The Romantic Turn in Poetry; Mimeticism vs. Expressivity in William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

The Romantic turn in poetry; Mimeticism vs. Expressivity

William Wordsworth’s „I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud“

The different forms of literature can be categorized according to a model by M. H. Abrams.

universe

work

artist audience

The dominant relation between these terms at various times defined what was considered literature. If literature was defined by the relation work-universe, it was called Mimeticism; if it was work-artist, is was called Expressivity; if it was work-audience, it was called Pragmatism. There is also a fourth category concentrating only on the text itself, called Objectivity. Of these four forms of literature mentioned, we are going to focus mainly on the first two.

Mimeticism

The oldest conception of literature and the most enduring one is Mimeticism. Mimeticism can be defined as the imitation of already existing things in nature and literature. Therefore epics and drama were considered the highest forms of literature.

It was first defined by Plato, who used it derogatively to describe all kinds of art and literature as mimetic and therefore not useful for finding truth. It was Aristotle who made Mimeticism one of the most important features of poetry. Thus poetry became equal with history and philosophy. In the Renaissance poets mainly focused on Ancient Greek epics and again put focus on Mimeticism.

In the middle of the 18th century there was a change in literature. Mimeticism was slowly being replaced by Expressivity.

Expressivity

The characteristic feature of expressivity is that it is evocative rather than descriptive. Literature became a manifestation of the inner world of the poet; his thoughts, emotions and views. (e.g.: line 1, 15, 17…) Imitation of reality is put into the background and only used in order to express the poet’s intentions and feelings. (e.g.: line 7,8…) The ideal poem is original and spontaneously created. William Wordsworth wrote in the preface to the second edition of his Lyrical Ballads (1800): “For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

Unlike in Mimeticism, there were no rules as to how literature should be written in Expressivity. Therefore diaries, autobiographies, subjective essays and, most important of all, lyric were considered literature. Expressivity influenced the general attitude towards poets and poetry well into the 20th century.

Pragmatics

It assumes that literature has a significant effect on individuals and society. The main forms of literature were encyclopaedias, satire and educational essays.

Objectivity

Literary works exist independently and have no specific function.

Romanticism in Literature

The Romantic Movement in literature was part of a wider humanistic movement. The Romantics ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Pragmatics

It assumes that literature has a significant effect on individuals and society. The main forms of literature were encyclopaedias, satire and educational essays.

Objectivity

Literary works exist independently and have no specific function.

Romanticism in Literature

The Romantic Movement in literature was part of a wider humanistic movement. The Romantics tried to find in the nature of man, in his longings, aspirations and uncertainties, above all in his imaginative life, some basis for a common culture, for a new set of sustaining beliefs. Romantic literature was evocative rather than descriptive and focused on personally significant and spontaneous moments. Poets developed new ways to write literature instead of taking previous works and imitating them. Further, they saw themselves as moralists, prophets and interpreters. Everyday language was used and guaranteed accessibility for a broader audience. Anti-heroic tendencies were very common in literature of that time. Literature tried to reconcile nature and man and its themes were eternity vs. decay, renewal vs. ending.

Rhyme scheme

The opening stanza of Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," with end rhymes of the words, cloud-hills-crowd-daffodils-trees-breeze has a rhyme scheme of ababcc; as well do all the following stanzas.

Different levels in communication

L1:

A1- real author

William Wordsworth, who describes a biographical event, in which he went on a walk with his sister.

R1-real reader

At that time usually a single person and not a crowd.

L2:

A2, the implied author, as well as R2, the implied reader, don't exist in this poem.

L3:

A3-fictive author

The narrator, who narrates the story in a monologue, talks abouts moods and remembers a past experience. Line 15, “A poet could not but be gay”, makes clear that he is a poet. He creates the world within the text.

R3-fictive reader

Doesn't exist in this case.

In the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” the real author (A1) describes a real, biographical event. The fictive author (A3) narrates the “story” and creates the world within the text, and also relates to the real reader (R1) the emotions, which this biographical event caused. There is no abstract author (A2), fictive reader (R2) or implied reader (R3), which means that the poem is not directed at a specific character in the poem; it is simply an expression of the fictive author’s emotions.

The world within the text consists of two different places:

Nature, the outside situation, is described from the first to the third stanza by the words:

cloud, vales, hills, daffodils, lake, trees, breeze, stars, milky way, baywaves

At home, the inside situation, is described in the fourth stanza by the word couch.

The deictic words and expressions through which these situations are created are mainly pronouns (I, me, my and their) and lexemes (bay, tree, lake, breeze, waves, daffodils, couch etc.). There is also a distinction in time; the first three stanzas are written in past tense, while the third is written in present tense. It should be noted that none of the pronouns used is gender-specific, so the fictive author could be either a man or a woman. Thus attention is drawn only to the experience itself, and not the one who tells the reader about it.

Functions

All this is typical of the emotive (or expressive) function, one of the two main functions employed in this poem. The expressive function focuses on addresser and not the addressee and produces an impression of a certain emotion such as joy or solitude. There is also personification of nature: they daffodils are “tossing their heads in sprightly dance” (line 12), and feel glee as they do so.

The other main function in this poem is the poetic function, which focuses on the way the message is made and draws attention to the message itself. This is done by putting important words, such as lonely, cloud, vales, hills, lake, trees, or solitude, on stressed feet or giving normally unstressed syllables a secondary accent (“daffodils”, line 4, or “solitude”, line 22). Repetition of certain words, such as “gazed” (line 17) is also used.

Situations in the Poem

The first three stanzas are the Poets recapitulation of an experience in the past, therefore these stanzas are written in the past tense.

Situation 1:

In the first stanza, the poet is inspired by the look of the daffodils.

Situation 2:

The Inspiration of the first stanza causes poetic description of nature in stanzas two and three. This happens spontaneously.

Situation 3:

The Poet remembers consciously the beauty of the past experience and acknowledges the importance of solitude in the fourth stanza. Here the Poet describes how this experience still and repeatedly influences his being, therefore the last stanza is written in the present tense.

The poem can be seen as the result of 4th stanza, by remembering the experience he writes the poem down.

Similes and metaphors

Man is compared to nature and human attributes are given to nature.

Similes: I wandered lonely as a cloud (line 1), Lines 7 and 8 → simile to 9 and 10 (“continuous...” etc.)
Metaphors: fluttering and dancing in the breeze (line 6), tossing their heads in sprightly dance (line 12), jocund company (16), wealth (18), my heart (...) dances with the daffodils (23, 24)

Isotopies

There are 3 main isotopies.

All these Isotopies stand in harmony to each other and do not stand in contrast to each other.

Metrical feet

The poem is written in an iamb.

line 1: I wandered lonely al a cloud

x x | x x | x x | x x

Stress

Depends on where you want to put emphasis on. (eg.: read it and put emphasis on nature/emotion/man)

Bibliography

Butt, John and H. V. D. Dyson (1940, 1961). Augustans and Romantics 1689-1830. The Cresset Press: London.

Weiß, W. (1979). Das Studium der englischen Literatur. Eine Einführung. Stuttgart et al: Kohlhammer.

Weiß. (1979). Einführung in die englische Literatur. Stuttgart.

The Romantic Turn in Poetry; Mimeticism vs. Expressivity in William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"