keats and wordsworth

KEATS AND WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH

AGE OF REASON

EMPIRICISM
"a statement is meaningful only if it can be verified empirically (Sproul 103)."

"Man was born free, but everywhere he is in chains" - Rousseau

Rousseau (1712-1778) cried:
"Let us return to nature"
(Schaeffer154)
Characterized by freedom of the mind and an idealistic view of human nature,
Romanticism slowly crept out of Neoclassicism
(1798-1832 )

ROMANTICISM
• Rousseau saw this as dangerous to the freedom of mankind and thus sparked the Romantic movement; which sought to revive mankind by portraying life and nature in all its glory.
• Two poets that romanced nature during this era were:
• William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and
John Keats (1795-1821).

Romantic poetry, despite the name, is not always about love and relationships.
The theme of Nature is predominant in a lot of Romantic poetry, where questions arise as to what that nature is, what it symbolizes, and how it is interpreted.
There are many different views on nature, and each poet explores them differently.

The Landmark Figures of
Romantic Poetry
The Wordsworthian
Revolt
The Nature Hymns of Keats

The father of English Romanticism

USES NATURE IN 3 WAYS
Nature should be our teacher
We should find beauty in Nature
We should find our joy in Nature

WORDSWORTH BELIEVED
Nature was mankind's best moral teacher.
Nature was his religion
‘Nature's high priest‘
"Let Nature be your teacher
“
-William Wordsworth
(Tables Turned)

"Let Nature be your teacher. She has a world of ready wealth, Our minds and hearts to bless“.
"hear the woodland linnet, How sweet his music! on my life, There's more of wisdom in it." (Tables Turned)
"give us more than years of toiling reason”
(Bernbaum).
"One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.

Wordsworth used poetry to teach the beauty of nature. If Sappho is considered the 10th muse, then let Wordsworth be the eleventh; for his words ring just as immortal.

10th

11th

He pleads everyone to quit their "endless strife" and "meddling intellect" and instead open "a heart that watches and receives
He wanted Hazlitt to "drink the spirit breathed" in nature and seek nature while there is still time
(Expostulation and Reply).
Wordsworth described himself as "having been exalted to the highest pitch of delight by the joyousness and beauty of nature

He makes us all want to find the beauty that he found. If only we had his eyes. If only we had his ears. If only we could sit at the feet of Wordsworth in an open field to hear him utter the joyous songs in his heart.
For far too long, depression has been treated with medication and psychology. I think two stanzas of
Wordsworth will treat any form of depression.

The Nature Hymns of Keats

Keats writes about nature in 3 ways
• The beauty in nature
• His love of nature
• The joy and relief nature can bring
( Ode to Autumn, Ode to a Nightingale,
Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou
Art, and On the Grasshopper and Cricket)

BEAUTY IN ALL THINGS
“I find that I cannot exist without poetry without eternal poetry half the day will not do the whole of it“
- John Keats
(Jack 105)

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE
• He gives a lot more in-depth meaning to the words in his poems that capture all of the reader's senses
• Reveals his changing view of life resulting in the belief of death being his means to overcome pain. • Using the symbolism of the nightingale, Keats becomes uncertain of his view of life and begins to ponder the concept of death.

COMPARISON
• Wordsworth and Keats both express love and appreciation of Nature in their poetry
• . They unite in their view of Nature’s great beauty, viewing time spent in its midst as vastly more valuable than time spent toiling over books. • Keats and Wordsworth do portray symbols of realism while depicting the nature, as well as the spectrum of emotions from grief to joy
• the elements relate directly, but differently to human spirit and human emotions
• The poems are imagery poems and the figure of speech both poets use is somewhat similar
• expressed themselves with natural eloquence

KEATS AND WORDSWORTH : FOR
THE BIRDS

TO THE CUCKOO

ODE TO A NIGHTING

HOW MAN SHOUD SEE NATURE
• Wordsworth seeks to gleam knowledge and wisdom from the wild green world, allowing Nature to be his teacher
• regards Nature as a source of wisdom and knowledge
• Wordsworth draws from Nature learning of wisdom and philosophy
• uses simpler language in his poems whether to express simple or complex ideas
• Wordsworth’s ideas on an inherent unity between man and nature

• Keats delves into the very fabric of
Nature, studying its aspects not to learn something new, but to commune and study the deeperaspects of the natural world merely for the sake of experiencing them
• sees nature as something to be revered, beyond human understanding or analysis
• beholds nature only with reverence and awe
• uses much more complex language to describe and express his ideas
• Keats’ ideas on death and immortality

CONCLUSION
They wrote about the beauty of nature during a time that hated nature. They wrote about the joy that nature could bring, when joy was termed “meaningless”. They wrote about metaphysical ideas in an empirical age. They have left their immortal work as a message for us all:

‘ Never forget nature’.

Thank Heaven for Wordsworth and Keats!

THANKYO
U