华兹华斯诗学理论浅析

华兹华斯诗学理论浅析［Abstract］Wordsworth, a representative poet of British Romanticism, was also a famous poetic theorist who explained in details his poetic theories about romantic poems. Compared with Aristotle, Wordsworth attached great importance to the natural overflow of strong feelings, which was embodied in the two subjects of nature and common people in his poems.［Key words］Wordsworth,poetic theory,natureI. IntroductionWilliam Wordsworth (1770-1850), who was born and has grown up in the Lake district, had a profound love for nature since his childhood. He was well educated in Cambridge and in France where he was deeply influenced and moved by the enthusiasm of the French Revolution. But later in his life, his attitude towards the revolution changed and he gave up his former political enthusiasm, and then lived a secluded life in the countryside for half a century. He was made poet laureate after Southey’s death. However, he was often criticized by his contemporaries. For example, Byron found him “dull, overmild, and flat” and called Wordsworth a “dull disciple” of Robert Southey’s, and a “mild apostate” from the neoclassical rules. And “Keats was discomfited by theever-recurrent ‘I’in Wordsworth”.[1]iv However, as his contribution to the Romanticism cannot be ignored and erased from literary history, this paper probes into his poetic theory by analyzing some of his important poets.Ⅱ. Wordsworth’s Poetic TheoryThe year 1798 witnessed a great event in literary history —the publication of Lyrical Ballads which symbolized the beginning of romanticism. This literary movement lasted until the death of Sir Walter Scot in 1832. During this not very long period of time there emerged a lot of poets and prose writers such as William Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelly, Lamb etc. As this movement started against a backdrop of social upheaval such as the industrial revolution and French revolution, and under the influence of the neo-classicism of the 18th century, it has its own features such as the glorification of instinct and emotion, a deep veneration of nature, and a flaming zeal to remake the world, etc. Among the romantic poets, there are two schools: the conservatives or passive or escapist romantics, and the revolutionary or active ones, the two of which are called “lakers” and “Satanists” by their opponents. But both of them are dissatisfied with the bourgeois society and revolt against or escape from the sordid daily life under capitalism. Among the poets, William Wordsworth is one of the most representative conservative poets, and histheory about poem plays a significant role in the romanticism writings.2.1 Wordsworth’s definition of poetryWilliam Wordsworth’s theory upon poetry is elucidated in the preface to Lyrical Ballads in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. In this essay, he stated the object of thisessay, gave the definition of poetry, and explained the functions and subjects of poetry. First he said the aim and necessity of his essay: “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.”[2]32 He gave a definition to poetry, i.e. “all good poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”.[2]32Here, he emphasized the importance of feeling, which is a large progress beyond the theory of Aristotle. In Poetics, Aristotle gave his definition of poetry or literature to the effect that tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, complex and of a certain magnitude, in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. Aristotle gave great importance to action or plot which he thought is the first principle and the soul of a tragedy. It isthrough action that men’s feelings or emotions are expressed. But Wordsworth had the different opinions: feeling gives importance to the action and situation, and not the action and situation to the feeling. Emotion or feeling is the source of poetry and is the basis of imagination. Poems should be the embodiment of people’s emotions and feelings such as happiness and sadness, sorrow and anger, etc. all of which give sources to poems. He also said poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science. The poetry is the essence of all human’s knowledge and science and it is the first and last of all knowledge as immortal as the heart of man.2.2 Subjects in Wordsworth’s poemsWordsworth has applied his poetic theories in his poems. He is most celebrated for his poetry of nature in which he expressed his deep love for nature. He wrote about mountains, rivers, flowers and birds in such lyrics as “Lines Written in Early Spring”, “To the Cuckoo”, “I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud”, “My Heart Leaps Up” and “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”. Another group of poems are about the people, the common people, especially the people from the rural area, for example, “The Solitary Reaper”,“We Are Seven”, “The Old Cumberland Beggar” and the “Lucy” poems.According to his poetic theory, nature is the most frequent and cherished theme in Wordsworth’s poems as it is a purifying power on people’s minds and souls. Nature is a pure and tranquil place where humans can not only enjoy its beauty, but also purify their souls. Nature also seems to be the mentor of the human as it is always teaching us boundless knowledge.One of his famous poems on nature is “Tintern Abbey”, which records his second tour of the Wye valley and the ruins of Tintern Abbey in 1798, five years after his first visit. From the beautiful natural scene he meditates on the effect of nature on the growth of his mind. At the beginning of the poem, he describes the situation from visual, aural aspects to show the beauty of nature:Five years have past; five summers, with the lengthOf five long winters! and again I hearThese waters, rolling from their mountain-springsWith a soft inland murmur.—Once again[3]46This place is secluded from the human society and it keeps the pure beauty of nature. “These waters” with “a soft inland murmur” are like a pretty country girl murmuring a song in the wilds. With the “steep andlofty cliffs”, “the landscape with the quiet of the sky” all th ese natural things inspire the poet deeply and provide for him a moral nurture. For him, every ordinary thing in the countryside is full of beauty and spiritual power:Here, under this dark sycamore, and viewThese plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits,Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves‘Mid groves and copses. Once again I seeThese hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little linesOf sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,Green to the very door; and wreathes of smokeSent up, in silence, from among the trees![3]46Here, the trees, the orchard, the fruits, the hedge, the smoke rising to the blue sky are juxtaposed in this scenery like an imagist poem. But they form a harmonious painting between men and nature: men lead a peaceful life in nature and the nature offers a comfortable site for the people. In nature, there is no war, no quarrel, no corrupt, no deceit, etc which are thecommon diseases of human society. Only in nature will men find a peaceful and pure mind.The poet feels lonely and weary in the city life. Very often he would recollect the first tour to the Tintern Abbey when he experienced a spiritually pure journey, which proves his theory that “poetry takes its origin from emot ion recollected in tranquility”. And it is this memory that gives him the purifying effect and the source of imagination out of this tedious and wearying city life. For example, he remembers five years ago when he was still a young and passionate fellow, he was fascinated by nature:…The sounding cataractHaunted me like a passion: the tall rock,The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,Their colours and their forms, were then to meAn appetite; a feeling and a love,…[3]48After five years, he became more mature and rational due to his learning in the society. He became more acquainted with human nature, people’s hearts, and the essence of nature. Now he had the deepest knowledge of nature which he considered as “the anchor of my purestthoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being”.[3]48 In all, we can see how he implied his poetic theory in this poem: his profound love for nature inspired him to write down this poem which is as immortal as the heart of man. In this poem, we can see clearly his spontaneous feeling that he recollected in his tranquility during the five years away from the nature.Another very important aspect of his theory is the life of the common people, especially the humble life of rustic people, and the poet transformed their common incidents and situations by imposing imagination. Wordsworth believed that poets should write about the life of common people, especially the humble life of rustic people. The reason for this is because that the people in the rural areas are the closest to nature and have not been polluted by the corrupt and degrading city life, thus their characters are the purest and noblest which provide the most natural feeling and emotion that are needed by the poets. Then he put it that the poets should transform the incidents and situations of the common people by imposing imagination by which the ordinary things can be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect and make the very common incidents interesting and attractive to readers. The poets should also find and express in the poetry the essences and laws of humanity.The themes of many of his poems are drawn from rural life and hischaracters are from the lower classes in the countryside. It may be because he is familiar with the countryside life and he thinks this life is the closest to nature where man’s elementary feelings can find a better soil than in town life. He did apply this poetic thinking into his poetic practice, for example, he wrote many poems about the common people such as “The Solitary Reaper”, “We Are Seven”, the Lucy poems, etc. In “The Solitary Reaper”, the narrator saw a solitary country girl reaping and singing alone in the fields and he was touched deeply by her beautiful song which took his mind beyond time and space. This girl is just a common person without any social reputation that is sought by the people in the society, but the poet chooses her as the subject of the poem, and by imposing his great imagination of far away time and space he makes the ordinary girl as an immortal figure in poetic history and the poem has a philosophical implication grace to the narrator’s inspired thinking.2.3 Language of Wordsworth’s poemsWordsworth believed that the poems should be composed in the kind of language that comes naturally to people in normal conversation because their language is the most pure and natural one derived from the simple life of the rustic people. He never stopped pursuing the simplicity and clearness of his poetic language which also comes from the common people and their natural life. He thinks the language spoken by thepeasants was the best of all when purified from its defects “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 emotions in simple and unelaborated expressions”.[4]259 Take a poem “We Are Seven” for example. The narrator met with an eight years old country girl who “had rustic, woodland air”, was “wildly clad”, and whose “eyes were fair, and very fair”. They started a little conversation when the narrator asked how many sisters and brothers the girl had. The girl gave a confusing answer “we are seven” when two of them went to sea and two of them live in another place. In fact, two of the children were dead, but the girl still counted them as two members of the whole family. The poem records the ordinary language spoken by the little girl which is so realistic and thus very touching due to her deep love for her lost sister and brother. Her language is not difficult to understand as it is simple and authentic of an eight-year-old girl, but between the lines we can see the philosophic thinking of the author about life and death, and the spirit of the frank, pure and loving people. The girl cannot distinguish the dead people from the living ones, and has no concept of death, which may show the narrator’s attitude toward life: death is nothing as long as people harbor a cherishing for life.Ⅲ. ConclusionWilliam Wordsworth’s theory about poetry in his preface to Lyrical Ballads set the foundation of romantic poetic writing and influences many later authors such as John Keats, Byron, and Shelly even though they may have different political opinions. Therefore he played an irreplaceable role in the history of western poetry.【References 】［1］Baker, C. 1948. William Wordsworth: The Prelude, Selected Poems and Sonnets［M］.New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wiston.[2] 陈嘉.英国文学史（第三册）［M］.商务印书馆，1986.[3] Hobsbaum, P. 1988. William Wordsworth, Selected Poetry and Prose［M］.London: Routledge.[4] 刘炳善.英国文学简史［M］.河南人民出版社，1993.［摘要］英国浪漫主义诗歌的代表诗人华兹华斯也是著名的诗歌理论家，他在《抒情歌谣集》的序言中比较全面地阐释了他的浪漫主义诗学理论。