a poet should possess, or, rather, that he should not be without. But it is not language that is, in the highest sense of the word, poetical, being neither of the imagination nor of the passions; I mean the amiable, the ennobling, or the intense passions.
Page 17 - He is the rock of defence for human nature; an upholder and preserver, carrying everywhere with him relationship and love. In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws and customs: in spite of things silently gone out of mind, and things violently destroyed; the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth and over all time.
Page 26 - Whenever his language is poetically impassioned, it is mostly upon unpleasing subjects, such as the follies, vices, and crimes of classes of men or of individuals. That his cannot be the language of imagination must have necessarily followed from this — that there is not a single image from nature in the whole body of his...
Page 19 - It is an acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe, an acknowledgement the more sincere, because not formal, but indirect ; it is a task light and easy to him who looks at the world in the spirit of love: further, it is a homage paid to the native and naked dignity of man, to the grand elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives, and moves.
Page 17 - But these passions and thoughts and feelings are the general passions and thoughts and feelings of men. And with what are they connected ? Undoubtedly with our moral sentiments and animal sensations, and with the causes which excite these ; with the operations of the elements, and the appearances of the visible universe...
Page 16 - ... pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goingson of the Universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them.
Page 29 - Germany is indebted to this latter work; and for our own country, its poetry has been absolutely redeemed by it. I do not think that there is an able writer in verse of the present day who would not be proud to acknowledge his obligations to the Reliques; I know that it is so with my friends; and, for myself, I am happy in this occasion to make a public avowal of my own.