Will's Canonball

William Sorensen

ENGL 335

3/22/2011

C. Foss

Canonball Project

My canonball project focuses on the poems I Travell'd Among Unknown Men and Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth. These poems are both characteristic of Wordsworth in several ways, as they both incorporate natural imagery and settings and depict these settings as being ideal above the chaos and confusion of normal human existence. The similarities of these poems do not just end there, as staying in line with the concepts of Romantic Imagination and Romantic Irony, they both present the reader with contrary viewpoints and emotions within the poems themselves. The contraries are handled and dealt with (or in some cases not dealt with) in differing ways in each work, demonstrating that various, sometimes even conflicting, elements occur within the works of a single author.

As such, it is my belief that these poems are relevant to the study of Romantic literature in general because they broaden the understanding of what Romantic Imagination and Irony are by being powerful examples of both. To support this assertion, I will examine how the conflict between seeming contempt for the non-English in I Travell'd Among Unknown Men is balanced and resolved by by a loving emotional attachment to a close friend whose memory is called up in viewing the sights of England. In Lines Written in Early Spring I will look at the order and harmony that Wordsworth views in nature and seems to regard so highly, and contrast it with the lack of this harmony that he seems to be lamenting in the lines “And much it griev'd my heart to think/What man has made of man.”

Upon first reading through I Travell'd Among Unknown Men, it seems to present very little of importance when compared to other poems from Wordworth's vast body of works. It is fairly short, and makes few clear declarations as far as any sort of ideology or epistemology is concerned. When examined more closely, elements of the Romantically Imaginative start to become more apparent.

The first two stanzas of the poem contains many seemingly pro-English sentiments, as in lines three and four where he says “Nor England! did I know till then/What love I bore to thee” and lines six through eight which read “Nor will I quit thy shore/A second time; for still I seem/To love thee more and more.” While not necessarily defamatory towards outsiders, they assert a belief in the superiority of England for reasons not entirely made clear. These lines complicate our reading, as so far our understanding of Romanticism, particularly with our more recent readings in support of abolition, has supported a fairly inclusive and non-discriminatory view of other peoples and cultures.

The elements of Romantic Imagination start showing through in the second half of the poem, in stanzas three and four. Here we learn what exactly makes England so great for Wordsworth, and that thing is the memories of an old friend that are tied to certain features and places of the English countryside. Realizing that his English bias does not spring from any sense of cultural or racial superiority (at least not in the context of the poem) do away with the complexities introduced in the previous two stanzas, solving the problems of the first half by introducing contrary themes in the second half.

Lines Written in Early Spring offer a similar situation, but in a less organized manner. As opposed to being divided into two distinct halves, we are simply given four lines towards the beginning and end showing his uncertainty of the human condition based on how men interact with each other, while the rest of the poem simply admires the inherent joy present in the workings of nature.

The poem starts the speaker in a peaceful grove, a standard setting for a Romantic foray into the nature of man. Wordsworth lets the reader know that conflicting ideas are present in this poem in lines three and four, when he describes “that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts/Bring sad thoughts to the mind,” or that the positive reflections contained within will unfailingly destabilize the speaker's (and maybe even the reader's) peace of mind.

From there the speaker goes on to observe several natural objects and finds that joy and contentment permeate the construction of all that surrounds him, whether it be “that every flower/Enjoys the air it breathes” or that every action of little birds “seem'd a thrill of pleasure.” He even seems to start envying this perfection, but ultimately comes across as dejected and sorrowful when he asserts in the last two lines “Have I not reason to lament/What man has made of man?” In the spirit of Romantic Irony, the speaker sees the ever-present joy inherent to nature that has been lost on man but offers no suggestion as to how to regain it. Almost as if it he believes that it is lost for good, he leaves the contrast between order and chaos standing unopposed.

While neither of these poems could be called Wordsworth's greatest work, both still showcase the ideas of Romantic Imagination and Irony that have shaped our understanding of our reading up to this point, and it is because of this insight into these core concepts that they should be taken into the canon.