William Wordsworth’s The Daffodils compared to Gillian Clarke’s Miracle on St David's Day
In this essay I will attempt to compare two very contrasting poems,
William Wordsworth’s `The Daffodils' which was written in pre 1900s and Gillian Clarke’s ‘Miracle on St David's Day’, written in the 20th century. Strangely enough Gillian Clarke’s ‘Miracle on St David's day’ was actually inspired by ‘The Daffodils’. In 1804 William Wordsworth wrote ‘a masterpiece’, two years after his experience with the daffodils, while the poem “Miracle on St. David’s Day” was written by
Gillian Clarke around 1980, one hundred and seventy-six years later.
Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, and raised around the mountains
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The insanity of all of these inmates in Clarke’s is not dangerous, except for the beautiful chestnut haired boy who is schizophrenic, ‘on a good day’ and this shows the reader that looks aren’t always everything. They are trapped in their world of absences with no escape. In this poem, it is the rhythms of poetry that cures the dumb man. However, 'The Daffodils' describes the power of the actual flower to cure Wordsworth's '…vacant or pensive mood…' The significance of the actual flower differs in the two poems. Wordsworth bases his whole poem on them, whereas Clarke bases her poem on Wordsworth's poem-Wordsworth is Clarke’s inspiration and this is evident in her poem, as her opening line is a quote from Wordsworth’s poem.
The poems connect in that they are both describing an event where a memory lifts the characters spirits’ and in a way, cures them. Also contrasting with 'Miracle on St. David's Day' there is a sense of freedom in 'Daffodils'. The easy atmosphere, pleasant surroundings of nature and the movement of the flowers give this effect. Movement suggests freedom and in many cultures it is symbolised in native dances. The poet’s use of participles such as ‘dancing’ and
‘fluttering’ suggests constant movement, and that the
In the romantic era, British authors and poets focused on nature and its influence. Two of those poets, Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, wrote many pieces on the beauty of nature and their personal experiences with the beaches of England. In “Far on the sands” and “It is a beauteous evening,” Smith and Wordsworth describe their respective experiences on the shore at sunset. Both authors use structure, theme, allusions, and imagery to effectively convey their perceptions of nature. While the sonnets share a setting and the topics of nature and tranquility, Smith’s has a focus on introspection and Wordsworth’s is centered around religion. These have different focuses which achieve different effects on the reader.
Through some of his toughest times he was out there seeking adventure. “I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils.” Before Wordsworth saw the field of daffodils he was lonely and depressed. But with the beauty of nature it helped to transform his mood for the better. “For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon my inward eye.” “And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.” Furthermore, When Wordsworth is alone lying on his sofa, a feeling of bored and sadness rush over him. But when the daffodils come to his mind he is able to imagine his adventure with them, and that brings him joy and happiness.
The voyage to lingering wage can be loaded with disappointment, shamefulness, and things in life that pitilessly attempt and keep us from being awesome. Oh my goodness the uplifting story of David and how he at long last came to enormity.
The second and final work I am critiquing is from a book entitled, ‘The Life of William Wordsworth: A Critical Biography’ written by John Worthen. I have selected a chapter which pairs nicely with article mentioned above. The chapter features both Wordsworth and Coleridge as well. However, it is not as critical as the article, it is more biographical and informational which is to be expected in a biography. The chapter focuses on the years 1806 to 1807. It begins with the mention of the death of Wordsworth’s brother, John. According to Worthen, this deeply effected Wordsworth and he had little success with the poetry he was writing during this time. Worthen then, points to ‘Elegiac Stanzas’ which confronts his late brother’s death, displays a new sense of reality, and again redeems him as a poet. Worthen states, “The poem makes the narrator 's youthful state of ecstatic, thoughtless love for the natural world — ‘of lasting ease, / Elysian quiet, without toil or strife’ — utterly unreal, in contrast with the realities of life as he now knows them. A ‘fond delusion of my heart’ he calls that old love, ‘to be pitied’ not believed in” (328). The author implies that the death of his brother drastically changed his worldview. The bleak reality of a world without his brother led to Wordsworth becoming more mature and wise after experiencing loss. The author then shifts to discussing ‘Tintern Abbey’ and his reflections during a time of youth. I believe that the author mentions the
It takes a monumental experience to recognise discovery and to that extent the composer’s manipulate their ideas on discovery and represent them in a way that is memorable. Robert Frost’s “Tuft of flowers”, “Mending wall” and Jean-Marc Vallée’s “Wild” have intertwining ideas of Nature and Relationships that leads to emotional and intellectual discoveries. In this speech I will present to you my understanding of how “Representations of discovery are made memorable through the composer’s ways of communicating”.
Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This
The words “death” (l. 3), “battered” (l. 10, and “scraped” (l.12) show the fear this child has while dancing with his father. At the same time, the word “waltzing” (l.4) has some kind of happiness because we often link happiness with dancing. Imagery is also being used in this
Emily Dickenson is the poet in both of the poems. In the second one poem, she talks about taking her own power into her hands. The poem showcases Dickenson’s short comings in life. She compares and contrast her life situations to those of David and the Goliath. She does this by saying that the Goliath is something bigger than her and that she is working effortlessly fighting back even though the Goliath is clearly stronger. In my opinion, it much deeper. Is she not strong enough to tackle what life through her way, or is life too tough for her? I believe she left it that way to show the reader that life is tough, but that you have to be tougher to survive. I also believe that the story is a narrative of the poet talking to herself about battling
In V.C. Andrews’ novel, Flowers in the Attic, the elements of classic Gothic literature are present in profuse quantity, relating directly to the ideologies outlined in Noël Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror, or, Paradoxes of the Heart. Andrew’s novel dements the ideologies of a late twentieth century America, directing her focus towards the perversion of the family unit through her incorporation of incestuous relationships and inconceivable familial abuse. The characters draw heavily on Carroll’s ideas of the forbidden, staunchly disrupting social normality, and layering the pages of the novel with an unspoken horror. Flowers in the Attic deeply embraces the tradition of the Gothic, proving itself a contemporary to the genre established
In "Daffodils", we again see all the features that make this poem fit into the tradition of Romanticism and Romantic Poetry. Wordsworth describes nature and says how beautiful it is and the beauty he sees when he looks at the daffodils. "when all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils".
Robert Frost said many times throughout his life that all men share a common bond. In his poem “The Tuft of Flowers” he analyzes the potential of such a bond, in first person. Frost turns an everyday common job, into discovering a common bond with another laborer. The author uses a comparison between aloneness with a sense of understanding to demonstrate his theme of unity between two men. In another one of Frost’s poems “Birches” he imagines walking through the woods looking at all the trees, and seeing the top bending towards the ground. When he sees this he imagines they are bending from kids swinging on them, rather then what is really happening to them. It can be analyzed that Frost had a very definitive appreciation for nature, and a very broad imagination.
Personifying another facet of nature, Wordsworth partners the daffodils in their dance, "The waves beside them danced, but they / Outdid the sparkling waves in glee" (13-14). The lines also work to strengthen
William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, West Cumberland in the year 1770. Many years later he died at the age of 80 on April 23, 1850. Wordsworth lived a life full of struggles and pain but many accomplishments. He lost his mother at the age of 8 and was sent to a school in Hawkshead. In 1791 after he graduated with a degree at Cambridge University, he became an avid supporter of the French Revolution which seemed to him to promise a “glorious renovation” of society. He then married a French woman named Annette Vallon and had a daughter Caroline. Soon after Caroline’s birth Wordsworth had an emotional breakdown because the lack of money he had forced him to return to England. Years later he remarried a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson, and had five children in which only three survived. In 1805, his favorite brother drowned and in 1810 his sister Dorothy's physical and mental state declined however, with the agony he grew up with underlied many of his greatest poems. He remained famous, as he was
One of the most popular themes for Romantic poetry in England was nature and an appreciation for natural beauty. The English Romantic poets were generally concerned with the human imagination as a counter to the rise of science. The growing intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries placed scientific thought in the forefront of all knowledge, basing reality in material objects. The Romantics found this form of world view to be restrictive. They felt that imagination was crucial to individual happiness. The imagination also provides a common human bond; a means of sympathy, of identification. However, the absence of imagination, the Romantics felt, would lead
A Comparison Between William Wordsworth's Upon Westminster Bridge and William Blake's London The English Romantic period spanned between 1789 and 1824. This period was not so-called until the mid 19th century when readers began to see six different poets as part of the same movement. These poets were William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Shelly and John Keats.