| SHE was a Phantom of delight
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When first she gleam'd upon my sight;
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A lovely Apparition, sent
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To be a moment's ornament:
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Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
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Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
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But all things else about her drawn
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From May-time and the cheerful dawn;
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A dancing shape, an image gay,
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To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
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I saw her upon nearer view,
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A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
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Her household motions light and free,
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And steps of virgin liberty;
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A countenance in which did meet
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Sweet records, promises as sweet;
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A creature not too bright or good
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For human nature's daily food,
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For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
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Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.
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And now I see with eye serene
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The very pulse of the machine;
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A being breathing thoughtful breath,
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A traveller between life and death:
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The reason firm, the temperate will,
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Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
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A perfect Woman, nobly plann'd
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To warn, to comfort, and command;
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And yet a Spirit still, and bright
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With something of an angel light.
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You have already done a research in class on the historical, literary and biographical context. I would like all of you to share your research on this page. I is important that every single one of you contribute to this task.
Please ensure that content is not repeated and there is a clarity on which context you are focusing on.
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There are numerous poets that write the same genre as William Wordsworth: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon, John Keats and Percy Shelley. Among these poets, Percy Shelley shares several similar style of writing and interest with William Wordsworth- their appreciation for nature and interest in supernatural superstitions (ghosts and spirits). They also share the same style of writing, which is using powerful natural metaphors and link nature with art to express the power and quality of aesthetic expression. In She was a Phantom of Delight, Wordsworth views his wife as a phantom, which is an illusion. He believes that his wife can haunt, startle and surprise him, just like a phantom. He also believes that his wife possesses significant and extraordinary qualities that is impossible to obtain. Similarly, in Shelley's work in Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, she creates this so-called "Spirit of Beauty" where the character of the poem questions this spirit about life and death, hope and despair, love and hatred etc. When it comes to their love for nature, as mentioned the two poets ARE inspired by nature in writing however, Wordsworth only writes the positive side of nature (bias) while Shelley is somehow in between. In She was a Phantom of Delight, Wordsworth believes that his wife was created from the cheerful mornings and the beautiful spring season - "from May time until cheerful dawn". While Shelley believes that nature destroys as often it creates- in Ode to the West Wind, Shelley describes the role and power of the west wind to be "a destroyer and a preserver". In addition to that, in Mont Blanc, Shelley compares the power of the mountain against the power of human imagination. It represents the power of nature as it is the highest peak in the Alps and has lasted for so long that it is believed to stay and remain strong forever -"Mont Blanc yet gleams on high - the power is there". Both poets are romanticists that share the same interest and inspiration, but they are both unique in their own way of writing and are known for their own style of work.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, Wordsworth's poems were Romantic. Romanticism was a cultural movement that began to take shape in the 1770s in response to the Age of Enlightenment, advocating the expression of mankind's intense emotions, fear and awe, the importance of intuition and emotions over reason, and man's communion with the spiritual and natural realms. The movement endured until its decline in 1848 and caused counter-movements such as Realism and Neoclassicism. This poem was written in 1804, at the period in which the Romantic flame burned the brightest. We can see the Romantic influences of Wordsworth's poem: emotional expressiveness of awe and wonder, and the harmony of woman and nature, as well as the natural and supernatural.
ReplyDeleteIn its biographical context, Wordsworth wrote this for Mary Hutchinson, who was his childhood friend and wife. They tied the knot in 1802.
William Wordsworth was born April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, to John and Anne (Cookson) Wordsworth, the second of their five children. His father was law agent and rent collector for Lord Lonsdale, and the family was fairly well off.
ReplyDeleteWordsworth’s mother died when he was 7, and he was an orphan at 13. Despite these losses, he did well at Hawkshead Grammar School—where he wrote his first poetry—and went on to study at Cambridge University. He did not excel there, but managed to graduate in 1791.
He visited France in 1791 and fell in love with Annette Vallon, However, the declaration of war between England and France in 1793 separated the two. At this time, Annette was pregnant.
In 1794 he reunited with his sister, Dorothy. She soon became his support, his companion, close friend as well as housekeeper
The next year he met Coleridge , and the three of them grew very close, the two men meeting daily in 1797-98 to talk about poetry and to plan Lyrical Ballads, which came out in 1798.
In 1802, a temporary lull in fighting between England and France meant that W ordsworth was able to see Vallon and their daughter, Caroline. After returning to England, he wed Mary Hutchinson, who gave birth to the first of their five children in 1803. However in 1805 William’s Brother John died, then 2 children passed away on 1812. In 1813 the Wordsworths moved to a home in Grasmere called Rydal Mount, where William and Mary lived out their lives. By this time people were catching on to Wordsworth’s new school of poetry and he had serious fans.
In 1829, Dorothy Wordsworth came down with a serious illness that left her an increasingly senile invalid. Coleridge died in 1843. Later on, in 1847, His beloved daughter Dora breathe her last, due to tuberculosis at her parents’ home. Wordsworth was devastated and seemed to lose his will to write after her death.
William Wordsworth breathe his last breath on April 23 1850, at the age of 80. He had pleurisy, an inflammation around the lining of the lungs.
After few months, his widow Mary published the poem to Coleridge, The Prelude.
Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 at cockermouth in Cumbria. His father was a lawyer however, he died when Wordsworth was 15 followed by his wife in the next few years. In wordsworths early few years he developed an interest for nature and this reflected in his poems.
ReplyDeleteWhen studying at Cambridge, he spent his vacations on a walk tour in Switzerland and France during which he developed an interest in the ideals of the French revolution. Wordsworth began his career at a young age but none of his poems were published till 1793.
In 1795 he and his sister Dorothy went to live in Dorset with a close relative. Two years later they moved to Somerset where lived Samuel Taylor Coleridge , a great admirer of wordsworths work. They also collaborated and wrote a few poems which began the romantic movement in English poetry.
In 1802 Wordsworth married a childhood friend Mary Hutchinson. The next few years were quiet miserable for him since 2 of his children died, his brother was drowned at sea and his sister suffered through a mental breakdown.
In 1813 Wordsworth moved from Grasmere to Ambelside where he continued to write poetry but it wasn't as great as his early works. On 23 April 1850 he took his last breath and was buried at Grasmere churchyard. His renowned poem 'the prelude' which he worked on since 1798, was published after his death.
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. His poems were formed in a new style back then, and during the Romanticism Era gained popularity as one of the most renown writers of poetry.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Wordsworth was born 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth, England, a village in the northwest county of Cumberland. He was one of five children born to John and Ann Cookson Wordsworth. Rather than live in London, his family had settled in 'a sort of rural paradise along the Derwent River, which ran past the terraced garden below the ample house', whose tenancy John Wordsworth had obtained from his employer before his marriage to Ann Cookson. It was possible that where he lived was an inspiration to his love for nature and its beauty. His experiences in and around Hawkshead, where William and Richard Wordsworth began attending school in 1779, would also provide the poet with a store of images and sensory experience that he would continue to draw on throughout his poetic career, but especially during the “great decade” of 1798 to 1808.
Whilst it seemed that William had an influential childhood, it wouldn't continue.In March of 1778 Ann Wordsworth died while visiting a friend in London. In June 1778 Dorothy was sent to live in Halifax, Yorkshire, with her mother's cousin Elizabeth Threlkeld, and she lived with a succession of relatives thereafter. She did not see William again until 1787. In December of 1783 John Wordsworth, returning home from a business trip, lost his way and was forced to spend a cold night in the open. Very ill when he reached home, he died 30 December. In 1787, Wordsworth went up to Cambridge as a sizar in St. John's College. Later noted by William in his later years, his career was not distinguished by particular brilliance. In fact, William recorded his childhood and his career in some parts of 'The Prelude'.
In his later years, alongside with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William had began the era of Romanticism as an inspiration for man to rethink what poetry's true purpose was; to communicate with nature and to allow the reader of the poem to feel what the poet feels in accordance to his or her surroundings. The style of Romanticism poetry followed basic principles, as William Wordsworth's poetry details as such.
In his poems, William Wordsworth tends to use a plethora of similes and metaphors to compare the scenery of nature to an image the readers can put in their heads to understand what the writer is seeing. Another detail noticeable in William's work is the use of most, if not all, the five senses. this allowed the reader to feel the writer and allow the emotions to pour and fill the poem with the meaning implied. Poems that include these details include: 'Lyrical Ballads' and 'Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey'.
Alongside William Wordsworth, other Romanticism poets such as John Keats and Percy Shelley had risen to fame and published works of their own. And after William Wordsworth has passed away on 23rd April, 1850, his greatest work, 'The Prelude', was published and reamians an iconic artifact of the era of Romanticism.
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ReplyDeleteWillam Wordsworth was famous through his style of writing romantic poems. Wordsworth and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge invented a new style of poetry where they associated nature and stylized language. Their Lyrical Ballads helped grow the Romantic era of English literature, in which writers sought to unite the serenity of nature and the inner emotional world of men. He wanted to create poetry that reunited readers with true emotions and feelings because he felt that the world was too fast-paced, noisy and too full of mindless entertainment. Wordsworth's monumental poetic legacy rests on a large number of important poems, varying in length and weight from the short, simple lyrics of the 1790s to the vast expanses of The Prelude. William's style of writing, the language and imagery used to embody the themes, remain remarkably consistent throughout his reign of popularity. He argues that poetry should be written in a natural tone of common speech, rather than in the lofty and elaborate diction that were then considered "poetic". In addition, he argues that the first principle of poetry should be pleasure and to provide it through a rhythmic and efficacious expression of feelings. Wordsworth's images and metaphors mix natural scenery, religious symbolism, and the relics of the poet's rustic childhood - places where humanity intersects gently and easily with nature.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Wordsworth, born on 7th April 1770, was an English romantic poet. His place of birth was Cockermouth, Cumberland in England.
ReplyDeleteHis first publication of poems began in 1793, his works were featured in 'An evening walk', and 'Descriptive sketches' both collections of poems. Leading to William earning 900 pounds from Raisley Calvert, thus being able to pursue an official career as a poet.
Out of his several children, his daughter, Dora, born on the 16th of August in 1804, was his only surviving child. He had gained inspiration for an entire poem from Dora, entitled 'Address to my infant daughter', to later dedicate the poem 'The Triads' to her once again. Dora had romantic attraction to both genders and had a very beloved relationship with her father, which is why her death devastated William, especially since he had also lost his other sons to a sickness. Her death took away his will to live as a poet.
Moving on towards his death, which was in Rydal Mount on the 23rd of April, 1850. His burial took place in a church, St. Oswalts.
Latterly, specifically three months later, his widowed wife, Mary published his personal and lengthy autobiography, which he had no title for, leaving it to Mary to give it it's title 'The Prelude'. Sales of this particular item were not so good, as it had only gained popularity in these recent times, thus making it his most popular work as a poet.
William Wordsworth and (along with) Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads with A Few Other Poems was first published in 1798 which created the advent of romanticism - an immense movement in the late 1700's, prior to the reaction of Industrial Revolution. Hence, the movement had a substantial impact in visual arts, music and literature. The Napoleonic Wars which induced political and social peril manifested as the background for romanticism. Romanticism focused on intense emotions from aesthetic experiences which produced impressions of horror, wonder and awe. Of equal importance, romanticism mainly consisted themes of reminiscences or castigation about the past, women and children, fanaticism of nature, and interest in mystics/supernaturals, moreover romanticism is also considered as satirical. Ultimately, romanticism never ceased in poetry - they were integrated into other movements: evidences of romanticism exist on French symbolism and surrealism.
ReplyDeleteAs previously mentioned in the comments above, William Wordsworth more often than not wrote poems about the human relationship with nature. In prior analyses, it has been verified that this poet mainly expressed his concern using poetic composition while proses were a subordinate, less important tactic to him. To support this statement, it has been proven that Wordsworth produced a very minimal amount of proses, writing only two that lasted in general interest - “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” and "A Guide through the District of the Lakes.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Wordsworth was one of the poets responsible for the rise of Romantic poetry in the 1700's, a style described as finding beauty and elegance in simple subjects; a view through rose tinted glasses. Such a style is wrought with carefully chosen metaphors and imagery to flesh out the picture of divinity midst simplicity.
ReplyDeleteWordsworth gives his poems a personal touch. In the poem mentioned, 'She was a Phantom of Delight'. Wordsworth hints of a relation to himself by adding in a first person view, evident in the way he used "I", "me", "my", and so forth. The same style can be seen in 'Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey', and both poems seem to reflect his emotions. Perhaps it is due to both poems being written out of experience.
Another trope present in Romantic poems is the subtle insert of nature and spirituality. As mentioned before, Romantic poetry romanticises simple things, and another way the soul can be brought out is by tapping into spirituality. An excerpt from John Keats' 'Endymion', 'Thing of Beauty', mentions mortality and the innocence of the 'green world'. This is even included in 'Phantom' as the title itself connects the subject to an ethereal being.
In short, Wordsworth's poems are a prime sample of Romantism as they can easily be compared with other poems in the same era. His style makes his poems an uplifting and positive read.
“She was a Phantom of Delight” was written by William Wordsworth to depict how he reacted to his wife and three stages of his relationship with her. These three stages are put into three separate stanzas; the first being about the first time they met, the second about when they both got to know each other, and the third being married. The first stanza illustrates how Wordsworth was infatuated by Mary Hutchinson, as seen in how he referred to her as an “apparition” ‒ meaning to be otherworldly and perfect, as he described her synonymously with nature in order to let the readers imagine her and her aura vividly. Later on, as he got to know her better, he sees a more realistic side but without forgetting her ethereal qualities ‒she wasn’t too perceptive, but it seems as if Wordsmith knows that she has other qualities which compensate. The final stanza presents Mary Hutchinson as a diligent housewife, as he attributes her to a machine with a heart and a pulse. His perspective on her is still as a perfect lady, although he has proven to himself that she is only human, having “endurance, foresight, strength and skill”.
ReplyDeleteIn November 1791 Wordsworth visited Revolutionary France and became enthralled with the Republican movement. He fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon, who in 1792 gave birth to their child, Caroline. Because of lack of money and Britain's tensions with France he returned alone to England the next year.[8] The circumstances of his return and his subsequent behaviour raised doubts as to his declared wish to marry Annette, but he supported her and his daughter as best he could in later life. The Reign of Terror estranged him from Republican France, and war between France and Britain prevented him from seeing Annette and Caroline again for several years.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem She was a Phantom of Delight Wordsworth describes his wife and his reaction to her. He chooses to depict three points in their developing relationship: when they first met; as they began to know each other better; and now that they are married. When he saw her for the first time the poet felt that Mary Hutchinson was a spirit of happiness.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Wordsworth
She was lovely and he felt that she had been sent to make him proud of her even for a short time. Her eyes were as beautiful as the star in the evening and her hair also was as dark as the evening. In order to create her, nature might have collected all the beautiful things from the spring seasons and the cheerful morning. Her shape was like that of a graceful dancer and her attractive mental picture would always be in the thoughts of the poet and sometimes he would be surprised and frightened. When the poet was doing something or going somewhere her thought would disturb him.
In the poem, Wordsworth writes about his changing perspective on his wife, Mary Hutchinson, who he describes as the “Phantom of delight.” At first he sees her as he did as a youth, as a spirit “to haunt, to startle, to way-lay,” but by the third stanza, he sees her with mature eyes. She has become a real woman with “reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight and strength. Throughout the poem, Wordsworth uses several metaphysical references, calling his wife a 'spirit', something very characteristic of his poetic style. The Poem is themed As a romantic tribute to his wife Mary Hutchins. This is also considering the fact that Wordsworth founded the romantic style of poetry along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, giving rise to the romantic age.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, England. He suffered the loss of his mother at the early age of 8, which is said to have had a profound impact on both his work and his life. He went to Hawkshead grammar school, where he discovered his love for poetry, and started writing it. He unfortunately had to bear the death of his father when he was at college as well. He later went to Cambridge to study at Saint John’s college, and then embarked on a tour of Europe, encountered the French Revolution, lived in France, and later left and married Mary Hutchinson, all of which affected him as a poet. However, after the death of his daughter Dora, he was so disaffected he was not able to compose poetry any more. He died on April 23, 1850 due to pleurisy.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Wordsworth was an involved member of the Romantic Movement within Europe during his time, he was known for strongly expressing himself towards the the love he had for "beauteous figures" of nature. Wordsworth, born April 7, 1770 was the product of a legal magnate of a father and a supportive mother. William Wordsworth continuously displayed an interest in literature and had further identified and developed this interest at Hawkshead Grammar School, whereat he meet his lifelong love Mary Hutchinson, who had been a tremendous impact on the writings of Williams Wordsworth. Prior to the composition of the 'She was Phantom of delight" Wordsworth had travelled Europe extensively, having visited France during the French revolution, Wordsworth had meet another woman, Annette Vallon, who had bore his child out of wedlock, but was left by the father of her child who had returned to England to marry Mary Hutchinson, however there was still the issue of Wordsworth financial insecurity that caused him to postpone the marriage. This problem was later resolved by a payment made to William Wordsworth from one of his late father debtors. " She was a Phantom of delight", had been a piece influenced by many things to be what it was, Wordsworth had based the poem on the three stages of his relationship with Mary Hutchinson and his emotions towards her during these stages, The first being when they initially met, The second when they were getting acquainted, and the third their marriage.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Wordsworth was an involved member of the Romantic Movement within Europe during his time, he was known for strongly expressing himself towards the the love he had for "beauteous figures" of nature. Wordsworth, born April 7, 1770 was the product of a legal magnate of a father and a supportive mother. William Wordsworth continuously displayed an interest in literature and had further identified and developed this interest at Hawkshead Grammar School, whereat he meet his lifelong love Mary Hutchinson, who had been a tremendous impact on the writings of Williams Wordsworth. Prior to the composition of the 'She was Phantom of delight" Wordsworth had travelled Europe extensively, having visited France during the French revolution, Wordsworth had meet another woman, Annette Vallon, who had bore his child out of wedlock, but was left by the father of her child who had returned to England to marry Mary Hutchinson, however there was still the issue of Wordsworth financial insecurity that caused him to postpone the marriage. This problem was later resolved by a payment made to William Wordsworth from one of his late father debtors. " She was a Phantom of delight", had been a piece influenced by many things to be what it was, Wordsworth had based the poem on the three stages of his relationship with Mary Hutchinson and his emotions towards her during these stages, The first being when they initially met, The second when they were getting acquainted, and the third their marriage.
ReplyDelete