We only touched on this in relation to the quiz, but I think that we have read enough of the other Wordsworth poems to explore some meanings of "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood." The title suggests a great deal, I think. Intimate means to make known indirectly, to hint, imply or suggest. So what intimations of immortality does the speaker say live in us from childhood?
See if you can find specific references in the poem when the speaker explores the difference between experiencing nature as a child and experiencing it as an adult. As you recall, he mentions this also in "Tintern Abby" when the speaker states, ""For I have learned / To look on nature, not as in the hour / Of thougthless youth" (88-90).
The mood is set in the first stanza, so perhaps you can start with that.
In the first stanza, Wordsworth talks about all that is beautiful within his surroundings. He said “there was a time when… every common sight,To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light.” But he goes on to say that “the things I have seen I can see no more.” He is comparing what he saw wonderfully as a child, to what he tries to see now as an adult. As a child, he could see things for how beautifully they really were, but as an adult he struggles to see the beauty that once existed in his youthful, innocent mind.
ReplyDeleteNature is all that is beautiful; however, as human beings we dismiss the beauty of it due to our own ways. Wordsworth and Blake most defenitely try to tell us that nature is still beautiful but we as individuals have changed. Perhaps that is why both poets gives us the two views.
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ReplyDeleteFirst off, let me start off with saying that even now I absolutely fear poetry. This past weekend I had an opportunity to go to a TCTELA conference in San Antonio, and one of the sessions spent a significant amount of time talking about poetry and how to teach young children to explore it rather than fear it. Sorry, I know it’s a bit off topic, but I just wanted to share my "aha" moment with you guys. Now back to Wordsworth. I will admit that his poetry is very similar to Blake; however, I will also say that I had a bit of difficulty understanding much of his work. With that being said, I am very fond of his relations of childhood and adulthood. He and his emphasis on nature very much remind me of Walt Whitman. Toward the end of the poem, Wordsworth says, "Our souls have sight of that immortal sea/Which brought us hither,/Can in am moment travel thither,/And see the Children sport upon the shore,/And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore." These few lines area simply wonderful. Wordsworth says and kind of compares life to the sea. Regardless of the experiences we have, good or bad, they change our outlook on the world on who we are. According to Wordsworth, innocence is childhood; however, as we get older that innocence distances itself from us. Adulthood simply changes us. All of our experiences become memories that interfere with our entire outlook on life. That is Wordsworth poetry for me in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Aida, Wordsworth's poetry seems similar to Blake's as I continue to read more. It seems to focus on the fact that innocence is the central topic and everything else he chooses to write about will either symbolize the goodness and purity or the realistic evils there are in the world. It seems all his poems somehow provide a theme of good vs evil, light vs, dark, ect. I do enjoy the nature poems, they seem a bit different from Blake. Though, I do still see the innocence theme as it is connected through nature.
DeleteI too would have to agree. I sawa similarty between Blake and Wordsworth. Both of talk about good and evil even though Blake has is Innocence Book and Experience Book and Wordswoth does not, you can almost do the same with Wordsworh's poems and seperate them into two seperate books like Blake's.
DeleteIn the first stanza the speaker begins by describing a previous time in which nature seemed to him “Apparelled in celestial light / The glory and the freshness of a dream” (4-5). He continues on by stating that although he still sees and encounters the rainbows, roses, moons, etc. he feels “That there hath past away a glory from the earth” (18 ). The speaker feels a great grief for something that has died inside of him. He can no longer view the world as he once did in childhood. The fifth stanza of the poem takes this idea to a higher level. “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, / Hath had elsewhere its setting, / And cometh from afar:” (59-62). The speaker mentions that prior to entering the world we have come from somewhere else (heaven).
ReplyDeleteIn the next few lines the speaker describes how we have entered earth, “Not in entire forgetfulness, / And not in utter nakedness, / But trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home: / Heaven lies about us in our infancy! / Shades of the prison-house begin to close” (63-68). We have entered earth with an awareness of the glorious and beautiful place we previously come from. Memories of our home with God are still vaguely with us as infants. The next few lines state how as we grow into our childhood we envision nature with joy still sensible to the glory and splendidness in it. “Upon the growing Boy, / But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, / He sees it in his joy” (69-71). In contrast to the perception of nature in childhood, the adult identifies nature as a common every day thing, “At length the Man perceives it die away / And fade into the light of common day” (76-77).
As the title of the poem suggests the intimations of immortality are our encounters of nature in childhood. Our perceptions of nature in childhood are small hints (intimations) that suggest to our pre-existent immortal state. Nature helps us reconnect to our previous blissful glorious home. Wordsworth’s poems, Intimations of Immortality and Tintern Abbey, both speak to the idea that as we grow older and become a part of earthly life we become separated from our pre-existent home. It becomes harder to view nature as an anchor to memories of a more glorious place. In both poems it is made clear that although man can still enjoy and value nature the reasons for doing so are different and no longer connected to pre-existent immortality.
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Delete"Our perceptions of nature in childhood are small hints (intimations) that suggest to our pre-existent immortal state."
DeleteVery interesting interpretation!
Is this to say that Wordsworth was interpreting immortality as a state of pre-existence?
I enjoy this analysis. I think this is especially interesting when taking into the account the definition of immortality: endless existence. Reading the poem with this in mind introduces a new way to interpret the material.
I completely agree nature does help us make sense of life.
DeleteI totally agree with Aida. I fear poetry with a passion. Someone once told me we fear what we dont understand. This makes compete sense with poetry. I feel like I have to reread it so many times that it seems insulting at some point. I enjoyed reading Blake because I felt like I could understand him whereas with Wordsworth I feel lost. Reading the previous posts I think I am beginning to understand him better. What this poem reminds me of is The Chronicles of Narnia. In the series as the children grow up they are not allowed back into Narnia but the children are allowed to come back. Wordsworth speaks of the same innocence and purity as Lewis. Both see and admire the innocence of children and see it as we grow older and become more "worldly" we lose our child like innocence. Wordsworth almost to me weeps for the loss of innocence in his poem whereas Lewis uses Aslan the Lion to explain to understand Narnia you must have the heart of a child. In the end the children grow up and those who have always believed in Narnia are allowed to return but for those who have "lost their way" so to speak are banned. In the last stanza where Wordsworth praises the beauty and wholesome nature of innocence its as if he envies the children and wishes to return to a state of innocence but "weeps" for the knowledge he can no longer return. Once innocence is lost it can never be regained.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree there. We do fear the unkown. Poetry just scares me because of my past experinces with it. Wordsworth is very similar to Blake. For instance in the "Ode" he is describing something that one can expereince as a child and later as an adult. Wordsworth tries to tell us that nature is viewed differently due to an individual's own experiences. Ultimately, he steers us toward nature as being the way of life in a sense. He hints that we are a part of nature and as such we should learn to recoginize it.
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ReplyDelete"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;/In the primal sympathy/Which having been must ever be" (178-183)
ReplyDeleteWordsworth summarizes the lofty and wonderous simplicity of life during childhood in line 179 as "splendour in the grass" and "glory in the flower". Wordsworth seems to express that immortality may be interpreted from extraneous sources, in addition to individual's meditations on his or her younger years. The essence of humanity can be universally interpreted as preserved in memories, or upon observances that may conjur up such thoughts about a simpler existence. Wordsworth (and many poets) regularly use elements or objects in nature to symbolize subjects or emotions; in this example, Wordsworth discovers for himself that nature stimulates his individual thoughts about childhood--immortality--with nature assisting to broaden his message universally.
"Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call/Ye to each other make; I see/The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;/My heart is at your festival,/My head hath its coronal,/The fulness of your bliss, I feel -- I feel it all." (37-42)
Wordsworth acknowledges his feelings as an adult before grieving:
"--But there's a Tree, of many, one,/A single Field which I have looked upon,/Both of them speak of something that is gone:/The Pansy at my feet/Doth the same tale repeat:/Whither is fled the visionary gleam?/Where is it now, the glory and the dream?" (52-58)
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DeleteWell said Jared.
DeleteI can completely see your interpretation Jared. Wordsworth’s poem can definitely be interpreted as the immortality of memories. You mention that “the essence of humanity can be universally interpreted as preserved in memories, or upon observances that may conjure up such thoughts about a simpler existence.”. One’s own memories help immortalize a previous time but to some limitation do not immortalize the disposition or state of thinking associated with that time. Meaning that although things in nature may trigger thoughts of a ‘simpler existence’ (childhood) we can never actually return to innocence that was. Wordsworth states, “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; / 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, / In years that bring the philosophic mind" (182-191). Wordsworth in these lines understands that he can not go back to his innocent way of viewing the way. He must simply preserve it in memory and continue forth with his new perception. He still understand and values the beauty in nature but in a different, learned, rational way.
DeleteWordsworth's "Ode Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" leaves the reader somewhat confused. After reading Miller's take on the poem, i'd say my knowledge of the ode has increased 10 fold. Originally I thought the poem was about the loss of innocence and the realization of mortality, as a boy develops into a man, which does tie in with the title. I was on target, but never in a million years would I have figured out the day of happiness was a May-Day; and not just one, but a plethora of May-Days!
ReplyDeleteIn the first stanza, Wordsworth paints a scene of innocent childhood bliss: "There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,/ The earth, and every common sight,/ To me did seem/Apparelled in celestial light,/ The glory and the freshness of a dream.--and further: The things which I have seen I know can see no more." The opening stanza's theme carries throughout the Ode, glorifying the innocence of childhood, and scorning the knowledge that comes with growing into an adult. However there is a glimmer of hope offered at the end for himself (and for maybe other philosophical poets like himself, but not for the rest of us poor fools) "In the soothing thoughts of spring/Out of human suffering;/ In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind." I'm glad Wordsworth felt he could return to this feeling in his mind on May-Day when he saw children playing and nature fresh once again, otherwise he may have chosen suicide at the loss.