Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth and educated at Cambridge. He is known for his poetry in the Romantic era reflecting on nature and human misery. Some of his notable works include Lyrical Ballads published with Coleridge, which featured poems like The Thorn and Idiot Boy. In his preface, Wordsworth outlined his theory that poetry should be written in ordinary language and draw from common life to express powerful emotions. His poetry, like extracts from The Thorn, reflected on human hardship through stories of characters like Martha.

1. Topic: Reflection of pain & Human misery in
Wordsworth’s Poetry.
Paper 5:The Romantic Literature(2978)
Prepared by: Arati R.Maheta
Roll No.:3
P.G.Enrollment No.:13101019
Sem:2
Email id: davearati656@gmail.com
Submitted to:Smt.S.B.Gardi
Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University,
Bhavnagar

2. Introduction of Wordsworth
His Life
 He was born at Cockermouth which is actually outside the Lake
District.
 So he known as lake poet also.
 He got education from Cambridge ,St John College (1787-1791).
 His poetry, which at first had been received with derision or
difference, was now winning its way, and recognition was
general.
 In 1839 Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L..
 In 1842the Crown awarded him a pension of 300 dollars a
year, and on the death of Southey in 1843 he became Poet
Laureate.

3. His poetry:
He records that his earliest verses were written
at school, and they were ‘’a tame imitation of
Pope’s versification.’’
An Evening walk(1739)
Descriptive Sketches
Lyrical Ballads (1798)

4. • Lyrical Ballads(1798)is a joint production Coleridge and
himself, which was published at Bristol.
• This volume is epoch-making ,for it is the prelude to the
Romantic movement proper.
• Wordsworth had the larger share in the book.
• In this book poems like The Thorn and The Idiot Boy ,are
condemned as being trivial and childish in style.
• Simon Lee, Expostulation and reply, are more accepted in
their expression.
• The concluding piece is Tintern Abbey which is one of the
great achievement of his genius.

5. • During the years 1798-99Wordsworth composed some of his
finest poems, which appeared in 1800,together with his
contributions of the Lyrical Ballads.
• Most noteworthy among them are
Michael
The Old Cumberland
Beggar
She dwelt among the
untrodden ways
Strange fits of passion
have I known
Nutting

6. • ‘The Prelude’ was intended to form part of a vast
Philosophical work called The Recluse which was
never completed.
• Another section of this same work was The
Excursion
• His later volumes include
The
Waggoner
The white
Doe of
Rylstone
Peter
Bell
Yarrow
Revisite
d
The
Borderers,
a drama

7. His Philosophical poems.
I
Wandere
d as a
cloud
The
Green
Linnet
The
Solitary
Reaper

8. His Theory of Poetry
• In the preface to the 2nd edition of the Lyrical Ballads(1800),he
set out his theory of poetry.
• It reveals a lofty conception of the dignity of the art which is
‘’the breath and the finer spirit of all knowledge ,which is
product of ‘’the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings'', taking its origin from ‘’emotion recollected in
tranquility’’.
• General views on the poet and his art, Wordsworthian
dogma(belief) can be divided into two portions 1)the subject
2)the style of poetry.

9. • 1)Regarding subject,wordsworth declares his preference for
‘’incidents and situation from common life’’:to obtain such
situations, ‘’humble& 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.’’
• 2)His views on poetical style are most revolutionary of all the
ideas in this preface. Discarding the ‘’gaudiness and inane
phraseology of many modern writers,' he insists that his poems
contain little poetic diction, and are written in ‘’a selection of
real language of men in a state of vivid sensation.
• His views on poetic diction he summed up
with these words: ‘’there neither is nor can be any essential
difference between the language of prose and metrical
composition.’’

10. How pain & human misery reflect in
his poetry
• The first line of the poem(Daffodils)
• ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud,
That floats on high o’er vales and hills’
o This line refers that the poet was walking around the hills and valleys, but
felt all lonely and mopy.
o The poet describes by this line that how he walked around and felt as lonely
as a cloud.
o ‘’wandered ‘’means roaming around without a purpose, like when you
explore something .
o So it is not necessary a bad thing, but in its metaphorical use ,’’wandered'
can mean feeling purposeless and directionless in general.
o As in ,you have question like ‘’what is the meaning of my life?’’

11. This canto is from the poem Thorn by William
words worth which divided into 25 cantos
canto -XVIII
• I did not speak--I saw her face;
Her face!--it was enough for me;
I turned about and heard her cry,
'Oh misery! oh misery!'
And there she sits, until the moon
Through half the clear blue sky will go;
And, when the little breezes make
The waters of the pond to shake,
As all the country know,
She shudders, and you hear her cry,
'Oh misery! oh misery!'"

12. • William Wordsworth’s “The Thorn,”
tells a story about a woman’s hardship
• This is a story of Martha
• Love story of her relation with a man
Stephen Hill
• Peoples different views about child.

13. • video

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