University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative
Exchange
Doctoral Dissertations
Graduate School
6-1986
The Grotesque in the Poetry of William
Wordsworth
Ernst Derwood Lee Jr.
University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Recommended Citation
Lee, Ernst Derwood Jr., "The Grotesque in the Poetry of William Wordsworth. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1986.
http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2935
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been
accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more
information, please contact [email protected].
To the Graduate Council:
I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Ernst Derwood Lee Jr. entitled "The Grotesque in the
Poetry of William Wordsworth." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form
and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English.
Edward W. Bratton, Major Professor
We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance:
Richard Kelly, Allen Carroll, Dorothy Habel
Accepted for the Council:
Dixie L. Thompson
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)
To the Graduate Council:
I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by
Ernest Derwood Lee, Jr . ,
entitled "The Grotesque in the
Poetry of William Wordsworth . "
I have examined the
final copy of this dissertation for form and c ontent and
recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ,
with a major in English .
�_J}
Edward W .
w
-�It;;:::_
Bratton, Major Professor
dv£.;1�
[;).
We have read th i s dissertation
and recommend its acceptance:
'
i
-,·"'
�
Accepted for the council :
Vice Provost
and Dean of The Graduate School
I
i
J
THE GROTESQUE I N THE POETRY
OF WI LLI AM WORDSWORTH
A D issertation
Presented for the
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree
The U niversity of Tennessee, K noxvi lle
Ernest Derwood Lee, Jr .
June 1 9 8 6
Copyright
@ Ernest
Derwood Lee,
All rights reserved
Jr . ,
1986
lii
DEDICATION
I dedicate this dissertation to my parents and
brother for their faith and devotion and to June for
her patience and love.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For his excellent guidance and kindness ,
I wish to
thank Professor Edward Bratton , who served as my
director during the course of dissertation research .
also wish to thank Professors Richard Kelly ,
I
Allen
Carroll , and Dorothy Habel for their interest and
valuable suggestions while serving as members of my
dissertation committee .
The encouragement and critical
perception of Professor Bratton and the committee
members have inspired me to strive for excellence .
Special thanks to Byrns Coleman , Suthern Sims ,
Beasley and my friends at Wingate College for their
generous assistance and encouragement and to Yvonne
Brower for her dedicated typing and proofreading .
Paul
v
ABSTRACT
The fu nct ion of the g rotesque wit hin William
Wordswo r t h's most important poetry ,
1 788 and 1805 ,
that writ ten between
has not been appreciated.
Yet perceptions
characterized by t he ju xtaposition of fea r ful ,
unat trac tive ima ges wi th ima ges of beau t y and harmony
appear t h rou g hout Wordsworth's you th ful poetry and are
focused and directed in the Lyrical Ballads volumes and
in The Prelude
( 1805 ) . The few scholars who h ave
discussed the g rotesque in Wordsworth's poetry either
h ave not reco g nized the value of that mode to the
development of Wordswor t h's poetic idiom or have
confused it with the sublime , and thus have
misunderstood the natu re and function of his images .
The first two chapters of this dissertation
include an introduction to cri tical considerations of
the importance of a dark ,
fearful tension in
Wordsworth's poetry and attempt to synthesize important
definitions of the g rotesque .
They offer a backdrop
against which to consider the g rotesque and provide a
working definition of that mode particularly applicable
to Wordsworth . The third , four th, and fifth chapters
study the poet's developin g use of grotesque image
patterns , beginning with his youthful poetry and
continuing through t he Lyrical Ballads and The Prelude
vi
< 1805 ) .
The spec i f ic argument i s that Wordswor th became
a true a rt i s t of the " noble " grotesq ue , funct i onally
employi ng g rotesque image patterns in h i s poems , not
j u s t for the s ake of idle fancy or to relate s oc ial and
moral mean i ngs , but rather to reveal the dynamic role of
the g rotesque in the process of the imag i nat ion ' s
growth . Wordsworth d i s covered the poetic voice necess ary
to expres s i ng how i ncongruous percept ions temper and
mature the imag i nat ion , preparing it to ach ieve a
hei ghtened vi s ion , the sublime .
The f i na l chapter
argues that Wordsworth now needs to be recogn i z ed as a
mas ter ful art i s t of the true grotesque . He revived the
nat ive grotesque trad i t ion in Engl ish li tera ture and
extended the g rotesque to become a pos i t ive a r t i s t i c
express ion , a mean s o f projec t ing a vi s ion o f the
mys tery and beauty of the d i vi n i ty a l i ve in a l l of
creat ion .
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
I.
II .
III .
INTRODUCTION •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
DEFINING THE GROTESQUE •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
76
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
145
WORDSWORTH AS AN ARTIST OF THE
GROTESQUE •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
LIST OF REFERENCES •
VITA •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
THE FUNCTION OF THE GROTESQUE IN
THE PRELUDE •
VI .
47
EXPERIMENTS WITH THE GROTESQUE :
POEMS FROM THE LYRICAL BALLADS •
V.
19
THE GROTESQUE IN THE EARLY POETRY
OF WORDSWORTH •
IV .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1
197
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • · ·
2 22
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
229
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
No at temp t ye t has been made to s tudy i n depth the
impor tance of the g rotesque in Wi l l i am Wordswor th ' s
maj or poetry .
I n fact , on ly a few i ndiv idua ls have
recogni zed th at the g rotesque plays any role in h i s
work , desp i te t h e fact the g rotesque s o of ten has been
assoc i ated wi th the Romant i c poets . l
In her s hort e s s ay
" Some Forms of the Grotesque in Wordsworth , " Ros emary
Bos ton argues that the grotesque "does generate a few
s trangely v i v i d ba llads , some ee rie scenes of ' vi s i onary
dreariness , ' and several pas sages f i lled wi th b i z ar re
deta i l " (35 ).
But she seems to cons ider the ugly or the
mons t rous as synonymous with the grotesque , and in
trut h , makes l i tt l e attempt to clar i f y what she means by
the term grote sque , desp i te i ts trad i t ional elus i venes s .
Her con s i derat ions focus primar i ly on "The Thorn " and
" The I d iot Boy , " and she concludes that Wordswor th i s
unable t o look s tead i ly a t a di s j o i n ted , ugly external
world .
Thus , her argument i s th at the poet fai ls to
" su s tain the observa t ion wh i ch , in even the comi c ' I diot
Boy , • b r i ngs fr ighten i ng imp l i cat ions about the
l see , for examp le , Wolfgang Kayser ' s The Grotesque
i n Art and Li terature ( c i ted in Li s t of Ref erences ) .
2
incoherence beh i nd even ts " ( 4 0 ) .
But she does
recogn i z e , as do a number of modern scho lars , that a
da rk , demonic a spec t often sur faces i n the body of
Wordsworth ' s poetry : a tens ion between the external
world of nature and the in ternal world of sel f ,
expressed and beq ueathed foremost by Wordswor th , whi ch
i s character i s t i c of the Eng l i sh Roman t i c poets .
S imi larly , Ronald Earl Morgan , in h i s broad s tudy
of the relation of g rotesque imagery to the Roman t i c
theory of imag i n at ion , recogn i z es some g rotesque image
patterns i n se lec t ions from Wordsworth ' s poetry ,
espec ially The Prelude .
But Morgan does not cons ider i n
depth the importance o f the g rotesque i n Wordsworth ' s
poetry , partly because h i s purpose i s to di scuss a broad
range of poets and phi losophical cons iderat ions and
partly because he has d i f f iculty in def i n i ng the
grotesque , pa rt icular ly in Wordsworth , because he
confuses i t w i th the subl ime .
He admits that " in s ome
cases , espec i al ly i n the poetry of Wordsworth , the
subl ime and the pos i t ive grotesque seem almos t to merge
because both work by means of mate r i a ls that evoke man ' s
terror and awe i n h i s encounters with an i ns crutable and
of ten overwhelmingly powerful force beyond reason • ( 8 2 ) .
Morgan bases much of h i s di scu s s ion on John Ruskin ' s
commen ts about the nature of the grotesque , but he f a i ls
to take i n to account Ruskin ' s spec i f i c comments about
3
Wordsworth and the grotesque , conc lud i ng that for Ru ski n
0the grotesque always i nvolves the combi nat ion of
di sparate elemen ts that is both ter ri ble and ludicrous - ­
f antas t i c combi nat ions of d i f ferent an imal spec i es ,
di sconnec ted parts of the human body , combinations of
an imal and vegetable
•
•
•
appearing as decor at ive
mot i f s in the archi tec ture he i s exami n i n g " ( 1 1 ) .
In
fact , Ruski n ' s wr it i ngs i ndicate th at the grotesque i s
much more aesthet ically importan t t o h im than Morgan
later argue s .
Ruski n spec if i cally di scus s es Wordswor th
and Plato as examp les of those employi ng the 0noble
g rotesq ue , " as opposed to the more a rt i f i c ial " i gnoble
grotesque , " thus extend ing h i s con s iderat ions beyond
decorat ive mot i f s i n archi tec ture to poetry and to other
art forms .
Modern theori sts have echoed Ruski n ' s
i dent i f i cat i on of two d i s t i nct expre s s i ons of the
g rotesque , yet have not followed Rusk i n ' s lead by
ident i f yi ng the exac t nature and func t i on of the
grotesque image patterns in Wordsworth ' s poetry .
In
s hort , the f ew i nd i vidua ls cons ideri ng the g rotesque in
Wordswor th ' s poetry only skim the sur face of a deep pool
of image patterns and associ a ted complex con s i derations
wh i ch are s ign i f icant both to a better unde r s tand ing of
h i s poetry and to h i s role in free i ng the grotesque i n
4
poetry from art if i c i a l i ty wh i le deve l op i n g i t i n to a
more su btle and true form .
And these grotesque image pattern s i n Wordswor th ' s
poetry bear s i g n i f i cantly not on ly on an apprec i at ion of
h i s i n di vidual poems , but also on a broader
unders tandi ng both of Roman t i c i sm and of the grotesque .
I n fac t , important modern s tudies of Word sworth ' s poetry
and i ts s ign i f i cance in establ i sh ing and exemp l i f ying
what we have come to recogn i z e as the es sence of
Roman t i c i sm i den t i f y a tens ion i nherent i n Wordsworth ' s
best poetry , that of the "Great Decade " between 17 9 5 and
180 5 .
And the grotesque image pattern s , largely
ignored , are espec i a l ly important to support ing th i s
cr i t i ca l s tance and to demon strat i ng ways that
Wordsworth creatively expre sses t h i s ten s i on through h i s
image patterns and responds to t h i s ten s ion wi t h i n the
context of individual poems .
Certa i n ly , th i s tens ion i s
n owhere more clearly eviden t than i n those poems of
Wordsworth wh i ch turn upon grotesque image pattern s .
Samuel Taylor Coleridge perhaps be s t iden t i f ies the
s i gn i f icance that he and h i s fel low poets a s s i gn to
resolving a perc e i ved tens ion between exte rnal and
i n ternal exi s tences in h i s famous exp lanation that the
poet ideal ly " br i ngs the whole s oul of man i n to
ac tivity " by u s i n g the imag i nat ion to create the
5
essential " balance or reconc i l iat ion of oppos i te or
di scordan t qual i t i es " ( 2 : 12 ) .
Wi thin the pas t few
decades , a number of scholars have asserted that the
reconc i l i ng , syn thet i c imagi nat i on i s , in fac t , the true
common denomi nator of n i neteen th-century Engl i sh
Roman t i c poets .
In h i s excellent es say "Romant i c i sm
Re-Exami ned , " Rene Wel lek conc i s e ly sur veys attempts to
def i ne Roman t i c i sm and concludes that val id def i n i t ions
all turn upon the same idea :
"Al l see the imp l icat ion of
imag in at ion , symbol , myth , and organic nature , and see
it as pa rt of the great endeavo r to overcome the sp l i t
between sub j ect and obj ect , the self and the world , the
conscious and the uncon sc ious .
Th i s i s the cen tral
creed of the great Romant i c poets i n England , Ge rmany ,
and France " ( Frye 1 3 2 ) .
I n Natural Supernatura l i sm ,
M . H . Abrams a rgue s that the Romant i c poets undertook
" to save trad i t i onal concept s , schemes , and values wh ich
had been based on the relat ion of the C reator to h i s
creature and creat ion , and t o re-formulate them w i t h i n
t h e preva i l i ng two-term sys tem of sub j ect a n d ob j ect ,
ego and non-ego , the human mind or con s c i ousnes s and i ts
transactions with nature " (13).
In s hor t , Abrams
convinc i ng ly argues that the Romant ic s di splaced the i r
f r ame of reference from a s upe rnatural to a natural one
and thus attempted to show how man can e n j oy present
6
earthly ex i s tence , as opposed to s ome hope of di s tant
supernatura l exi s tence , th rough the ef fect i ve use of the
imag i nat ion to reconc i le the seemingly oppos i te aspec ts
of man and h i s natural world .
As c. c. Cla rke sugge s ts ,
t he Roman t ics real i z ed that human be ings exi s t i n
paradox : they are i n the midst o f rea l i t ie s wh ich are
not themselves , a world beyond the l imits of i nd i vidual
tran s i ent be i ng , and yet they s omehow feel that they can
reach beyond the con f i nes of themselves and br i ng the
supernatura l wi thin the compass of the ir own l ives , yet
appa ren tly wi thout annu l i ng the trans cendence of the
supernatural (1).
Both Abrams and Cla rke argue that th i s bas i c
Romantic character i s exempl i f ied by the poetry of
Wordsworth and thus center the i r di scus s ion s upon h i s
attempts to reconci le the sub j ec t-object sp l i t .
Abrams
s tates that h i s " rat iona le is that Wordsworth ( as h i s
Eng l i s h comtemporaries acknowledged , with whatever
qua l i f ications ) was the g reat and exemplary poet of the
age , and h i s P rospectus [ to The Rec luse ] s tands as the
mani festo of a cen tra l Roman t ic en terpr i se
•
•
•
" ( 14 ).
I n t h i s wel l-known Prospectus , Wordsworth asserts h i s
c entra l creed , whi ch the later Romantics i n he r i ted :
Elys ian , Fortunate Fields--like those of old
Sought in the Atlantic Ma in--why should they be
A history only of departed things,
7
or a mere f i c t ion of what neve r wa s ?
For the d i s cern i ng i n te l lect o f Man ,
When wedded to thi s good ly un i verse
In love and holy pass ion , shall f i nd these
A simple produce of the common day .
( Prose Works 3 : 7 , lines 1 0 5 - 1 1 3 )
As Harold Bloom argues , Wordsworth i s here seeking
to surpass the attemp ts of his predeces sors to sat i s f y
man ' s des i re f o r a supernatura l exi s tence by
es tabl i s h ing a method of con s c i ousness i n whi ch pa radi se
become s natura l to our present real i ty .
Bl oom concl udes
that the "most def iant humanism in Wordsworth salutes
the immediate pos s i b i l i ty of this earthly paradi se
natura l i z ing i tself in the here and now " ( 1 2 0 ) .
In attempt ing to teach us how to l i ve harmon i ous l y
in the conf ines o f our present world by us i ng our minds
in leag ue with natural phenomena to accomp l i s h a new
creation , Wordswor th obvious ly undertook a monumental
task .
Even as a young man , he rea l i z ed that h i s
endeavor t o reconc i le oppos i n g states of exi s tence mus t
f i rs t neces sari l y requ i re that h e perce i ve the natural
wor ld in all of i ts aspec ts .
I n h i s notes to I sabel la
Fenwi ck , Wordsworth recalls that at about age f ourteen
he began to rea l i z e that preced i ng poets had not
endeavored to cons ider a l l the a spects of the external
8
world : "The moment was important i n my poet ical h i s tory ;
f or I date from i t my consciousnes s of the i n f i n i te
var iety of natural appearance s wh i ch had been unnot iced
by the poets of any age or country , so far as I was
acquainted with them ; and I made a resolut ion to supply ,
i n s ome degree , the def i c iency " ( Poetical Works 1 : 3 1 9 ) .
S imi larly , wri t i ng to Cole r idge i n 17 9 8 , Wordsworth
expresses what he sees as a def i c i ency in previ ous
poetry to perce ive the forms of the external world i n a
meani ngful way .
D i scu s s i ng the German poet , Got t f r ied
Burge r , he complains that "B u rger is one of those
authors whose book I l ike to have i n my hand , but when I
have la id the book down I do not think about h i m .
I
remember a hurry of pleas ure , but I h ave few d i s t inct
f orms that peop le my mind , nor any recol lec tion of
del icate or min ute feel i ngs whi ch he has e i ther
commun i cated to me , or taught me to recogn i z e " ( Letters
Early Years 23 4 ) .
For Word sworth , then , the success f u l poet mus t
learn to recogn i z e the i n f i n i te forms o f the natural
world and mus t f ur ther absorb and synthe s i z e thes e f orms
in order to unders tand the i r s i gn i f i cance .
But the
poet ' s task does not end there , for he mus t a l s o
commun i cate h i s own awarene s s t o the reader in s uch a
9
way that the reade r ' s mind i s habitually haunted by
these forms and the i r assoc i ated feelings .
The poet
mus t teach h i s reader to recogn i z e that beh i nd the forms
of the exte rnal wor ld l i es someth ing that a lso l i ves
w i t h i n the depth s of the reader ' s mind .
I n th i s
connect ion , Northrop Frye sugges ts that Romant i c i sm i s
primari ly a revolution i n poet ic imagery , an attempt to
art i culate the locat i on of archetypes in the common
external world , but he carefully points out that a
framework of images i s not i n i t self a be l i ef , but only
symbo l i c of the c reat ive power located wi th i n the mind
i tse l f .
Rea l i ty i s brough t about by the m i n d , wh ich
constructs from experi ence ( Romant i c i sm Recon s i dered
vi i - 5 ) . 2
Thus , for the Romant i c s the i nner wor ld i s
pr imary to the external , but the external provides the
symbols neces sary to spark the m i nd ' s creati ve
responses .
I n one of h i s notebooks , Coleridge perhaps bes t
explains the Romantics ' que s t for express ion : • I seem
rather to be seek i ng , as it were asking for , a
2 prye•s arguments i n thi s connec t ion appear both
within the forward and wi th i n h i s own es say •The Drunken
Boat : The Revolut i onary Element in Romantici sm . •
10
symbolical language for something within me that already
and f orever exi s ts , than observing anyth ing new" C qtd .
in Frye 10 ) .
Simi larly , in h i s P ref ace to the second edi t ion of
Lyr ical Ba llads , Wordsworth emphas i zes the con nection
between percept ion of the natural world and the
importance of the recol lect i on of assoc i ated emotion s .
He s tates that h i s poetry " takes i ts o r i g i n f rom emot ion
r ecollected in tranqui l l i ty , " and he further asserts
that the re is " l i ttle falsehood of description " in h i s
poems because " I have at al l t imes endeavoured t o look
s tead i ly at my subjec t " ( Lyrical Ba l lads 2 4 6 - 5 1 ) .
As Freder ick Pott le has sugges ted , these two
s tatements appear contrad ictory , for how can he look at
an obj ec t s tead i ly wh i le compos ing h i s poetry and yet be
recol lect i ng the object and i ts assoc i ated emot ion i n
tranqui l l i ty?
Pottle notes that Wordswor th ' s " extens i ve
c r i t ical wri tings deride matter-of - fact and speak over
and over aga in of the power of the Imag inat i on to mod i f y
and create , " yet " he says other th ings i n which h e
appears t o be v i nd i cat i ng the r ightness o f h i s poetry ,
not on the g r ound that i t i s wel l imag i ned , • but rather
on the ground that • the thi ngs desc r i bed i n the p oem
real ly d i d happen i n that fash ion and i n no other "
( 2 7-2 8 ) .
Referr ing to speci f ic poems and the i r method
11
of compos i t ion , Pottle demons trates that " the subject
Wordswor th i s talking about in the sentence i n the
P reface is not an object in external nature , " and the
eye looking s tead i ly at the ob j ect " i s not the phys i cal
eye .
The subject i s a men ta l image and the eye i s the
i nward eye whi ch i s the bl i s s of sol i tude " ( 35 ) .
Thus ,
Pottle concludes that for Wordsworth the f unc t ion of the
Imag i nat ion " i s at the f i r st level to make sense out of
the und i f feren t iated mani fold of sensat ion by organ i z i ng
i t i n to individual objects or things , at the second
spec i f ically poet i c level , to reshape the world of
common percept ion in the di rection of a un i ty that s ha l l
be ever more sat i s factory and mean i ngf u l " (31).
Pottle
appears to be sugges t i ng that Wordsworth ' s poet ic
creations are grounded in the perc e i ved forms of the
natural wor ld but are transf igured by the Imag i nat ion
into new images composed not only of recollec ted
percepti ons of natural phenomena , but also of the
trans f igur i ng power of the poet ' s mind .
The attempt i s
to reconc i le the two wor lds : exte rnal and i n te rnal .
An
interchange occurs between the world of " th i ngs " as
perceived through the poet ' s senses and the Imag i nati on
whi ch acts upon these thi ngs to trans f igure them i nto a
sensed u n i ty .
Th i s intuited un i ty obv i ously i s felt
when the perc e i ver can recogn i z e a harmony between the
apparen tly d i scordan t n atures of the outer wor l d of
t hings and the inner wor ld of mind .
Al l of t h i s sounds f ine , i f the perc e i ver i s able
to reach that mag i cal poi nt of recogn i z i ng a un i ty
between the external world and the inner wor ld of s e l f ,
but modern scholars have been quick to a rgue that
Wordswor th , l i ke the other Romant ic poets , was
con s tantly in pur s u i t of an idea l wor ld born out of the
union between the two oppos i ng wor lds , yet was
con s tantly fr us trated and thr eatened by hi s own
inabi l i ty to ach ieve any f i nal un i ty .
c.
C . C larke
asserts th i s poi n t q u i te effec t i vely : " H i s con vi c t ion
that the natural wor ld i s s ol i d , and substantia lly
' other ' than the mind that contemplates i t , had to come
to terms with h i s conviction that what we perce i ve i s
inevi tably mind -dependen t .
A dramatic ten s i on i n h i s
poetry was f requently the result " ( Romantic Paradox 10).
S imi larly , Morse Peckham argue s that Wordsworth i s a
pure example of what he calls " Analog i sm . "
He explains
that i n th i s mode of thought "psycholog i c a l or emot ional
adaptat i on to the natural world was felt to be a
necessary preliminary , a k i nd of rehearsal , for the
adaptation of the total organ i sm and of soc i ety to the
s truc ture of nature " ( 25 ) .
He f urther de f i nes th i s
emoti ona l s tate : " One saw through the phenomenon of
13
nature into the d i vi ne noumenon ( or u l t imate real ity )
that lay beh ind i t .
And at the same t ime , one re leased
the nonumena l Self f rom the bondage of the phenomena l
Self , the persona l i ty and the work of soc ial roles " ( 2 5 ) .
But impor tantly , Peckham argues that noth i ng could be
done wi th such an expe r i ence : "No mora l i ty cou ld be
der i ved from i t � no metaphys i c wh i ch cou ld be used as a
guide to act i on cou ld be deduced f r om i t .
conten tless expe r i ence " ( 2 5 ) .
I t was pure
He concludes that
Analog i sm " depr i ved the Ob ject of a l l substance , tur n i n g
i t i n to a mere tra nsparenc y , " and that s i nce Analogi sm
offered no bas i s for act ion , " i t was reduced to the
s tatus of a mere psychological experi ence , of a
value-state , not of a va lue-ground , wh i ch was wh at was
needed " < 2 5 ) .
Peckham , then , recogn i z es an unres t i n
the poetry of Wordsworth , but h e does not attempt to
pursue h i s theory in ref erence to spec i f ic poems or to
delve more deeply i n to the importance of con s i dering
thi s unres t i n order to gain a more n early complete
knowledge of Word sworth1s poetry and i ts impl i cat ions .
At the beg i n n i ng of the century , A . c. Bradley
perhaps best iden t i f ied thi s tens ion that l ies at the
heart of Wordsworth1s poetry .
D i sc us s i ng the •vi s i onary
feel i ng • that Wordsworth descri bes so of ten in The
P relude , B radley conc ludes : "The vi s i onary fee l i ng has
14
h ere a pec u l i a r ton e � but always , openly or cover tly , i t
i s the int imat i on of something i ll imitable , over-arching
or break i ng i nto the cus tomary ' real i ty . '
I ts character
var i es � and somet imes at i ts touch the s oul , suddenly
conscious of i ts own i n f i ni ty , melts in rapture i n to
that i nf i n i te bei ng 1 wh i le at other t imes the • mortal
nature ' s tands dumb , incapable of though t , or sh r i nk i ng
f rom some pres ence ' Not unin formed wi th Phantasy , and
l ooks I That th reaten the profane ' " ( 1 3 4 ) .
I n other
words , Wordswor th is constantly f luc tuat ing between a
pos i t i ve mood i n wh i ch , as he explains i n "Tintern
Abbey " ( Lyr ical Bal lads 1 14 ) , his eye is "made quiet by
the power I Of harmony , and the deep power of joy"
( 48 -4 9 ) and a negat ive mood i n whi ch , as he professes in
The Prelude ( 1 8 0 5 ) , his bra i n works "wi th a d im and
undetermined sense I Of unknown modes of be ing " so that
over h i s thoughts there hangs "a darknes s , call i t
sol i tude I O r blank desert ion " ( 1 . 41 9 -2 2 ) .
In one of the mos t i nf luential s tudies of
Wordsworth ' s poetry wri t ten dur i ng the past f ew decade s ,
Geoff rey Hartman develops and extends the imp l i c a t i ons
of the ten s ion others have iden t i f ied as i nherent in
Wordsworth ' s poetry .
Be sugges ts that for Wordsworth
the Imag i nat ion is a • superven i ng cons ci ousnes s . •
Bartman expla i n s : " The ef fects of Imag i nation are a lways
the same : a moment of arrest , the ordi nary v i tal
cont i nuum bei n g i n terrupted ; a separ ati on of the
trave ler -poet f rom fami l i ar nature ; a though t of death
or j udgment or of the reversal of what is t aken to be
the order of nature ; a fee l i ng of soli tude or loss or
separati on " ( Wordsworth ' s Poetry 1 7 -1 8 ) .
In br i ef ,
Hartman argues that the Imag i nat ion , rather than that
wh i ch ef fects an immed iate sense of un i ty and orde r ,
of ten forces a " consc iousness of self r a i s ed to
apoca lypt i c p i tch " < 1 7 ) .
But the con sequence of thi s
consc iousness i s the correspond i ng poem i ts e l f , wh ich i s
a react i on t o t h i s consc i ousne ss a s we l l a s i ts
expres s ion .
The poem thus becomes an attempt to
a l l evi ate the fears born out of the Imag ination ' s
i n terac tion with natura l phenomena .
Hartman concludes
that Wordsworth ' s hope is that "Nature wi l l s uf f i ce the
energ ies of consc iousness " ( 18 ) .
In other words ,
Hartman s uggests that Wordsworth con s tan t ly senses a
breach between the self and t he external wor l d , a fear
that man f i na l ly i s unable to consummate h i s
relat ionsh ip wi th the external world because h e i s , as
Yeats sugges ts , a dying an imal , subj ect to decay ,
con fus ion , and imper fec t ion .
Bartman further argue s
that behi nd Wordsworth ' s poems l ies " a sec ret
con sciousnes s " that man and nature are g rowi ng apa r t and
16
that " the gap between them , whether a h i s tor i ca l error
or a provident i al tes t , already verges on apoca lypse "
( 337 ) .
Har tman warns : "The burden of th i s secret
consciousness i n Wordsworth s hould not be underest imated .
I t i s he wh o s tands between us and the death of nature ;
and thi s i s a lso the trues t j us t i f i ca t i on for the
' egoti s t i cal subl ime '
( 337 ) .
[ Keats ' s phra se ] in h i s poetry "
Word sworth i s s truggl ing to "personal ly fas ten
or new-create the l i nks between nature and the human
mind " ( 337 ) .
But , as Hartman a rgues throughout h i s
study , the Imag i nat ion , wh i ch i s t h e key to the
reconc i l iat ion process , can also threaten s e l f ­
consc iousnes s , suggesting the very ann i h i lat i on of
self hood .
Hartman ' s conten tion i s that c r i t ics have
f a i led to recogn i z e the importance of th i s apocalyptic
tendency to a true understand i ng of Wordsworth ' s poetry .
Bar tman ' s conclusion i s wel l f ounded , for scholars
tend to concen trate on Wordsworth ' s opt imi s t i c creed
that man and nature are suited to each othe r , and
certainly such emphas i s is unders tandabl e .
Wordsworth ' s
i n tent , as evi denced i n h i s greatest poems s uch as
•Tintern Abbey • and The Prelude , i s to s i ng the promi se
of this consummati on .
Yet , as Bar tman demonstrates , we
should be careful not to overlook the f ac t that there
l i e s wi t h i n Wordsworth ' s poetry a sense of unce rtainty ,
17
a fear of man ' s pos i t ion i n creation , wh i ch s tands i n
oppos i t ion t o h i s ba s i c opt im i s t i c creed .
And i t i s w i t h in the body of h i s most impor tant
poetry , that wr i t ten between h i s early yout h and the
c lose of the 1 8 0 5 Pre lude , that Wordswo r th r epeatedly
cons tructs patterns of images character i z ed by a
j u xtapos i t i on of con f l i cting respon ses to external forms .
These imag e pat terns indicate a s tr uggle wi t h i n the
context of these poems for the poet to rea l i ze a
pos i t ive con summa ti on between man and the external world
and to di scover the means for commun i cating s uch a
rea l i z at io n to h i s readers .
The poet ' s imag i nat ion
plays upon h i s percept ions of i ncongru�us exper i ence and
creates a power f ul mode of poetic expre s s ion , a mode
whi ch i s not f u l l y appreci ated or i s m i s taken f or
" subl ime " passages i n h i s poetry .
These are pas sages
wh ich revea l image patterns bes t desc r i bed by the
aesthet ic term g rotesque .
Acco rd ingly , my purpose in the f ol lowing chapters
wi l l be to def i ne the term grotesque , both demon s trating
that my def i n i t ion is appropriate to current l i terary
and c r i t i ca l appl i cations of the term and establ i s hi n g a
more spec i f ic •worki ng def i n i t ion " pa r t i c ularly
app l i cable to Wordsworth ' s poetry ; to cons ider the
18
f unc t ion of the g rotesque i n the context of individual
poems ; and to a rgue the importance of the grotesque to
our unders tand i ng of Wordsworth's poetry .
19
CHAPTER I I
DEFINING THE GROTESQUE
Any attempt to con s i der the grotesque i n
Wordswor th ' s poetry requi res that the term g rotesque
f i rs t be unde rs tood .
Such an unders tand ing i s
d i ff i c ul t : the word has been used rather loosely and
of ten is conf used wi th other s imilar terms , such as the
" hor r ible , " the " ug ly , " or the " bi z a r re . "
Geoffrey
Harpham , in h i s recen t On the Grotesque , conclude s that
the term " rema i n s elus ive desp i te the fact th at it i s
unchang ing " and adds that "most cur ious o f a l l , i t has
no h i s tory capable of be ing narrated , " for art i s ts
created the g rotesque "avant la lettre , " of ten be ing
i nnocent of the concept of the word " C xvi > .
The
trea tmen ts of the term are so var i ed that one tends to
take an att i tude s imilar to that of Mar i o Praz who , i n
attempt ing t o deal wi th the terms " Roman t ic " and
"Class i c , " compla i n s that " they creep q uiet ly in aga i n
and are always obtrud i ng themselves , elus i ve , tiresome ,
i ndi spensable , " and even afte r def i n i n g them care f ully
one f i nds that " in spi te of a l l h i s labori ous e f f ort he
d i s covers that he has been treati ng shadows as though
they were sol i d subs tance " ( 1 ) .
Harpham warns that
20
c ontemporary usage of the term i s so " loose that the
word is i n danger of los ing all meani n g , " even though
" the g rotesque , in end lessly d i lut ing forms , is a lways
and everywhere around us --and i ncreas ingly i nvi s i bl e "
<xx-xx i > .
In her s tudy of the var i ed uses of the term ,
Frances K . Barasch notes that the word i s extremely
popular in our own time , yet "the uses of ' grotesque '
d i f fe r remarkably from each other because the c r i t i cs
employing them have i n mind sepa rate h i s to r i cal
trad i t i ons for the use of the wor d " ( The Grotesque 1 0 ) .
She r i gh tly sugges ts that because modern uses are so
var ied , one mus t use the term in a l imi ted sense as i t
app l ies t o h i s own sphere o f s tudy .
And such us age does
appear to be the i nevi table res ult of any effort to
def ine a widely used aes thet ic term whose mean i n g
changes conti nua l ly a s new generations con s ider t h e term
i n relat ion to the ir own i n terests and norms .
But
Barasch he rself real i zes that mos t uses of the term
share certa i n common characteri stics , and , accord i ngly ,
s he undertakes a h i s to r i cal s urvey of the uses of the
term , pr imar i ly between 1 5 0 0 and 1 8 0 0 .
Although she i s
unable t o offer a f i nal de f i n i t ion , s he does conc lude
that the g rotesque is an establ i shed aes thet ic category
( The Grotesgue 1 6 4 ) .
21
For tunately , a number of mode rn scholars have
undertaken to study the var i ous uses of the term i n an
attempt to der i ve a f i nal acceptable def i n i t ion of the
word wh i ch can be broadly appl ied to i nd i vidual arti s ts .
The mos t comprehen s i ve and sign i f ican t s tud i e s to da te
are those by Wolfgang Kayser , Arthur C l ayborough , Lee
Byron Jen n i ngs , Michael Ste ig , and Geoffrey Harpham .
Al though none of these s tudies attempt to claim " the
def i n i t ion , " they do , as Ste ig argues , "po i n t to the
need for a comprehens ive psychol ogical def inition"
( 253 ) .
He al so right ly conc l udes that the u l t imat e tes t
of a def i n i t i on of course rema i n s i ts usefulness i n
cons ide r i ng spec i f i c works ( 2 6 0 ) .
What follows i s a
br i e f overview of these important s tudies wh i ch wi l l
provide the necessary background aga i ns t wh i ch to
con s i der the g rotesque as the term spec i f i ca l ly app l i e s
t o Wordsworth ' s poetry .
Kayser ' s s tudy of the g rotesque i s the mos t
comprehens i ve one yet attemp ted .
Employing a h i s tori ca l
approach , he undertakes to cons i der individual
expres s i ons of the g rotesque i n order to gai n a more
concrete perspec tive of a term which • seems to be one of
those quickly cheapened terms whi ch are used to express
a cons iderable degree of emot ional i nvolvemen t , • but
wi thout offeri ng " a qual i tat ive di s t i nc t ion beyond the
22
rather vag ue terms ' s trange , '
• un bel i e vable , ' " ( 1 7 ) .
' i ncred i ble , ' and
After cons ide r i ng the etymology
of the word " g rotesque , " he traces the exten s ion of the
meaning of the term from its use in tang i ble con texts
( such as ornamen t , f i gur e , or lands cape ) to i ts
acceptance as a gene ral aes thetic category marked by
certai n common character i s tics .
He , like Barasch and
Ste i g , a rgues that the g rotesque can only f i na l l y be
unders tood wi t h i n the context of the i nd i vi dual work i n
wh i ch i t i s expres sed , but h e neve r theless a rgues that
the g rotesque i s character i z ed by forms wh i ch appear to
us as a l ien .
That i s , forms suddenly appear as
i nhab i t i ng realms wh i ch are ominous .
But he carefully
s tresses th at i t i s our natural wor ld wh i ch i s
es tranged , that our world mus t sudden ly appea r
transformed1 we become aware o f a n "ominous ten s i on . "
He expla ins : "We are so s trong ly af fec ted and ter r i f ied
because it i s our world which ceases to be reli able , and
we feel that we wou ld be unable to l i ve in thi s changed
world .
The grotesque i n s t i lls fear of l ife , r ather than
f ear of death ( 18 4 > .
Thus , K ayser s tres ses that the
g rotesque i s "pr imar i ly the expres s i on of our f a i lure to
orient ourselves in the physical u n i ve rse " ( 18 5 ) .
Kayser rea l i zes that h i s explanat i on s are s omewhat
vague , but unavo i dably so .
Adm i t t i ng that the grotesque
23
i s expe r i enced on ly in the ac t of recept ion , he
acknowledges that the g rotesque depends upon a context ;
some frame of reference acts as a norm aga ins t wh ich to
dete rmine the ef fect of a g i ven obj ect ( 18 1 ) .
For
examp le , if an objec t usual ly perce ived as normal or
attrac t i ve suddenly i s perce i ved as a l i en to i ts
ass igned s tate , it can become omi nous .
Thus , an i nsane
person can be g rotesque , f or " human nature i tself seems
to have taken on om inous overtones .
Once more it i s as
if an impersonal force , an a l i en and in human spir i t , had
entered the sou l " ( 1 8 4 ) .
He notes that an obj ec t or
l iving c reature becomes g rotesque when it appears
mons trous : it mus t exh i bit character i s tics that are
unfami l i ar and unnatural .
He sums up the nature o f the
g rotesque in a br ief clause : "THE GROTESQUE IS THE
ESTRANGED WORLD [ h i s cap i tals ] " ( 18 4 ) .
Kayser q ua l i f ies h i s sugges t i on that the grotesq ue
i s the e s tranged world by expla i n i ng that the elements
perc e i ved must s udden ly appear s trange and omi nou s .
Surpr i se and threat are essen t i a l .
He notes that the
world of a f a i ry tale could be regarded as s trange and
a l i en , yet " its world i s not e s tranged , that i s to say ,
the elements i n i t whi ch are fami l i ar and natura l to us
do not s udden ly turn out to be s trange and omi n ous "
( 18 4 ) .
Thus , K ayse r argues that the perce iver mus t be
24
caught unawares .
I t i s as though the world be ing
p erce i ved turns upon the perceiver .
Kayser conclude s that the "c reator " of g rotesques
has no advice that he can follow .
H i s use of the word
"c reator " is s i g n i f i cant , for it s tres ses Kayser ' s
obvious be l i ef that the g rotesque i s a creat ion , that i t
i s born out of the perce i ver ' s imag in ation .
He f i nds
that the creat ive process is at the heart of the
g rotesque : " the estranged world appear s in the vi s i on of
the dreamer or daydreamer or in the twi l ig h t of the
trans i t i onal momen ts " ( 1 8 6 ) .
And he speci f i ca l l y a rgues
that in the Romantics , and later in the Surrea l i s ts ,
" th i s vi s i on takes hold of ' real ' t h i ng s and seeks to
create endur i ng forms " ( 18 6 ) .
But the attempt to f i nd
an enduring qua l i ty in the " real " forms , the forms we
regard da i ly in our natura l world a s norma l , is not done
del i berately : " I t may beg i n in a gay and caref ree
manner--as Raphael wanted to play in h i s g rotesque s .
But i t may a lso carry the player away , deprive h im of
h i s freedom , and make h im afraid of the ghos ts wh ich he
so f r i volously i n voked " . ( 1 8 7 ) .
Howeve r , Kayser does
argue that i n a success f ul art i s t i c creat ion , another
kind of feel i ng may ari s e : • In sp i te of a l l the
helplessness and horror inspi red by the da rk f orces
which l urk in and behind our world and h ave power to
25
e s trange i t , the truly art i s t i c portrayal ef fec ts a
secret l i berat i on .
The darkness h as been s i ghted , the
ominous powers d i scovered , the i ncomprehen s i ble forces
cha l l enged .
And thus we arr ive at a f i nal
interpreta t ion of the g rotesque : AN ATTEMPT TO INVOKE
AND SUBDUE THE DEMONIC ASPECTS OF THE WORLD " ( 18 8 ) .
I t s hou ld be carefully no ted that Kayser does not
sugges t that the creator of the g rotesque succes s f ul ly
s ubdues the " demon i c aspec ts of the wor ld . "
He may
d i s cove r omi nous power s at work and sense that they lurk
beh ind the forms of the natural wor ld , but he does not
subdue them f i n a l ly .
He may seem to t r i umph over them
i n i t ially , because he i s playing and doe s not rea l i z e
conscious ly that they may lead him to sense demon i c
forces that a r e f r i ghten i ng and a l i en , that cannot be
expla i n ed or laughed away .
Although Kayser does not
develop t h i s idea , he appears to sugges t that the role
of laugh ter or the comic in the grotesque may vary
depend i ng upon the success of the art i s t ; the more the
creator recogn i z es the demon i c forces , the less comic
his grotesque c reat i on s become . !
For as Kayser
s tresses , the c r eator of the g rotesque suddenly f i nds
� I sha ll discuss shortly, this idea
with Jolm Ruskin.
seems
to
originate
26
h imself caught unawares , and the form or forms be ing
perc e ived sudden ly may turn on him .
C layborough ' s approach to def i n i ng the g rotesque
i s , l i ke Kayser ' s , a psychological one ; he sen ses that
one cannot avo id considering the ef fects of certain
contexts on the perceiver .
Clayborough s ugges ts that
the c en t ra l idea involved in the var i ous senses of the
term g rotesque is " t hat of incongruity , of a conf l i c t
between some phenomenon and an exi s t i ng concept i on of
what is natura l , fi tt ing , etc . " ( 7 0 ) .
However , he
care f u l ly argues that incong r u i ty does not n eces sar i ly
produce the g rotesque .
There mus t also be involved a
sense of s tr angeness , but a s trang eness not i n the sense
of merely unfami l i ar ( as playing wi th a " s trange " tenn i s
r acket ) , but rather " i ncongrously s trang e " i n the sense
Kayser has noted : that wh ich is d i rec tly opposed to our
own normal wor ld ( 70 - 7 1 ) .
But Clayborough takes i ssue with Kayse r ' s emphas i s
on the perce iver of the g rotesque be i ng f r i ghtened or
repulsed : "Th i s revulsion , however , i s not our only
emoti onal r espon se to such art.
•
•
•
In any case , i t
wou ld clearly b e going too f a r t o s ay that we do not
wi s h to exper i ence a world wh ich up sets natural
s tandards " ( 7 1-72 ) .
Thus , he sugges ts that there i s a
"cur i os i ty value" i n the gro tesque and that
27
grotesqueness i s not synonymous w i th ugl i n ess .
The
gro tesque can and often does ex i st w i thout the
i ntroduc t ion of deformi ty and w i t h ou t
ph enomena .
"mons trous"
So , gro tesqueness "may l i e i n the
juxtapost i o n of objec ts "
(72).2
Cla yborough's argument leads h i m to a rather
deta i led consi dera t i o n of t he psycholog i ca l tendency i n
human n a t ure to seek a relat i onsh i p between cont i g uous
objec ts.
He i s fasc i n a ted by t h e qu a l i ty of
juxtapos i t i on wh ich he fi n ds i n herent in gro tesque art.
Adm i t tedly dra w i ng on Jung i a n t h eor i es ,
he d i s t i ngu i shes
between two k i nds of a t t i tudes of m i nd wh i c h must be
cons i dered i n exami ni ng the gro tesque:
There is a
practi ca l "progressi v e" aspect of m i nd that
character i st i c a lly rejects del i berate juxta posi ti ons as
po i ntless or struggles to establ i sh a logi cal connection
between them.
But there is also a "regressi ve " aspec t
of m i nd that "luxur i ates i n t h e i r i nexpl i cable
'signi f i cance'" ( 7 3 ) .
Clayborough asserts that Keats's
famous remark about "negat ive capabi li ty , " written in his
letter to George and Thomas Keats <21 Dec.
1817 ) ,
admi rably descri bes the regress i ve a t t i tude:
2coler i dge h ad suggested t h i s i dea in h i s lec ture
" On the D i sti ncti on of the W i t ty, the Droll, the Odd and
the Humourous," Cl8 1 8 ) : "When words or i mages are placed
28
•
•
•
Negat ive Capabi l i ty , that i s , when a man
i s capable of be ing i n uncertai n t ie s , myster i e s ,
doubts , wi thout any i r r i table reach i ng af ter
fac t and reason--Coleridge , for ins tance , would
let go by a f ine i solated ver i s imi l i tude caug h t
from t h e Penetra l i um o f mystery , from be ing
incapable of rema i n ing conten t wi th ha lf­
knowledge .
( Letters of Keats 19 3 )
But C layborough i s also careful to poi n t out that
e very persona l i ty conta ins both aspec ts of m i nd .
However , a mind may at times be more regre s s i vely or
more prog re s s ively incl ined .
The rat i ona l , progres s i ve
aspec t of mind occurs when the conscious impu lses of the
mind are domi nant .
The regress ive aspec t of mind occurs
when the unconsc i ous mi nd dominates ( 7 9 - 8 0 ) .
C laybo rough f ur ther d i s tingui shes between "pos i t ive "
and " negat i ve• ar t , suggesting that pos i t ive art i s that
i n wh i ch the progres s ive and regres s i ve impu lses f i nd
sat i s factory express ion i n the same objec t i f icat ion s o
that there i s not inner con f l ic t between impu lses .
Negat i ve art f i nd s no such removal of inner con f l i c t ,
and thus the art tends to express a c laus trophobia , a
re j e c t ion of the physical sur roundings that impr i s on the
art i s t .
The g rotesque , then , i s negat i ve art , for the
in unusual j uxtapo s i t i on rather than in connec t ion , and
are so p laced merely because the j uxtapos i t i on i s
unus ual--we have the odd o r the grotesque • • • • •
Coler idge did n ot elaborate .
29
un resolved con f l i c t of impulses i s at the heart of the
g rotesque ( 8 1> .
Fear , then , is an i nevitable aspect of
the g rotesque , for the perce iver i s torn between
conf l i c t i ng impu lses and is unable to reso lve the
tens ion .
Jen n ings , l i ke Kayser and Clayborough , determines
that the g ro tesque na lways di splays a combi nation of
fearsome and lud i c rous qua l i t i es [ h i s i t a l i c s ] - or to
be more preci se , it s imul tan eously arouses react ions of
fear and amusemen t in the observer " ( 1 0 ) .
But Jenn ings
f ur ther s tresses that the " seemingly cont radictory
tendenc i e s are combined in the phenomenon i tself and
•
•
•
the mechan i sm of the i r combinat i on i s the key to
its under s tand i ng " { 1 1 ) .
Thi s leads him to cons i der
that the d i s turbi ng qua l i ty of fear is combi ned w i th the
reli evi ng qual i ty so of ten as sociated w i th the comic .
Be concludes that i t i s reasonable to deduce that " there
is a d i sarming mechan i sm at work [ h i s i ta l i cs ] " < 14 ) .
Applying t h i s idea to particular wr i ter s , Jenni ngs
demons trates that the dis arming mecha n i sm of the
ludicrous acts upon the fearsome forces so that these
forces appear to be defeated , though actual ly " the
p l ayfulness i s constan tly on the verge of collap s i ng and
g i vi ng way to the concea led horror " Cl6> .
Thus ,
Jen n i ngs arr i ves at a conclus i on s imi lar to that of
30
C layborough : there i s not a f i nal resolut ion of
conf l i c t i ng i nner impulses , even though such a
re solut ion may superf i c i a l l y be expec ted .
Michael Steig undertakes to revi ew previous
attempt s to def i ne the g rotesque and then to s yn the s i z e
these def i n it i ons and arrive at a more nearly complete
def i ni t ion .
Be i s careful to d i s t ingu i s h between the
uncanny and the g rotesque .
The uncanny , l i ke the
g rotesque , creates uncerta i n i ty wi thin the mi nd of the
perc e i ver , but i t does not of fer a def ense , f or " the
g rotesque i nvol ves the arou s i ng of anxiety by g i v i ng
expres s i on to i n f anti le fears , fantas ies and impu lses "
( 258 ) .
Steig sugge s ts that what d i s t i ngui shes the
g rotesque from the purely uncanny is that in the la tter
defenses aga i n s t anx iety are weak , "wh i le in the
g rotesque the threaten i ng material i s d i s torted in the
d i rec t ion of harmlessness wi thout completely atta i n i ng
it• ( 258 ) .
Thus , the result i s that " the defense i s
s t i l l only part ially succes s f u l , i n that i t a l lows some
anx i ety to rema i n , and characte r i s t i c a l l y wi l l even
contri bute to the arous i ng of some anx i ety " (2 5 8 ) .
Thus , l ike Jen n i ngs , Steig conc ludes that the comic
a spect helps to d i sarm the fearful aspec t .
i s managed by the comic ( 2 5 9 ) .
The uncanny
But aga i n the defense i s
not completely success f u l and " an unre solved ten s ion i s
31
the mos t common result, because of the intraphys i c
conf l i c ts i nvolveda ( 2 60 ) .
Harpham's recen t study of the grotesque develops
some of the concepts of the previously menti oned
theor i sts , and he too s tresses that the g rotesque i s
characte r i z ed by unreso lved inne r con f l i cts and that no
f inal res olution of these conf l icts occur s .
He argues
that when nwe use the word ' g rotesque ' we record , among
other things , the sense that though our attention has
been arreste d , our understand ing is unsati s f ied n ( 3 ) .
Thus , he ag rees that surpr i se and unresolved tens ion are
common to the g rotesque .
He particularly emphas i z es
that the g rotesque exi s ts natura lly wi t h i n our world ,
that we recog n i z e someth ing real wi th the g rotesque
image we perc e i ve , that n i n the midst of an overwhelming
impress i on of monstrousness there i s much we can
recogn i z e , much corrupted or shuff led fam i l i ar i ty " ( 5 ) .
H i s argument , then , i s that the g rotesque i s not merely
fantasy , but conta ins truth in an new g ui se , a chance to
n achi eve s tr ik i ng i n s i ghts n ( 12 ) .
Harpham observes that the g rotesque " often a r i ses
i n the clash between the ' vi rtuous ' limitations o f f orm
and a rebe l l i ous content that refuses to be cons trai ne d "
(7).
Like Clayborough , then , he argue s that the
grotesque both attracts and repulses , that most
32
g rotesque image s " are marked by such an
a f f i n i ty/antagoni sm , by the co-pres ence of the
norma t i ve , f u lly f ormed ,
' h igh ' or idea l , and the
abn ormal , unformed , degenerate ,
' low ' or mate r i al " ( 9 ) .
Con s i de r i ng examples from a number of art i s ts and
wr i ters , he concludes : " I n all the examples I h ave been
con s i de r i ng , the sense of the g rotesque ari ses wi th the
perception that something i s i l leg i timately in s omething
else" ( 2 0 ) .
Thi s sense that i ncongrui t ie s are s omehow
congruous , he argues , forces the perceiver to a
reac t ion , perhaps to express repu l s ion or to di sarm
anx i et ies through apathy or the i n jection of the
ludicrous .
But , he con tends , before we have e i the r
di sm i s sed the g rotesque image a s mean ingless or h ave
"broken through to that wordless knowledge < wh i ch the
name les sness of the g rotesque parod i es > , we are
ourselves in ' para , • on the marg i n i tse l f " {2 0 ) .
Be
expla i n s that the g rotesque i n volves a paradox , for i t
conta i ns the low and the high , the demon i c a n d t h e holy :
" Our abi l i ty to perceive images a s g rotesque may be the
emblem of origi nal s i n , marking our once and f uture
i n t imacy wi th the d ivine , and our present a l ienation
f rom i t • ( 19 ) .
H i s con ten tion i s that the g rotesque i s not merely
n egati ve , that it can have a pos i t ive reac t ion , that i f
33
we resign ourselves to l i fe in a fallen world , "we can
see that g rotesque forms present great opportu n i t ies for
the imag i native i n tellec t , for they are pre-eminen tly
i n te rpretable " ( 1 9 ) .
For Harpham , the mys tery , the
un resolved , offers a spr ingboard for the imag i nat ion , a
c hance to sense s omethi ng i n herent i n and yet beyond
our selve s .
Be sugges ts that wh i le we are i n the
p aradoxi cal , the g rotesque can approach the hol y . 3
However , the vi s i on i s a fleet i ng one .
I t i s , he
mai n ta i ns , " a preludial cond i t ion wh i ch dim i n i s hes i n
t he act o f comprehens ion " ( 2 0 ) .
At t h i s point , a summa ry and a syn the s i s of the key
poi n ts developed by the precedi ng theo r i s ts s hould prove
useful in con s i dering what i s i n vo lved in the gro tesque
as we pre sen tly unders tand the term :
1.
An
i ndi vi dual pe rcei ve s the forms of the
natura l worl d imag inatively and i s sudden ly aware of an
incong ru i ty , the result of obj ects be i ng j uxtaposed i n
way s wh i ch are opposed t o our s tandard contexts
( al though t h i s perception may or may not be particularly
•monstrous " > An es tranged world i s perc e i ved .
3uarpham i s apparently inf luenced by Carl Skrade ' s
God and the Grotesque .
Skrade a rgues that g rotesque
images in our cul ture "poi nt non-rat ionally and
i rrepress i bly beyond themse lves to the s t i ll real
exper i ence of a holy Not h i ngnes s , a rea l i ty , whose
34
2.
A progres s i ve , rational aspec t of the
pe rce i ver ' s mind ( born of the con scious m i nd ) r e j ects
these j uxtapos i t ions as po int less or struggles to
establ i s h a log i ca l conn ect i on between them , wh i le a t
the s ame time a regre s s i ve , imag inative aspec t o f the
perce i ver ' s mind ( born of the unconscious mind )
luxur i ates i n the j uxtapos i t ion and f eel s no n eed to
e s ta b l i s h f i nal truths .
3.
A ten s ion occur s wi t h i n the perce i ver ' s mi nd a s
a result o f these oppos i ng impulses .
4.
Attemp t s to a lleviate ten s i on are only
part ially succe s s f u l and , paradoxically , may even
contr ibute to i ncrea s i ng anxiety .
s.
Thi s inc rea s i ng anxi ety due to one ' s i nabi l i t y
to di sarm unresolved ten s ions may be pos i t i ve because i t
can e f f ec t a real i z ation of man ' s i nabi l ity to di scover
truth through conven t ional methods and yet can exc i te
our imag i nat i ve i n tellec ts to s eek truth i n new ways ,
without feel i ng the need to resolve tens ions .
These poi n ts , carefully developed by prominent
theori s ts , do s at i sf y the need , ide n t i f ied by Steig and
others , for a comprehens i ve def i n i t i on that can serve as
f reedom and f orce shape our present and may open up our
f utures i n spi te of our rationa l i s t i c sys tem bui lding"
( 14 ) .
I shall be con s i der ing Skrade ' s commen ts i n more
deta i l in Chapter v.
35
a broad bas i s for con s i dering an indi vidual art i s t ' s use
of the g rotesque .
But as Barasch sugges ts , any attempt
to cons i der the term in relat ion to an i nd i vi dual
requires that it be used in a l imi ted sense as i t
spec i f ically applies t o the ar t i s t .
Happ i ly for the
spec i f i c purposes of my study , the i nd i v i dual who
undoubtedly played the mos t important role i n the
deve lopment of these modern theor i es , 4 John Ruski n ,
does spec i f ically men t ion Wordsworth in h i s commen ts on
the grotesque .
( I ron i cal ly , the later theor i s ts who
based so much of the i r con s iderations on Ruski n
apparently h ave paid l i ttle attention to Ruskin ' s
Being a
commen ts about Wordsworth and the g rotesque . )
n ear con temporary of Wordsworth , Ruski n was q u i te
fami l iar wi th the poet .
H i s commen ts about the
grotesque and about Wordsworth i ndicate that he
unders tood a n important aspec t of Wordswor th ' s poetry
virtua lly ignored by modern c r i t i cs , and h i s remarks
bear d i rec tly on the ideas cur ren tly deve loped by Steig ,
Harpham , and o thers regarding the grotesque .
And , i n
league wi th the ideas deve loped by Harpham and other s ,
4To my knowledge , all of the maj or theor i s ts
dea l i ng wi th the g rotesque rely on the class i c
s tatements about the true nature of the g rotesque made
by Ruskin i n The Stones of Ven i ce and Modern P a i n ter s .
I sha l l d i scuss-Ruski n • s -commen ts i n deta i l momen tar i ly .
36
Ruski n ' s i n s i ghts h e lp provide the necessary limi ted use
of the term as i t spec i f i cally app l ies to Wordsworth .
Furthermore , no one appears to have s urpas sed Ruski n ' s
understanding of the true nature of the g rotesque .
Ruski n argues that there are two forms of the
grotesque in art , •noble " and " ignoble , " and that i n
a lmos t a l l cases they a re composed o f two elemen t s : the
ludicrous and t he fearfu l .
I f the ludi crous elemen t
preva i l s , the grotesque becomes more " spor t i ve , • but i f
the fear f u l elemen t preva i l s , the g rotesque i s more
" ter r i ble . "
Howeve r , he notes that in a lmos t a l l
incidences of the g rotesque , both elemen ts a r e combi n ed
i n some degree so that the g rote sque can never be
cons i dered as e i ther purely sport i ve or purely fearfu l 1
t here wi l l be shades of both elements present ( S tones
3: 1 5 1 ) .
The noble o r true grotesque , Ruskin
expla i n s , i s developed when • a man of natura lly s t rong
f eel i ng i s acci den tally or resol utely apathet i c , "
whereas the ignoble or false grotesque i s developed when
" a man natura l l y apathet i c is forcing h imse l f i n to
temporary exc i temen t " ( Stones 3 : 1 68 ) .
Becaus e the man
of natura l ly s tr ong f e e l i ng s i s apatheti c when t he
g rotesque deve l ops , he i s not seeki ng a serious s tate of
exc i tement .
Be is rather involved i n " recreati on , • but
the "horror " he sudden l y senses "comes upon him whether
37
he wi l l or not � that wh i ch i s expressed by the other [ a
man natural ly apathet i c ] i s s ought out by h im , and
elaborated by h i s art . "
Thus , Rusk i n contends that the
true g rotesque deve lops involunta r i ly � there i s a sudden
rea l i zat ion of s omething fearful or hor r i ble .
He
con t i nue s : " And therefore , also , because the fear of the
one i s true , and of true th ings , however fanta s t i c i ts
expres s i on may be , there wi l l be rea l i ty i n i t , and
force " ( S tones 3: 1 6 8 ) .
born out of real i t y .
The true g rotesque , then , is
Ruski n , in fact , def ines the
g rotesque as symbol i c and sugges ts , as Harpham later
deve lop s , that the g rotesque image simultaneously
i nvolves and repudi ates our trad i t ional l im i t s of f orm .
" A f i ne g rotesq ue , " Ruskin as serts , i s " the expres s i o n ,
i n a momen t , by a series of symbols thrown together i n a
bold and fearless connec tion , of truths wh i ch i t wou ld
have taken a long t ime to express in any verbal way •
( Modern Painters 3: 132 ) .
Rus k i n di s t ingui shes between four types of
"p layfulnes s " that may be expres sed in the noble
grotesque , arguing that " the h ighes t and hea lt hi e s t
state which i s competen t to ordinary human i ty appears to
be that wh i ch , accep t i ng the necess i ty of recreat ion ,
and yielding to the impul ses of mate r i al de l ight
spr i nging out of health and i nnocence , does i ndeed
38
condescend of ten to playf ulnes s , but n ever wi thout such
deep love of God , of truth , and of human i ty , as s h a l l
make even i ts l i ghtes t words reveren t , its i d le s t
fanc ies prof i table , and i ts keenest s at i re i ndulgent . "
Th i s form of playf ulnes s , that may be expres s ed i n the
noble g rotesque , he calls " those who play wi s ely . "
He
con t i nue s : "Wordsworth and Plato furn i sh us with perhaps
the f i nest and h i ghest examples of t h i s playf ulnes s, i n
the one case [ Wordsworth ] , unmixed wi th sat i re
( Stones 3: 1 5 3 ) .
•
•
•
Thus , Ruski n sugge s ts that those who
play wi sely , and Wordsworth i s a f i ne example , are those
who are mos t capable of producing the h ighe s t form of
true grotesque .
Although Ruskin does not attempt to
d i sc us s spec i f i c examp les from Wordsworth , he apparently
did recogn i z e that Wordsworth ' s poetry offered one of
the bes t examples of the noble g rotesque in a
non-sat i r ical f orm .
Ruski n a l s o explains that th i s highe s t spec i e s of
playfulness • i s evidently the condi t i on of a m i n d , not
only highly cult i vated , but so habi tual ly tra i ned to
i ntellectual labour that it can br i ng a con s i de r able
f orce of accurate thought i n to i ts moments even of
recreat ion • ( Stones 3: 1 5 3 ) .
Be acknowledges t h at only
a few human be i ng s reach t h i s s tate of mind , and that
these i nd i v i duals " hardly ever speak through art excep t
39
ser ious ly ; they feel its noblen ess too profound ly , and
va lue the t ime n eces sary for i ts produc t i on too h i g h ly ,
to empl oy i t i n the rendering of t r i vi a l thoughts n
( Stones 3 : 15 3 ) .
Thus , the images they produce can
n ever be a l together ludi crous , but rather n so far a s
thei r minds c a n recreate themselves b y t h e imag i n at ion
of s trange , yet n ot laughabl e , forms ,
•
•
•
we f i nd them
del ighting i n such i nvent ions , and yet a spec i e s of
grotesques thence ar i s ing in all the i r work , wh i ch i s
i ndeed one o f i ts mos t valuable characte r i s t i c s
< S tones 3 : 1 5 6 ) .
•
•
• n
The noble g rotesque , wh i ch Ru skin
assoc i ates with Wordswor th , i s not dominated by the
ludicrous or comi c .
Ruski n determines , then , that "the mind , under
certa in phases of exc i tement , plays with terror , and
s ummons images wh i ch , if it were in another temper ,
would be awful , but of whi ch , e i ther i n wear i ne s s or i n
i rony , i t refrains for the t ime t o acknowledge the true
ter ri bleness n ( Stones 3 : 16 6 ) .
Like Clayborough , Ruskin
recogn i z e s that the mind both rejects and l uxur i ates i n
the j uxtapos i t i on o f images .
But n the mas te r o f the
noble grotesque knows the depth of all at wh i ch he seems
to moc k , and would feel it at another t ime , or feels i t
i n a certain undercur ren t of thought even wh i le he
jests wi th i t n
•
•
•
( Stones 3 : 1 6 6 ) .
Harpham ' s
40
conten t ion that " the sense of the grotesque a r i ses wi th
the percepti on that s omething is i l leg i t imately in
something e l s e " ( 9 ) i s i n agreemen t wi th Rusk i n ' s
explanat i on of the noble g rotesque as employed by
art i s ts such as Wordsworth .
Like the later theo r i s ts , Ruskin also s tresses that
the g rotesque is not s imply something s trange or
uncanny , but rather it mus t be our own worl d of real i ty
that i s tran s fo rmed .
The true g ro tesque i s not mere
f ancy or make bel ieve : " I t i s not as the creat ing , but
as the s ee i ng man , that we are here con templat i ng the
mas ter of the true g rotesque .
I t i s because the
dreadfulness of the universe around h im wei gh s upon h i s
heart that h i s work i s wi l d ; and there fore through the
whole of i t we s ha l l f i nd the evidence of deep i ns ight
into nature .
H i s beasts and bi rds , however mon s trous ,
wi l l have profound relat ions with the true " ( Stones
3 : 169 ) .
I n Modern Pa i nters Ruski n further comments on the
true g ro tesque , suggest i ng that i t a r i se s not only from
the play of the art i s t ' s imagi nat ion and f rom the
accidental c on templat ion of ter r i ble t h i ng s , but a ls o
f rom the confusion o f the imag i nat ion b y the presence o f
truths i t cannot wholly grasp .
The true g rotesque does
not lead the ar t i s t to a resolve , but rather l eave s the
41
a rt i s t i n a state of ten s i on or par t i a l confus ion .
R uski n arg ues that • i t seems not only pe�i s s i ble , but
even des i rable , that the art by which the grotesque i s
expres sed should b e more or less imperfect • ( 3 : 1 3 8 ) .
I n other words , the grotesque i s by nature imperfec t .
Rather than creating a f i na l sense of u n i ty and
perfec t ion , the grotesque ef fects a sense of
d i s j o i n tedne ss , of incongruity , and yet there i s
something p rofound , and perhaps even pleasurable , in
t h i s not reach ing after a f i nal perfection .
In connec t i on with h i s idea th at the true g rotesque
i s imper fec t , Rus k i n makes a careful d i s tinction between
the subl ime and the g rotesque , a d i s t i nct i on which i s
espec i al l y rela t i ve to th i s study , not only because a
compar i s on between the two terms i s useful i n
unders tandi ng the nature of the grotesque , but also
because a d i s ti nct i on mus t be made to avo id confus i ng
the subl ime pas sages of Wordsworth ' s poetry wi th the
grotesque passages .
Ruskin suggests that in t imes of
res t , when our minds are r ightly in tone , we • s eek with
mos t avidity
•
•
•
that whi c h r i ses out of the
contemp l a t ion of beauty or of terribleness • ( Stones
3:
165 ) .
The height and tone of our fee l i ng , he argues ,
governs whether we see beauty or terr i blen ess i n noble
or i n fe r i or f orms : " The more noble the man i s , the more
42
impossi ble i t wi l l be to con f i ne h i s thoughts to mere
loveliness , and that of a low order " ( Stones 3: 1 67 ) .
The mos t "Divine beauty " and " terri blen es s coequa l wi th
i t in rank " are the subjec ts of the highest a r t : the
subl ime .
An " i n ferior or ornamen ta l beauty , and an
infer ior terri bleness coequal wi th i t i n rank " are the
sub j ects of grotesque art ( Stones 3: 1 65 ) .
Thus Rusk i n
argues that both the grotesque and the sublime conta i n
contrasting a spec ts o f beauty and fear .
However , there
is a cruc ial d i f ference between the subl ime and the
grotesque , as Rusk i n explai ns : "Now , so far as the truth
is seen by the imag i nation in its wholeness and
quietnes s , the v i s ion is subl ime ; but so far as it i s
narrowed and broken by the i ncon s i s tencies o f the human
capac i ty , it becomes grotesque " ( S tones 3: 1 8 1 ) .
The
grotesque , be i ng imperfect , does not yield a vi s i on of
wholeness nor a sense of un i ty wi th our natur a l world ,
but rather bear s a fragmented vi s ion .
In h i s own d i scuss ion of the subl ime , a prose
f ragmen t en t i t led "The Subl ime and the Beaut i ful , "
Wordsworth h imself acknowledges that a person may not
always be able to perceive objects in nature in a
un i f ied way with • exaltation or awe , • but nevertheless ,
" i t is of i n f i n i t e importance to the noble st feeli ng s o f
the Mind a n d to i ts very highest powers that the forms
43
o f Nature should be accurately con templated
•
•
•
and
that we understand the severa l grand cons t i tuti onal laws
under wh i ch i t has been orda i ned that these objects
shou ld everlast ingly af fect the mind " ( P rose Works
2:
350 > .
He f ur ther explains that the s ubl ime conta i n s
a sen se of individual form o r f orms , a sen se o f
duration , a n d a sense of powe r : "The whole complex
impre s s ion is made up of these elemen tary parts , & the
e f fect depend s upon the ir co-ex i s tence " ( P rose Works
2:
351 ) .
He caref ully expla i ns that
the on ly way in whi ch such an object [ a
moun tai n ] can af fect us , con temp l ated under the
notion of durat ion , is when the f a i n t sense
wh i ch we have of i ts i nd i vidua l i ty is l os t i n
the general sense of duration belongi ng t o the
Earth i tself . Promi nen t individua l f orm mus t ,
therefore , be con j o i ned with durat ion , in order
that objects of th i s kind may impress a sense of
subl imi ty . But in works of Natur e , i t is not
so : with these mus t be combi ned impre ss ions of
power , to a sympathy with and a par t i c i pation of
wh ich the mind mus t be elevated--or to a dread
and awe of which , as exi s ti ng out of i tsel f , i t
mus t b e subdued .
(P rose Works 2 : 3 5 1-5 2 )
Wordsworth ' s argumen t , then , is that for the m i nd to
exper i ence a sense of the subl ime , not only mus t i t
rea l i z e i ndivi dual form con j o i ned wi th duration , it mus t
also be able to elevate itself to rea l i z i n g a sense of
power , or i t mus t successfully subdue itself to a f ear
or awe that i s beyond i tself and therefore unknowable .
But , he admits , • the capabi l i ty of perc e i v i ng these
44
qual i t ies , and the degree in wh ich they are perceived ,
w i l l of course depend upon the state or condi t i on of the
mind , wi th respect to habi ts , knowledge , and powers
wh ich is brought wi thin reach of the i r inf luence n
( P rose Works 2 : 3 5 3 ) .
The subl ime can occur only when
the mind i s not at war with itself 7 a comp lete sense of
un i ty is expe r i enced , as Wordsworth expla i n s : " For
whatever suspends the compar i ng power of the mind &
pos sesses i t wi th a feeling or image of i n ten se unity
without a conscious con templation of parts , has produced
the state of mind which is the consummat i on of the
sublime " ( P rose Works 2 : 3 5 3 - 5 4 ) .
The g rotesque , as def ined by Ruski n and the modern
theori sts , does , like the sublime , involve a sense of
beauty and of f ear in an object o r ob j ec ts , but unl i ke
the sublime , the grotesque does not i nvolve a sense of
duration , but r a ther a sense of mutab i l i ty , decay ,
trans formation , uncerta i n i ty .
The perce i ver i s unable
to e levate h i s m i nd to a proper understanding of the
power he senses or to subdue h i s mind to a sense of
power beyond h imse lf .
The mind i s i n con f l i c t w i th
itself , the regre s s i ve and progres s i ve aspec ts o f m i nd
are at war .
I n h i s d i scuss i on of the sublime ,
Wordsworth iden t i f ies another state wh ich occurs i f the
subl ime is not attai ned :
"But if that Power which i s
45
exal ted above our sympa thy impresses the m i nd with
per sonal f ear , so as the sen sat i on becomes more l i vely
than the impress ion or thought of the exc i t i ng cause ,
then self-con s iderat i on & a l l i ts acc ompany i ng
l i t tleness takes the place of the subl ime , & wholly
excludes i t "
( Prose Works 2 : 3 5 4 ) .
Thi s is an
extraord i nary remark , for a lthough Wordsworth does not
attempt to a s s i g n a te rm for such a s tate , he c learly
does reveal his real i z at ion that there is a s tate i n
whi c h the m i n d , i n cons i der ing a n external form
i nvolving beauty and f ear , is so af fec ted by a
recog n i t i on of i ncong ruity and a result i ng sense of f ear
that it wi l l not be able to attain a sense of un i ty and
dur ation , but rather will shrink back upon i tse l f .
The
s tate is remarkably similar to what Ruskin and t he
modern theor i s ts term the g rotesque !
With these broad psycholog i ca l explanations argued
by Rus k i n and the modern theor i sts servi ng as a
backg rou n d , I now offer a more l im i ted , spec i f ic
def i n i t ion of the g rotesque part icularly app l i cable to
my s tudy of Wordsworth ' s poetry .
Thi s •working
def i n i t ion n is i n tended to offer as c lear an
understanding as pos s i ble of the particular sense i n
whi ch I shall be us i ng the term grotesque in my
f ol lowing chapter s :
46
The grotesque i s a pattern of images wh i ch
pro j ec ts an abnormal , unattract i ve perception of
a natura l form or f orms aga i n s t a normal ,
attractive percept ion , the result be i ng a sudden
awaren ess of a threaten i ng , i ncongruous wor ld .
47
CHAPTER I I I
THE GROTESQUE I N THE EARLY
POETRY OF WORDSWORTH
I n book 8 of The Prelude ( 18 0 5 ) , Wordswor th , age
t h i r ty-four , looks back to the c i rcumstances under wh ich
he wrote h i s youthful poetry ( that wri tten before age
twen ty-three ) and confesses that it was Nature , not man ,
that domi nated h i s " affec tions and rega rds . " !
And
more spec i f i ca l ly , he acknowledges that to him man was
subo rdi nate to Nature , " to her , her awful f orms I And
v i ewless agenc ies --a passion , s he , I A rapture of ten and
immediate j oy . "
For the young poet , it was the
awe-insp i r i ng and i nvi s i ble forms of the external wor ld
wh ich at trac ted h im , and as he developed h i s poet i c
i n teres ts , h e determined to g i ve these forms a " vi s i ble
shape . •
Be conformed his "poet ic faculty " to " t he works
of art . I The not ions and the images of books " and cast
upon " these shapes of human l i f e I A wi lf ulness of fancy
and conceit . "
Attracted to the awf ul and v i ewl ess f orms
of the natural world , Wordsworth began to assoc iate
lMy references i n th i s parag raph are to l i nes
4 7 2 - 5 8 6 of The Prelude , ed . Jonathan Wordsworth et al.
( ci ted i n Li s t of Ref erences ) .
Al l subsequen t
quotat ions f rom the poem i n my text refer to this
edi t ion .
48
these forms wi th images drawn from h i s early read i ngs .
The result was , as he expla i n s , that "Nature and her
ob jects beau t i f ied I These f ic t ions , as , in some sort ,
in the i r turn I They bu r n i s hed her . "
The young poet
became obsessed wi th imag i native portrayals based on the
real forms of nature but colored by hi s own " f ancy " so
that from " [ touch ] of thi s new power I Nothing was
safe " : the e lder- tree that he recal led g rowi ng bes i de
the charnel -house " had then I A di sma l look , the
yew-tree had i ts ghos t I That took i ts station there for
ornamen t . "
In short , his youthful fancy was not
s at i s f ied with the ordi nary ; only the extraordi nary
would do :
"The trag i c super-trag i c , else left short . "
Ghos ts and ghou l i sh forms fasc i nated h im , becoming
ornaments of h i s descript ions of nature .
And as h i s youth ful poetry and prose revea l , such
an early i n terest i n the " trag i c super- trag i c , " the dark
forms born of h i s imag i n ati on , became natura l to h i m ,
haun t ing h i s m i nd by day and f requent ing h i s dreams by
n ight .
In h i s earliest extan t prose wr i t i ng , a f ragment
wri t ten at age fourteen , he confesses h i s chi ldhood
dreams of such s tr ange forms of terror : " Nay s i nce the
hours when i n my bed with closed eyes I saw perpetually
r i s i ng before me the face of [ ? ] horses as wi ld as Lion s
have the forms o f [ ?Men ] been [ ?dear ] to me The half
49
formed v i s ion s [ ?of ] the long process ions of s olemn
ter ror been dear [ to ] me " ( Prose Works 1 : 7 > .
In s hort ,
i t appears that Goth i c , g rotesque f orms were natural to
Wordsworth ' s mind and i n terests even i n youth 2 , and
these forms conti nued to haun t him as he deve l oped i nto
a young poet , domi nat ing much of the imagery of h i s
f i r s t long sus tai ned poem , The Vale o f Es thwa i te , and
blossoming i nto more mature , effec t i ve image patterns i n
h i s f i rst pub l i shed poems , mos t importan tly i n An
Even ing Walk .
Spec i f i ca l ly , g rotesque images ba sed on
natural forms but fr equen tly colored by assoc i a t ion wi th
fic t ions drawn from his read i ngs appear f i r s t ,
part icularly in The Va le of Es thwa i te , as a rt i f ic i a l ,
imi tative g rotesq ues ( the " ignoble g rote sque " in
Rusk i n ' s language > bu t develop , as the young poet
strugg les to f i nd h i s own un ique poet i c voice , i nto more
natural , creat i ve g rotesque s ( Ruski n ' s true or " noble
grotesque " ) .
And these grotesque image patterns revea l
much about Word sworth ' s poetic developmen t ; they
threaten to fragment and skew h i s youthful poeti c v i s ion
2 Mx>zman notes that in his early youth N:>rdsworth 's favorite
:readings were tales of travel , n::manoe , and adventure which
"a.ccust.a'led his inagination to stranqe and even terrifyin:J sights"
(9 ) . later , as a student at Hawkshead, he read widely from poets
of the "gothic 'and sentinP..ntal ' school generally " (51) •
so
o r to unify and di rec t h i s poet ic expres s ions and
respon ses to the ex ternal world of forms .
As numerous scholars have demon s trated ,
Wordsworth ' s in tere s t i n Goth i c images i s a produc t not
only of hi s fancy , but a lso of h i s h i s tori cal m i l ieu and
poet ical her i tage .
The late eig hteenth cen tury produced
an array of Engli sh wr i ters , ma jor and mi nor , who were
f asci nated by supernatura l terrors , and Wordswor th ' s
early poems are frequented by allus ions to these
wr i ters , espec i a l l y h i s immed iate poetic predec e s s or s .
In her exten s i ve s tudy The I n s i s tence of Horro r : Aspects
of the Supernatural i n Eigh teenth-Century Poetry ,
Patr i c i a Meyer Sparks convincingly demon s tr ates that
numerous poets of the e igh teenth cen tury , many of
whom � repeatedly imitated, anployed
supernatural horror s regularly in the i r poetry .
Warton ,
Col l ins , Gray , Anne Seward , and other ma jor and minor
poets preceding Wordsworth found vi ta l poet ic re s ources
i n legends of ghosts and in demonic forc e s .
In fact ,
tracing the developmen t of the "unp leasan t supernatural "
up to the era of Wordswo rth and Coleridge , Sparks
concludes : •The problem of the s upernatura l ' s role i n
poetry , then , by th i s time h ad to do wi th func t ion
rather than propriety" ( 1 0 8 ) .
Paul Sheats ag rees ,
argui ng that the early poems of Wordsworth po i n t to
51
" condi t ions imposed upon that gen i us by i ts h i s to r i cal
m i l i eu " and suggests that in The Vale of Es thwa i te the
"Goth i c i sms " and s imilar ef fects found throughout the
poem " had been a s s i duous ly cultivated , furthermore , by
poets and cr i t ics of
' romantic ' sen s i bi l i ty s i nce the
beg i n ning of the century " ( 7 ) .
He also asserts that
Wordsworth i nheri ted the assumpt ion that lyr i c poetry
was expec ted to eschew reas on and i ndulge in the
i rrat ional ( 8 ) .
,
.
Em� le Legou i s , biographer of the young
Word swor th , traces i n deta i l the Gothic i n f luence of
Thomson , C o l l i n s , G ray , Pope , Burns , and others on
Wordsworth ' s s tyle and subj ect matter ( 1 2 0 - 4 7 ) , and
Robert Aubin demon s trates that Wordsworth ' s f i rs t
pub l i s hed poems had more than one hundred and f i f ty
poet ic forbears e s tabli shi ng the i r gen re ( 2 1 7 - 1 9 ) .
James Aver i l l , s tres s i ng forms of human suffering
inhe ren t i n the early poems , notes Wordswor th ' s i n tere s t
in " ob jects o f d i s tress " and sugges ts that h e i s he i r to
Steele , Rich ardson , S terne , and others in h i s pench an t
for the " j uxtapos i t ion of s uffering and calm forms " ( 1 3 ) .
E . H . K i ng demons trates that the descript ions of g rave s
and corp ses i n Beatt ie ' s The Minstrel were "quite
consc ious ly" used a s model s for images i n Wordswor th ' s
early poems ( 3- 2 9 ) .
52
But wh i le scho lars have documen ted the many Got h i c
and hor r i ble/supe rnatura l allus i ons and i n f luences
permeating Wordsworth ' s early poetry , they have not
apprec iated the appearance of the g rotesque images i n
these poems , al though they have sen sed that there i s
s ometh i ng un ique , s uggestive of early gen ius , a l i ve i n
the image pat terns o f Wordsworth ' s early poetry wh i ch
haun t the mind and ar res t the eye .
Wordsworth h ims elf
g i ve s the c lue to t h i s un iquen ess , the tra i t of h i s
images whi ch s eparates them from the ordi na ry and wh i ch
i s e s s en t ial to h i s grotesque image patterns at the i r
best .
I n a lette r wr it ten in 18 0 1 , he looks back to h i s
f i rs t pub l i s hed poems and conclude s :
"They are j uven i l e
produc t i on s , i n f lated and obscure , but they conta i n many
new images and vi gorous l i nes " ( Letters Early Years 3 2 7 > .
Thi s descr ipt i on parallels the comment made to I s abel l a
Fenwick when he recalled that a t age four teen he became
conscious for the f i rs t time of " the i n f i n i te va r i ety of
natural appearance s " apparently un not i ced by previ ous
poets and " made a resolution to s upply in s ome degree
the def ic iency " ( Poeti cal Works 1 : 3 1 9 ) .
What Wordsworth apparently recogn i z ed was that the
qual i ty of h i s early poems res ted not upon h i s
art i f i c i a l imitat i ons of the poet ic trai ts o f h i s
predecessors , but rather o n hi s abi l i ty to s e e more
53
deeply i n to the l i f e of things , to obs erve wi th a keener
eye the var i ety of natural forms 1 to portray as no o ther
poet had done n ew images based on actual g l impses of the
real wor ld , even if these images were of a dark , fearful
nature .
Freder i ck Pott le has rec ogn i z ed th i s unique
qual i ty and has demonstrated that Wordsworth 1 s s truggle
to ach ieve h i s un ique express ion appears mos t c learly i n
An Eve n i ng Walk , a poem wh ich Pottle sugges ts enables us
" to see a powerful and or iginal gen i us grappl i ng wi th
the problem of poet i c idiom" ( 11 2 ) .
Pottle notes , i n
fact , that pe rhaps t h e chief problem o f the poem i s that
Wordsworth "wants to present everyth i ng th rough an
imag e " ( 115 ) , but he cruc i ally recogn i z e s that
Wordswor th 1 s descriptions of nature , though they may
make a parade of botanical or geological knowledge ,
really h ave noth i ng to do wi th such knowledge and that
the poem • s real s ubjec t , l i ke al l success ful descr ipt i ve
poetry , i s not the natural ob jec t , but r ather man • s
" inner l i fe , the mot ions and changes of wh i ch , in s ome
mys te r i ous f a s h i on may be symboli zed by the elemen ts of
landscape " ( 1 2 0 ) .
He continues :
"And perhaps i t does
not become succe s s f u l even then .
I t mus t rea l i z e the
prec i se q ua l i ty of th i s men tal l i fe wh i ch is its s u b j e ct
matter and not only s elect its symbols but d i rect t hem"
( 12 0 ) .
Pottle concludes that An Even ing Wa lk i s of ten
54
too obscure because h i s form and subj ec t mat ter were not
c lear to Wordsworth ( 1 2 9 ) .
The poet i s overwhelmed by
images wi thout hav i ng a sense of how to select and f ocus
t hese image pat terns toward some recogn i z able truth .
Wordswo r th ' s early poetry doe s demons trate that he
i s strugg l ing to f i nd h i s own poetic voi ce , to convey
s ometh i ng of importance wh ich he i ntu i t ive ly rea l i z es i s
born out of an i n terac t ion between the beaut i f u l ,
pleasant f orms of nature and the f rightfu l , unpleasant
forms wh ich haun t h i s own mind and wh i c h he senses have
the i r roots in the natura l world as we ll .
But h i s early
poetry pr imar i ly fa i l s to ach ieve an effec t i ve poet i c
idiom , relying too heav i ly on " s tock " Gothic image
patterns wh i c h do not rea l i s t ical ly express h i s own
perceptions because these patterns are too sub j ec t i ve ,
too al lus i ve : they lack a profound relat ion wit h the
real world of da i ly exper i ences and thus f a i l to ach i e ve
an expres s ion natural not only to Wordsworth , but to
others as wel l .
Yet as the young poet ' s g en i us develops
in these early years , he does move toward a true
expre s s i on of the tens ion he senses between forms of
beauty and f orms of fear , and thi s expres s i on i s
ach ieved for the f i r s t t ime i n the g rote sque image
patterns appearing in pa ssages of An Even i ng Wa lk .
From
the fragmented , obscure g rotesque image patterns of Th e
55
Va le of Es thwa i te , Wordsworth moves toward a subtl e ,
f ine expre s s ion of the g rotesque , embod ied i n natura l
appearances , wh i ch speaks of and to human i ty .
As previously mentioned ( see pages 35-42 above) ,
Rus k i n sugges ted that Wordsworth was a ma ster of " f i ne
grotesques " ; he was able to create the " noble " g rotesque
because even when he was not at temp t i ng to der i ve g reat
truths from the fo rms of nature , the se forms suddenly
caused horror to come upon him whether he wi s hed i t to
or not .
The result i s that because the fear i s of true
thi ngs , " there i s rea l i ty i n i t , and f orce . "
The true
g rotesque appears i n the works of arti s ts such as
Wordsworth , Rus k i n expla i ns , because " t he dreadfulness
of the unive r se around him wei ghs upon h i s hea r t " and
causes h i s works to conta i n " evidence of deep ins ight
into nature .
H i s beas ts and birds , howeve r mon s trous ,
wi l l have profound relations wi th the true . "
The early
poetry of Wordsworth does s how an artist who primar i ly
fai ls to create the true grotesque , that poetry be i ng a s
Wordsworth recog n i zed, too of ten i n f lated a n d obsc ure .
The early poetry shows Wordswor th 1 s gen i us develop i n g
s o that h e beg i ns to leave beh i nd the art i f ic ia l Got h i c
forms whi ch he i nheri ted and moves t o create the k i nd of
f i n e g rotesque images Ruskin rea l i zed had "profound
relat ions wi th the true . "
Represen tat i ve g rotesque
56
images from the early poems serve to demons trate that
the early " i gnoble " g rotesque image pat te rns even tua l ly
become " noble " grotesque image patterns wh i ch ar e , u s i ng
Ruskin ' s terms , " symbo ls thrown together i n a bold and
fear less connec tion of truths . "
The Va le of Esthwa i te i s the bes t example of the
young poet ' s early at tempts at expres s i ng g rotesque
images , al though these images are of an i n ferior or
ignoble qua l i ty , and as already e s tabl i s hed , are based
upon Wordsworth ' s early reading s , at lea s t primar i ly so .
As Cli fford S i s k i n demons trates , many of the Goth i c
images o f th i s youthful poem appear scattered th roughout
Wordsworth ' s poems of the 1 7 9 0 s , and the poem shows h i s
usual pattern o f s trugg l i ng to "qual i fy the i n s i s tent
Got h i c i sm of h i s early works by reconc i l i ng the m i nd ' s
imag inat i ve impu lses to the sol i d i t ie s of lands cape "
( 13 > .
Yet i t i s the g rotesque imag e patterns of the
poem , apparen tly ignored, wh ich perhaps revea l the mos t
about Wordsworth ' s i n teraction wi th nature and the
subsequen t poe t i c responses to the c lash of his inner
wor l d of self with the external wor l d of nature .
The poem beg i n s wi th the speaker obse r v i ng the
mountain va le in a l l of i ts beauty , not ing the g l a s sy
lake , the r a i n bow , the shepherd ' s dog , and o ther s uch
57
pleasant images .
But almost immedi ately , the speaker
chooses to leave that scene for darker haun ts :
At noon I hied to gloomy g lades ,
Rel ig ious woods and midnight shades ,
Where brooding Superst i t ion frown ' d
A co ld and awful hor ror round . 3
In th i s new envi ronmen t , supernatura l forms appear :
dr uids wi th g la r i ng eyes and a mys ter i ous " loud gen i us "
that " shoots from the c l i f f in robe of wh i te " ( 3 8 > .
Already these be i ngs appear i n f lated and obscure .
If,
as Wordsworth confesses in The P relude , these images are
dr awn f rom early readings , they rema in too obsc ure to
iden t i f y , and they fa i l to commun i cate any truth wi th
whi ch the reade r can iden t i f y .
He compares th i s
appa r i t ion to " s trange forms " that are of ten seen a round
castle moats , wh i te and tal l appa r i t i ons that " s tand
s tra igh t ag a i n s t the coal -black wa l l " ( 4 1 - 4 2 ) .
I f the
poet i s attempt i ng to c reate a g rotesque image , whi ch he
apparen tly i s , by sharply contras t i ng th i s fea r f u l
obj ect w i t h t h e calm beauty o f t h e vale , he f a i ls t o do
so , for the image lacks graph ic deta i l and of fers n o
concrete relat ion t o a genera lly recogn i z able form .
Junes 25 ....28 as printed in 'POetical li:irks 1 : 270-83 . All
quotations fran ·'lhe Vale ·of ESthwa1te are fran that text and
hereafter will be cited parenthetically by line ntari:lers .
58
And so the speaker con ti nues , wande r i n g by a
"Goth i c man s i on " and along a " swampy way , " hear i ng the
di smal sounds of " Spi r i ts yel l i ng f rom the i r pai ns " and
the " s ighs " of h i s own harp as suddenly " Aghas t he
vi ews , w i t h eyes of f i re , I A g r i s ly Phan tom smi te the
wi r e " ( 4 6 - 6 4 ) .
Fi nally , fancy , l i ke l ig h tn i n g , " Shot
f rom wondrous dream to dream" ( 6 5 - 6 6 ) .
The image
patterns are broken ; the grotesque f igures are too
imper f ec t to create gen uine response , even from the poet
himsel f , who s h i f ts abruptly from image to image ,
apparen tly wi th an i nc l i nation to portray hor r i ble ,
g rotesque forms , but lacking the necessa ry poetic ski lls .
Fancy seems to control the speaker ; thi s person i f ied
facul ty of the speaker ' s mind appears repeatedly i n the
poem .
The speaker moves back and forth from desc r i p t i ve
scenes of natur a l beauty to Gothic scenes dom i na ted by
images created by the fancy rather than actually
observed in r ea li ty .
For example , " f an cy ' s rays the
h i l ls adorn " as the speaker rove s as through "an Eden
vale I The ade maz e of some tender tale " ( 1 7 8 - 80) ,
He
vi ews " the d i smal g loom I Of haun ted Castle ' s pannel ' d
room" and sees a ghostly f igure , i ts " face of wan and
ashy hue , • and other s imi lar Go th i c forms , after wh ich
he admits :
"But these were poor and puny j oys I Fond
s i ckly Fancy ' s i d le toys " ( 2 6 8 -69 ) , as though he h imself
59
recogn i z e s the f a i lure of these forms to carry any true
purpose or mean i ng : they are " s i ck" and " idle toys , "
mere wh ims i c a l playthi ngs from h i s fancy .
The poet ' s own desc ription of h i s g rotesque forms
co i n c i des s tr i king ly wi th Rusk in ' s descr ipt ion of the
creator of the ig noble grotesque : " a man naturally
apathet ic i s forc ing himself in to tempora ry exc i temen t "
( Stones 3 : 1 6 8 ) .
The speaker here , l ike Ruskin ' s
creator of the ignoble grotesque , does not ef fectively
reveal a horror that comes upon h im i n volunta r i ly and
wh ich has rea l i ty and force of truth in it ( the noble
g ro tesque ) , whi ch expres ses truth symbo l i ca l ly because
the grotesque images produce a ser i es of fearful symbols
that are of rea l i ty and wh ich express t h i s rea l i ty .
Rathe r , the g rotesque image patterns here are forced
upon nature but are not of i t .
They are watered-down
forms of horror .
The poet conc ludes the poem nonch alantly , casua lly
sayi ng farewell to the fantastical forms of hor ror he
has called to mi nd :
Adi eu , ye f orms of Fear that f loat
Wi ld on the shipwreck of the thought ,
Whi le f ancy i n a Demon ' s form
Rides through the clouds and swe l l s
the s to rm .
( 546-49 )
He seems to regret turn ing from h i s fancy back to du l l
rea l i ty :
60
While Fancy loves apart to dwell
Scarce thro ' the wicker of her ce l l
Dares shoot one t imorous wi nki ng eye
To chear me drooping on my way
And that f u l l soon mus t I res ign
( 5 5 4 -5 9)
To delve i n Mammon ' s j oyless mi ne .
One can sen se i n these l i nes the young poet ' s apathetic
awareness of his youthful incon s i s ten cies and
ex travaganc ies .
speak i ng to men .
He is not what he should be : a man
Rather , he i s a subject ive youth
indu lg i ng in h i s own del ightfu l fanta s i e s .
Thus wh i le The Vale of Esthwa i te clearly i ndicates
Wordsworth ' s i n tere s t in grotesque forms , it fur ther
reveals h i s i nabi l i ty to create a f i ne g rotesque image
wh ich wi l l serve some useful purpose in h i s poe t i c
creat ions .
I d l e fancy , not genu ine imag i nation ,
controls the poet ' s v i s ion , and as he h imse l f later
di scus ses , f ancy is an infer ior faculty whi ch fai ls to
br i ng the full force of truth to poetic creat ions .
Rather , f an cy seeks to dete rmine af f i n i t i es between
ob jects , to make playf u l associations rather than to
create a sense of truth whi ch wi ll con t i nue to grow .
Wordsworth ' s explanation o f the idleness of creations of
the fancy as compared to the imag i n at i on appears in
nutshell f orm i n h i s Preface to Poems ( 18 15 ) : "Fancy i s
g iven to q u i cken and to begu i le the temporal part of our
Nature , Imag i nat ion to inci te and to support the
eterna l " ( Prose Works 3 : 3 7 ) .
The g rotesque images i n
61
The Vale of Es thwa i te rely too heavi ly on assoc i a t i ve
creations i n wh ich the poet sub j ec t i vely ca lls to h i s
mind forms wh ich de l i ght h im , or have de l i ghted h i m i n
pas t readi ngs .
H i s conf e s s i on i n book 8 of The P relude
that h i s early poems are made up too often of images
assoc i ated with h i s readi ngs , a tendency for the trag i c
super-trag i c i nher ited from h i s li terary predeces sors ,
i s con fi rmed clearly in The Vale of Es thwa i te , as i t i s
i n mos t of the early poems , whe re simi lar Goth i c forms
appear ( a l though not so frequen tly as in The Vale of
Esthwa i te ) . 4
Nature i tself is not enough for the
young poet ; dark , supernatura l forms break i n upon h i s
at tempts to de scr i be nature .
H i s mind i s too act ive to
be bound by the cha i ns of rea l i ty .
He , l i ke so many
great crea t i ve art i s ts , senses some truth that l i es
behind the world of external forms .
Wordsworth con t i nued th roughout h i s wr i t i ng of the
early poems to search for the poet ic idiom by wh i ch he
cou ld truly express and understand h i s own natural
i n terest in grotesque forms and reconc i le th i s i n terst
wi th his love of nature , and f i nally with h i s love f or
humani ty .
H i s f i rs t two long publi shed poems ,
4 For a br ief but i ns ightful d i s cus s i on of the
Goth i c forms wh i ch appear th roughout Wordsworth ' s poetry
of the 1 7 9 0 s , see S i sken ( c i ted i n Li s t of References ) .
62
Desc ript ive Sketches and An Even i ng Walk , appeared i n
Both poems reveal h i s continuing use of a l lusive
179 3 .
Gothic forms and h i s creation of ignoble g rotesque
images .
They demon s trate that a tens ion continues to
haun t Wordsworth ' s percept ion of the world and that he
is hard pres sed to reconcile the con f l i c t i ng oppos i tes
which he i n tu i ts wi th in himses lf and wi thi n nature .
It
rema i n s for Wordsworth to fi nd h i s poet ic idiom , and i t
is i n An Even i ng Wa lk that for the f i r s t time he
suddenly and s urpr is ingly comes upon one s i g n i f icant
framework of that idiom , a poet ic expression embod ied i n
g rotesque image patterns that appears repeatedly in the
later poems of the Great Decade .
An
Eveni ng Wa lk , s a loco-desc r ipt ive poem ,
cont i nues Wordswor th ' s in terest in the i nf i n i te va ri ety
of natural appearances wh ich he f el t other poets had not
sat i s f ac tor i ly expressed , although he does not attempt
to adhere to an exac t portrayal of actua lly observed
appearances from a particular walk .
Ins tead , he choos es
to create an h i s torical/fictional walk , wh ich i s a blend
S unl e s s otherwi se noted , subs equen t quotat i ons f rom
the poem refer to the excellent reading text of the 17 9 3
ed . pr i nted i n An Even i ng Walk , ed . James Ave r i l l ( ci ted
in L i s t of References ) .
I quote f rom the 17 9 3 edi t ion
because i t offers a more useful text f or apprec iating
Wordsworth ' s poe t i c developmen t than do the later
revi s ed ver s ions Word sworth publ ished .
63
of images recal led from h i s readi ngs of trave l books and
f rom h i s own nume rous out i ngs , but not neces sa r i ly true
to actua l i ty .
I n later years he caref ully s tresses th i s
aspect of the poem i n h i s note to I s abe l la Fenwick about
An
Even i ng Wal k : " I wi ll conc lude my not ice of th i s poem
by observing that the plan of i t has not been conf ined
to a parti cular wa l k , or an i ndividual place ; a proof
( of whi ch I was unconscious at the time ) of my
unwi l l i ngness to subm i t the poetic sp i r i t to the cha i n s
o f fact a n d r e a l c i rcums tance .
The coun try i s idea l i z ed
rather than desc r i bed i n any one of i ts local aspects "
( Poet i cal Works 1 : 3 1 9 ) .
I t i s not h i s des i re to wr i te
a rea l i s t ic " gu idebook " poem , but rather to use natural
appearances blended wi th hi s own imag i na t i ve creat i on s
t o convey poe t i c truths .
Charac te r i s tic of the g reat
poetry of hi s later years , An Even i ng Walk depends upon
recol lec t ions rather than upon rea l c i rcumstances .
The
g rotesque patterns wh ich develop in the poem , as we
shal l see , are "heightened " images in wh i ch the
imag i nat i on plays with real forms of the natural wor ld
to create a f i ne g rotesque .
The poem aga i n evidences a tendency to rely too
heavi ly on o ther poets f or poeti c express i on and
i nspi ration .
His notes to the poem iden t i fy Tasso ,
Spen ser , Thomson , Burn s , and others as di rect sources
64
f or h i s own l i n es , and the poem al ludes f requen tly to
pas sages from S hakespeare , Mil ton , Gray , Co l l i n s ,
Goldsmi th , and others .
But the poem a l s o shows the
poet keeping h i s eye on natural ob j ec ts more closely
than ever before , and i t demons trates a new awaren es s of
the poten t ia l i ty of these forms for deve l op i ng
Wordsworth ' s own poet i c idiom .
Aga i n , he i s drawn
toward con tra s t i ng forms of beauty with forms of f ea r .
The dar k , demon i c f orces con ti nue to haun t h i s m i nd ,
al though he dwe l l s less frequen tly on trad i t i onal Goth i c
forms , tur n i n g i n s tead t o natural forms as he reca l l s
them f rom h i s own imag inative observat ions and
recollec t ions .
The speaker beg i n s by observi ng " f a i r scenes " wh i ch
he revi s i ts a f ter an extended absence , these scenes
having been part of h i s ch i ldhood haunts .
He rec a l l s
that duri ng chi ldhood " hope i tself was a l l I knew of
pain , " but confesses that even then "wi ld impatience "
would cause h im to for sake conten tedne ss ( 17 - 3 6 ) .
Thus ,
he recogn i z es that the idle tale of man i s dep i c ted even
in " the dial ' s mor a l round , " the pas sage of man ' s l i fe
through t ime , and that " s t i l l , the spor t of s ome
ma lignant Pow ' r , I He knows but f rom i ts s h ade t he
presen t hour " ( 41 - 4 2 ) .
Wordsworth ' s poem begi ns by
es tabl i sh i n g a ten s i on created by his percep t i ons of
65
both the pleasant world of nature as he remembers i t
f rom chi ldhood and a ma lignan t power i n nature wh ich he
sensed even as a ch i ld but now exper i ences more vivi dly
as a young adu lt .
The speake r then cont inues , determ i n i ng not to
dwell on idle pai n , but rather to show " s ome joys " by
relat ing the " h i s tory of a poet ' s ev ' n i n g " ( 5 1 - 5 3 ) .
But
a l though the speaker viv idly describes pleasan t noonday
images of g l imme r i ng s treams and quiet g len s , dark
images haunt even these recollec t ion s : he a lso reca lls
" i nverted shrubs " cling i ng f rom rocks , " pale
wood-weeds , " and " wi ther ' d br iars " -- images which are
subt ly grotesque in nature , sugges t i ng abnorma l i ty ,
s i cknes s , and decay i n con trast to the hea l thy greenery
of the country s ide .
Even as the young poet attempts to
keep hi s eye on nature , nature i tself provi des images
wh ich threaten h i s pleasant observat ions .
Deserting these image patterns , the poet sh i f ts
abruptly from noon to even i ng , and f rom the g len to a
walk along the base of a precipice , where " slant wat ' ry
l ights " cheer i t s "naked was te of scatter ' d s tone I By
lychens g rey , and s can ty moss o ' e rg rown " ( 9 3- 9 5 ) .
These
images o f a wa s teland are followed by pleasant images of
" golden l ight , " and " boughs and leaves l i ke threads of
gold " ( 9 9-1 0 4 ) , followed by pi cturesque images of
66
peasant troops wi nd i ng along moun t a i n roads and the
sounds of humble chape l bel ls .
Aga i n , the poet s h i f t s
sudden ly , de scri b i ng a cock , or roos ter , wh ich he n otes
is brough t to his m i nd f rom h i s reading of Tas s o ,
men t ioning i ts " spur clad , " " nervous fee t " and i ts
" black and haggard eye-bal l " ( 13 1- 3 3 ) .
The key poin t here , and one which seems to have
gone unno t iced i n th i s poem , i s that image pat terns
con s i s ten t ly s h i f t f rom pleasant , des c r i p t i ve images to
da r k , subtle gro tesque pat terns character i z ed by fearful
images wh ich sugges t de ath , decay , was te , and
abnorma l i ty .
I t i s as though the poet cannot f ix on
ob j ects of nature wi thout j uxtapos ing pleasant
percept ions wi t h dar k , fear ful ones .
And the pat t ern ,
i n fact , i s e s t abl i s hed at t he begi n n ing of the poem
when the speaker f i r s t announces t hat he wi l l f orget
about a "ma l i gnant Pow ' r " wh ich h aunts h im and wi l l turn
instead to relate the j oys of even i ng , wh i ch he cannot
completely accomp l i s h because the g rotesque images
sudden ly sur face , break i ng apar t the harmony of the
pleasant images and for c i ng the poem i n to f ragmen ted
pat terns of di scordan t images .
The poet con t i n ue s i n this f as h i on , f o l lowi ng
descript ions of t he beauty of a sun s e t wi t h a
descript ion of a dru id monument the speaker suddenly
67
encoun ter s , and the poet laps es i n to h i s Got h i c
i ndu lgences , rem i n i scen t o f The Vale of Es thwa i te , whe re
" s trange appa r i t ions mock the vi l l age sight " and a
"desperate f o rm appea rs , th at spur s h i s s teed , I Along
the midway c l i f f s wi th violent speed " ( 17 8 -8 0 ) .
The
speaker aga i n s h i fts to another scene as he s trays l ong
the "gl owing lake " wi th all its attenda n t beau t ies and
encounters a swan wh i ch he loves to view c losely as a
creature of "Obsequious Grace " who swe l ls h i s chest and
wi th towe r i n g wi ngs appears " Stately , and bur n i ng wi th
pride . "
peace ful .
He i s a "moveless form of snow , " calm and
Near h im the female swan , repr esenta t i ve of
" tender Cares and mi ld domestic loves " is sur rounded by
her cygnets at play , who res t a l ternate ly i n her wi ng s '
embrace ( 2 0 0 -17 ) .
But sudden ly , these images of calmnes s , seren i ty ,
domes t i c i t y , natural harmony , and grace are j uxtaposed
with images of the swans as awkward , lewd , theaten i ng ,
and i nharmon i ous wi th nature : "Thence i s s u i ng of t ,
unwi eldly a s ye s ta lk , I Ye crus h wi th broad black f eet
your f low ' ry wa lk " ( 2 3 1-3 2 ) .
Safe from the d i s tant
sound of the h un ter with h i s dogs and mel low horn , the
swans ungracefully subterge them;el.ves ,
stirring
up
the
thick bottom of the lake : "At peac e inverted , your l i the
necks ye lave , I Wi th the green bottom s trewi n g o ' er the
68
wave " ( 2 3 5 - 3 6 ) .
The con trast i s s t r i k i ng : the
beaut i fu l , pure swans suddenly appear as demonic forces ;
the i r pure snow-wh i t e g racefu l f orms h ave g i ven way to
black , crus h i n g feet wh i ch actua lly des troy the beauty
of the f lower s , and the i r graceful n ecks and bod ies have
become i nverted , br i ng i ng up the muck from the lake ' s
bottom and scatter i ng i t through the water .
The swans
have become g rotesque c reatures , threaten i ng forms whic h
" stalk " and " c rus h " and " s trew " n ature .
This pattern of images br ings to f u l l force the
earlier patterns of the poem wh ich con tra s t hopeful
forms of beauty with dark , fearful forms of decay and
d i s rupt ion .
For the f i rst t ime in h i s early poetry , the
young Wo rdswor th has successfully abandoned im i tative
Gothic images and has expressed a dark ten s i on throug h
natural images drawn f rom h i s own un ique percept i ons of
nature .
He has created , in Ruski n ' s terms , a " f i n e
g rotesque " wh i ch serves to high l i ght the i ncong rui ty o f
the natural wor l d , to demonstrate how through nature he
is affec ted not j us t by beauty , but a lso by fear as he
imag i natively perc e i ves h i s wor l d .
And these images
have a p rofound relat i on with real i ty ; they are not
merely super-trag i c forms created by the fancy which
have no rea l g rounds in the exte rnal wor ld .
The
grotesque qua l i t i es of the forms are natura l l y in heren t
69
i n the forms themselves : a part of nature herse l f , but
dependen t on the perce i ver ' s " i nner eye " for full e f f ec t .
That is , the perc e i ver se lects and focuses the images to
c reate a j uxtapos i t i on of oppos i tes so that the images
work in a pattern wh ich br i ngs about a fearful
recogn i t i on of incongru i ty , a di sharmony wi t h i n na ture .
I n short , the g rotesque image patterns revea l an
es tranged wor ld .
Fur thermore , that thi s " swan pas sag e " is important
to the poem and to Wordsworth ' s deve lopmen t as a poet is
sugges ted by hi s eager attempt to revi se his poem almos t
immediately a f ter i ts publication .
Thanks to James
Aver i l l ' s recen tly publi shed read i ng tex t of the 1 7 9 4
ver s i on o f the poem , the revi s i on Wordsworth completed
shortly after the 17 9 3 publ i shed poem , we now are able
to see that the poet s ig n i f i cantly a l tered the word i ng
fo t h i s pa ssage to heighten the g rotesque e f f ec t .
And
he maintai ned t h i s a l tered ve rsion con s i s tently i n h i s
la ter revi s ions of the poem .
I n the expanded ve rs ion of
17 9 4 , the swans aga i n are portrayed as beaut i fu l ,
graceful forms represen tative of harmon ious domes t i c i ty .
Bu t as they i s s ue out of the water , they are made to
appear even more g rotesque than they were i n the 17 9 3
vers ion :
I nvo lve your serpen t necks in changeful r i ngs ,
Rol led wan tonly between your s l i ppery wings ,
70
Or , starting up wi th noise and rude d e l i ght ,
Force half upon the wave your cumbrous f l ig h t . 6
The swans appea r , wi th an even more h e igh tened qua l i ty ,
a s demon i c and mutable .
The "moveless forms of s now "
are tra nsf ormed i n to en tangled snakes , repeatedly
chang i ng , ro l l i ng the i r serpen tine necks wan tonly
between s l i ppery wi ngs ( not wings wh i ch embrace the
cygnets ) sugges t i ng lewdness , i ncons tancy , and
threatened domes t i c i ty . ?
They are rude and no i sy
creatures , truly grotesque .
The peaceful domes t i c i ty of
family l i fe i s th rea tened by the disordered wa ntonness
of the swans and by the sudden d i s rup tion of the natura l
scene , sugge s t ing that one ' s i n t i tial pe rc ept ion of the
swan s as representat ives of fami l ia l love safe in the i r
bas t ion o f natur al beauty i s actually a facade . N ature
has yie lded to Wordsworth natura l grotesques , and h i s
6 Lines 4 6 0 - 6 4 of the Expanded Ver s ion of 17 9 4 ,
publ ished i n Ave r i l l ' s edition ( c i ted i n Li s t of
References ) .
? Th i s grotesque aspec t of the swans has not been
George Meyer , for example ,
carefully observed .
recogn i z es that the l i n es depicting the g race of the
swans are "most i n teres t i ng , " but he ignores the
followin g l i nes wh ich reveal the i r oppos i te tra i ts ,
conclud ing that Wordsworth ' s " i n terest in the swans i s
great on ly [ my i ta l i c s ] because they symbo l i z e per fectly
the domes t i c bl i s s and secur i ty of wh ich he and his
s i s ter had been depr ived and for wh ich they ceaselessly
yearned . " ( 5 5 ) .
Recent studies conti nue to ignore the
71
j uxtapos i t ion of the oppos i ng qua l i t ies of these forms
creates i n congr u i ty , a recogn ition of a tens i on i n herent
wi thin the f orms of nature .
But then Wordsworth carries these images forward
out of nature to man , which as Wordsworth so o ften
di scus ses , is where nature ult imately led h im : f rom
nature to human ity .
I n both the 1 7 9 3 poem and i ts later
revi s i ons , he f o l lows the swan passage wi th a sudden
s h i f t to a portrayal of a female vagrant . &
He
imag i nes that i f "some wretch " were to pass by the lake
and see the swans in the ir apparent dome s t i c bl i ss , s he
wou ld call them bles sed .
hers el f bles sed .
But the human wretch i s not
S he is vividly desc ribed as a
suf fering form who " faint , and beat by summer ' s
breath less ray , I Hath dragg ' d her babes along thi s
weary way " ( 2 4 3 - 4 4 ) .
Her babes beg i n slowly t o d i e :
• --No more her breath can thaw the i r f i ngers cold , I
The i r frozen arms her neck no more can fold " ( 2 8 1- 8 2 ) .
Finally , in the g lare of a flash of lightn ing , the
grotesque images of the swans .
John Nichols , f or
example , d i scus ses only those l i nes which dep i c t the
grace of the swans , conclud ing that they represent
natural beauty ( 2 3 5 ) .
S r aga i n fol low the 17 9 3 text here and i n
subsequen t references .
72
mother horr i b ly sees that her ch i ldren have d i ed i n her
a rms , f ro z en in death : "No tears can ch i ll them , and no
bosom warms , I Thy breast the i r death-bed , cof f i n ' d i n
t h i ne arms " ( 2 9 9 - 3 0 0 ) .
The s tory of the female vagrant
ends wi th the g rotesque image of the frozen i n fants .
Characte r i s t ically , the poet s h i f ts aga in to
descr ipt ions of the many beaut ies of the natural worl d
( 3 0 1 - 27 ) .
But h i s f ancy takes over and he assoc iates
the sof t l ight of the sunset wi th the l i ght of Spen ser ' s
Una , cas t i ng ove r all " a rel i g i ous awe " and l i ght i ng the
dar ken i ng even i ng shadows .
As the even i n g f a l l s away ,
thi s fairy- l i ke wor ld becomes di scordan t ; dark and l ight
vie for con trol : "-- ' Tis restless mag i c all ; at once the
br ight I Breaks on the shade , the sh ade upon the l i g ht :
( 345-46 ) .
v i s ion :
Darkness prevails and destroys the drearqy
"Unheeded N ight has overcome the val es , I On the
dark earth the baf f l ' d v i s ion fai l s " ( 36 3 -6 4 ) .
The
tens i on perce i ved between the worlds of l i gh t and dark
c reates a l i ke tens ion in the poet ' s mind , wh i c h he
extends to all of humani ty : " And eve r , as we f ondly
muse , we f i nd I The soft gloom deep ' ni ng on the tranqui l
mind " ( 3 8 3- 8 4 ) .
The moon r i ses , aga i n breaking the
g loom of the dark n ight , and the poet rea l i z es that a
l i ght l i kewi se s h i nes within h imself to i l lumi nate h i s
dark thoughts : "Thus Hope , f i rs t pour i ng f rom her
73
bles sed horn I Her dawn , far lovlier than the Moon ' s own
morn " ( 4 0 7 - 0 8 ) .
And so he concludes th at the l ight of
hope wi l l cheer h i m on through l i fe ' s dark momen ts un t i l
h i s s ighs of pa in are " hush ' d in to the tranqui l breast
of Death " ( 4 2 0 - 2 3 ) .
The lonely sounds of a mi l l-dog ' s
howl and the yel l s of a lonely hound follow h im as he
concl udes his even i ng wa lk .
The ten s ion of the poem ,
embod ied from the beg in n i ng i n the contrast i ng of
h opeful forms of beauty with fear ful , th reateni ng forms
of nature and i nten s i f i ed by the g rotesque image
pat terns of the swans and the female vagran t , is not
f ina l ly resolved .
I n An Even i ng Walk , then , Wordsworth cons i s tently
employs a framework of contras t i ng images , and the
g rotesque image patterns i nheren t in nature wh i c h he
suddenly comes to rea l i ze ( embodied mos t force f u l ly i n
t he swan fami ly ) are as soc iated wi th human i ty ( embod i ed
i n the female vagrant fam i ly ) , leading h i m to seek moral
and psychologi cal mean i ng f rom these grotesque images .
They are not art i f i c ial forms based on imi tat i ve ,
ignoble g rotesque images , but rather have profound
relations with human rea l i ty .
In s hort , the g rotesque
images become symbols of human i ty .
H i s percept ion of
natural g rotesq ue images leads h im to a percept i on of
the i ncongr u i ty of human ex i s tence , to the rea l i ty of
74
s tarva t i on as opposed to domes tic bl i s s , to an awareness
of impending g loom and death as opposed to earthly j oys .
The grotesque image patterns i n An Even i ng Walk ,
espec i a lly Wordsworth ' s images i n t he 17 9 4 revi sion
dep i c t i ng the g rotesque swans , show a s ig n i f icant
developmen t i n Wordsworth as an or i g i na l poet .
He had
s tres s ed i n h i s note to I sabella Fenwick ( see page 63
above ) that he h ad been unwi l l ing " to subm i t the poetic
sp i r i t to the cha i n s of fact and rea l c i rcums tance . "
And as the image patterns of the " swans " pas sage revea l ,
he had a l so been unwi l l i ng to be sat i s f ied w i t h
trad i t i onal poet i c images , s uch as those he h ad
inheri ted from the Gothic wr i ters .
The passages of the poem wh ich conti nue to haunt
the mind of the develop ing young poet are those
pas sages con ta i n i n g images whi ch contras t tr anqui l l i ty
and fear , the norma l and the abnormal , the light and the
dark of expe r i ence .
I t i s those images of f r ighten in g
incongruity f os tered by hi s syn thet ic imag i nat ion wh i ch
i nterest the young poet .
And h i s sudden assoc i at i on of
these haun t ing f orms wi th the fearful r ea l i t ies of
poverty and death suggests that Wordsworth is s tr uggl ing
to un i fy and d i rect his percept ion of someth i ng i nherent
both in nature and in man .
He has only begun to focus
h i s poe t i c vi s i on , but he has taken an important s tep
75
toward di scove r i ng h i s own un ique poe t i c idiom .
Through
his careful j uxtapos i t ion of origi nal image patterns in
An
Even i ng Walk , partic ularly as they appear i n h i s
s tr iking rev i s i on of the 17 9 3 ve rs ion , Wordsworth
reveals h i s develop i ng abi l i ty to emp loy g rotesque image
patterns to express to h i s reader an awareness of a dark
presence i nheren t in perceptions of nature and man , a
presence wh i ch sugges ts that a total poet i c v i s ion mus t
not only celebrate natural beauty and j oy and l i ght-- i t
mus t also seek t o i l lumi nate the abnorma l and the
fear f u l and the dar k .
The poet has come upon a power f u l
n ew means o f expre ss ion that h e wi l l con t i n ue t o develop
i n some of the bes t poems of the Lyr i cal Ballads vo lumes
and wh ich he wi ll bring to pe rfect ion i n The Prelude .
He has human i zed h i s perceptions of the g rotesque and
has d i rec ted them towa rd discovery .
j us t taken an eveni n g wal k .
or i g i na l poe t i c ques t .
Wordsworth has not
H e has embarked upon an
76
CHAPTER IV
EXPERIMENTS WITH THE GROTESQUE :
POEMS FROM THE LYRICAL BALLADS
Fol lowi ng the publ i cation i n 1 7 9 3 of An Eveni ng
Walk and Descr ipt i ve Sketche s , Word sworth s truggled to
become a mature poet , seeking to f i nd the i nsp i rat ion
neces sary to releas ing his poet ic gen i us and the poeti c
vo i ce es sen t i a l for expres s i ng h i s v i s ion of man ' s
relat i on s h ip to the exte rnal wor ld .
But the years
17 9 3 - 9 7 were s tormy ones for wordswor th : he suf fered a
number of c r i ses wh ich threatened to s t i f l e h i s pers ona l
and poe t i c de vel opmen t .
Mary Moorman sugges ts that f rom
17 9 3 unt i l h i s cl ose rel ationship with Samuel Taylor
Coler idge in 17 9 7 , Wordsworth was in a con t inua l ly
ag i tated state of mi nd as a result of hi s di smay over
the even ts of the French Revolut ion , England ' s war with
France , h i s separat i on from hi s s i s ter Dorothy , h i s
love af f a i r wi th Annette Vallon ( who became the unwed
mothe r of h i s chi ld ) , and other pers ona l problems , such
as f i nanc i a l d i f f iculties and the absence of any
perman ent home .
As Moorman concludes , Wordsworth was on
a " desperate search for a phi losophy that wou ld make
l i fe pos s i ble aga i n " ( 27 9 ) .
77
And he was also seek i ng to f i nd the poet i c vo i ce by
wh i ch he cou ld es tabl i s h h imse l f as a g reat poet .
He
wrote l i ttle dur ing these yea rs , con cen trat i n g h i s
ef forts on revi s i ng and extend i ng the poem Sa l i s bury
Plai n , wh ich he had wr itten i n 17 9 3 , and on The
Borderer s , a tragedy in blank ve rse begun in 1 7 9 6 and
rejected for produc tion i n 1 7 9 7 .
S i gn i f ican tl y , these
works s how Wordsworth con t in u i n g to dwel l on Got h i c
themes o f human suf fering and on da rk , f r ighten i n g
forms , s uch as the long -dead i nhabi tan ts he env i s ions on
Sa l i s bury Pla i n and the shrieki ng v i c t ims of Druid
sac r i f i ces , as well as the criminally deranged character
Oswald i n The Borderers .
But nei ther of the s e works
proved to be the ma ture poet i c expres s i on he was seeking .
They f a i led becaus e Wordsworth was too concern ed wi th
trad i t i onal Gothic trapp i ng s drawn f rom h i s e a r l y
reading s i n f iction a n d because these works l acked t h e
un ique , per s onal poetic voice Word sworth eventua lly
recogn i z ed as suited to his character .
As Wordsworth
h ims elf des c r i bes in The Prelude ( 18 0 5 ) , he was too
d i s traug h t to ach ieve any true poe t i c i n s p i ra t ion , for
he was dogged day and n ight by fears of impend i ng doom
and con fus i o n .
He con fesses that i n the year s
immedi ately followi ng the horrors o f the Great Ter ror i n
France , he was habitually haun ted by g rotesque v i s i o n s
78
assoc i a ted w i th the deeds of those men of " h e i nous
appet i tes " who commanded the fall of the gui l lot i ne :
Mos t me lanch loy at that t ime , 0 f r i en d ,
Were my day- thoughts , my dreams wer e mi serabl e ;
Through mon ths , through year s , long a f ter the
las t beat
Of those atroc i t ies ( I speak bare truth ,
As i f to thee alone i n pr i vate talk )
I scarcely had one n ight of quiet s leep ,
Such ghastly v i s ions had I of despa i r ,
And tyranny , and implemen ts of death ,
And long orat ions wh ich in dreams I pleaded
Bef ore un j us t t r i bunals , with a vo i ce
Labour ing , a bra i n con founded , and a sen se
Of treachery and desertion in the place
The hol i e s t that I knew of --my own sou l .
( 10 . 3 6 3 -8 0 )
As i n h i s youth , Wordsworth was obsessed w i th v i s i ons of
dark , demon ic forces , and he was s truggl i ng to come to
terms both person a l ly and poet ically wi t h these haun t i ng
vi s i ons .
And i n 1 7 9 7 , as he so beaut i f ul l y revea ls i n The
Prelude ( bk . 1 1 ) and i n "Tintern Abbey , " Wordsworth
overcame h i s personal cr i ses and rega i ned h i s op t im i s t i c
spi r i t and sense of poeti c purpose , real i z i n g that
u l t imately , "Nature never did betray I The heart that
loved her " ( " T i n te rn Abbey " 1 2 3 - 2 4 ) . 1
S ettled at
last wi th h i s s i s te r Dorothy at Racedown , and in leag ue
l unless otherwi se noted , a l l of Wordsworth ' s poems ,
prefaces , and notes related to the Lyr ical Bal lads are
from the ed i t ion by Brett and Jones , wh i c h makes
ava i lable the text of Lyr ical Bal lads as i t appeared i n
pr i n t in 17 9 8 and 18 0 0 , together wi th the var i ant
read i ngs of the 1 8 0 2 and 1805 edi t ions . My in teres t
79
w i th h i s new-found f r iend Samuel Tayl or
Cole r i dge , 2 he embarked upon a fervent c reat i ve
quest wh ich led to the g reat poems of the Lyr ical
Bal lads ed it ions of 1 7 9 8 and 18 0 0 .
these poems , character i z ed
And a number of
by con tra s t i ng pa tterns of
f r i ghten ing , g rotesque f igures and forms w i th appea l i ng ,
attract ive images ( as already evidenced i n h i s more
youth ful poetry > , demonstrate that Wordsworth was comi ng
to a deeper and mo re comp lex awareness of the importance
of f earful forms and scenes of vi s ionary dreariness to
h i s percept ion of man ' s vital i n teract ion wi th natur e .
Spec i f i cally , a number of the mos t complex poems of the
Lyr ical Bal lads , ch aracter i z ed by g rotesque image
patterns , demon strate that Wordsworth conti nued to be
drawn to forms wh ich sparked a dark , alien v i s ion , and
these obj ec t s became the inspiration for image patterns
whi ch reveal Wordsworth ' s deepen i ng con sciousness
conce rni ng the laws by wh ich man ' s imag i nat i on and
nature act and react on one another .
throughout i s to s tudy the poems i n the f reshnes s of
the i r compo s i t ion , not as revi sed by the poet i n later
year s , in order to trace more accurately the developmen t
of the grotesque image pat terns i n Wordsworth ' s poetry .
2 see Moorman 2 7 9 -3 2 0 and Byatt 1 3 - 2 1 for
d i scussions conce r n i ng Wordsworth ' s personal cri ses and
h i s renewed hopes and inspi rat ion fos tered by Dorothy
and Coleridge .
80
As Wordsworth emphas i z es i n h i s Adver t i sement to
the 17 9 8 ed i t i on of Lyr ical Ba l lads , the ma jor i ty of t he
poems " are to be con s i dered as exper imen ts , " and he
further expla i n s that the poems are expe rimen ts i n
determi n i ng " how far the language o f conve rsat ion i n the
middle and lowe r c las ses of soc i ety i s adapted to the
purposes of poet ic pleasure . "
He warns that readers
might " h ave to s truggle with fee l i ngs of s t rangeness and
awkwardnes s , " but asks them to determ i ne i f the poems
con ta i n " a natura l delineat i on of human pas s i ons , human
characters , and human i nc iden ts " ( 7 ) .
C r i t ics have made
much ado about these words over the years , debat i ng how
effec t ively Wordsworth did adopt the language of the
common man and how exper imental Wordsworth rea lly was ,
not only i n h i s use of language , but also i n h i s use of
the ba l lad form , or for that matter , how truly
bal lad-like h i s poems really are .
For example , in h i s
" The Contempor an e i ty o f the Lyr ical Ballads , " Robert
Mayo attempts to demons trate that the themes , subjec ts ,
and t i tles of Wordsworth ' s poems share much i n common
with fashionable magaz i ne poetry of the 17 9 0 s , and thus
he cal ls i n to q uestion the exper imen tal nature of
Wordsworth ' s bal l ad experimen t .
w.
P . Ker , in Form and
Style in Poetry , demons trates Wordswor th ' s debt to
t rad it ion i n terms of meter and s tanza form ( 2 2 7 - 3 3 ) .
81
But as Stephen Parr i s h so thoroughly demon s trates
in his The Art of the Lyr ical Ba llads , at " one level , of
course , the experimen ts d i d i nvolve poet ic d i c t ion .
at a deeper level they were
•
•
•
But
expe r iments i n
drama t ic form , in ch aracteri z at ion , and i n narrat i ve
techn ique " ( 8 3 ) .
Par r i s h correctly rea l i z es that the
poems are exper imen tal and revolut ionary on mu ltiple
levels and that the moral and psychologi cal imp l i c at i on s
of the poems a r e bold ly new and complex .
Brett and
Jones conc i sely s t r i ke at the heart of the matte r :
" Revol ut ions i n poet i c style , however , generally express
a des i re not only to wr i te in a n ew way but to f i nd the
approp r i ate i d i om for a new apprehens ion of the truth "
( xxv ) .
Certai n ly , as the pl ethora of c r i t i cal s tudi es
indi cates , and more importan tly , as the Lyr ical Bal lads
volumes demons trate , the poems are revolutionary and
exper imen tal on a number of leve l s desp i te the i r obv ious
debt to l i terary trad i t i on .
And they expe riment subtly
on leve l s far beyond the i r overt attempt to determine
n ew modes of poe t i c d i c t ion .
Yet the exac t nature of the Lyr ical Bal lads rema i ns
elus i ve , as one wou ld expect with poetry of gen i us , and
part icularly thos e poems whi ch deal wi th f orms of human
s uf fe r ing and descript i ons of vi s i onary dreariness seem
to baf f le s tuden ts of Wordsworth ' s poetry .
For wh i le
82
poems such as "Ti n tern Abbey " and " Li n es wri tten at a
sma l l d i s tance from my House " cel ebr ate Wordswor th ' s
renewed poet ic i nspi rat ion and new- found f a i t h , othe r
poems w i t h i n the Lyr i cal Bal lads witness Wordswo r th ' s
con t i nu i ng fasci nat ion wi th grotesque objects and
people ; poems such as " The Idiot Boy , " " The Thorn , " " To
Joanna , " and others--some wh ich Wordsworth professed to
be among h i s f avor i tes 3 --do not envi s i on a
harmon i ous , subl ime u n i verse of be ing , but rather create
unresolved ten s i on s wh ich ref lect threaten i n g and
unce rta i n aspec ts of ex i s tence .
These poems seem to
def y the spi r i t of hope and fa i th evidenced i n " T i n tern
Abbey " and e l sewhere throughout Word sworth ' s poetry .
Wh i le several scholars have remarked i n pas s i ng on
the g rotesque n ature of some of the f igures portrayed i n
several o f the poems (mos t notably , Ha rtman and Dan by ) ,
on ly
10semary :&>ston, in her brief article, ••Sane FollliS
of the G rotesq ue i n Wordswor th , " and Ronald Earl Morgan
in h i s unpubl i s hed d i s sertat ion "The Relat ion of
Romant i c Grotesque Imagery to the Romant ic Theory of
Imag i nat ion , " h ave attempted to con s i der the
imp l i cati ons of the g rotesque nature o f f igures , both
3 wordsworth was pa rt icularly fond of " The Idi o t
Boy , " " The Thorn , " and "To Joan na , " a s I shall men t i on
in later d i scus s i ons of these poems .
83
/
animate and i n an imate , wh ich haun t certa i n poems of the
Lyr ical Ballads .
Wh i le they provide some useful
ins ights i n to several poems , n e i ther of them has s tudied
the magn i tude of the appea rance of g rotesque image
patterns w i t h i n the volumes , .. nor has demon s trated that
\these
b i z arre fo rms con t i n ue a preoccupat i on w i th the
grotesque that began i n Wordsworth 1 s youth and that has
much to reveal about the nature of i n d i vi dual poems and
about Wordswor th 1 s deve lop i ng poet i c idiom and
unde r s tand i ng of natural appearances �
The poems of the Lyr ical Bal lads wh ich con ta i n
grotesque image patterns tell us much about Wordsworth 1 s
art i s t i c deve lopmen t and about h i s subsequent g rowi ng
awa reness of the laws by wh ich nature guide s and di rec ts
the imag i n at i on of the sympathetic obser ve r of natura l
phenomen a .
As certa i n indivi dual poems revea l ,
Wordswor th began to become aware of how nature can
foster a true unders tand i ng of the human cond i t ion , not
only through a h e i gh tened apprec i at ion of the h a rmon i ous
beauty surround i ng us , but also through an acute
awareness of the g rotesque forms of the natural wor ld .
Paradoxi cally , several poems from the Lyr i ca l Bal lads
suggest that by 1 7 9 8 Wordsworth had begun to rea l i z e
that the g rotesque forms wh ich h e had observed i n nature
and wh ich threaten h i s synthetic , harmon i z ing
84
imag i nat ion , sugge s t i ng i ns tead an i ncongruous world ,
are a v i tal part of h i s coming to an awareness of the
power of the imag i n at ion in league wi th nature to
recreate our percepti ons and thus di rec t and i nf orm our
exi stence .
But readers of ten seem to mi sunders tand the
paradox i ca l nature of Lyr i cal Bal lads , al though cr i t i cs
l i ke Hartman , Aver i l l , and Jacobus have been caref u l to
trace the ten s i on s and pa radoxes i nherent i n the poems .
Others , pe rhaps mos t notably C leanth Brooks , have
po i n ted to the i rony and paradox with i n i nd i v i dua l poems
such as "A slumbe r d id my spi r i t seal . "
Yet response to
some of the bes t poems of the volume frequen t ly has bee n
cool , probably because readers f a i l to understand the
nature of the exper imen t as Wordsworth perce i ved i t �
they r espond to the volume as a whole , fai l i ng to
cons i de r the dramatic s i tuat i on and un ique purpose of
each poem .
Wordswor th ' s Adve r t i semen t to the f i r s t
edi t i on c learly demons trates that h e expected t o be
mi sunders tood , and early revi ews of the poems conf i rmed
h i s expec tat i on s .
For example , in The C r i t i cal Revi ew ,
October 1 7 9 8 , S outhey asserted : "The ' experimen t , • we
think , has f a i led , not because the language of
conversat ion i s l i t tle adapted to ' the purpos es of
poet i c pleasure , ' but because it has been t r i ed upon
85
un i nterest ing subjec ts " < rpt . Brett and Jones 3 2 0 ) .
In
our own day , John Danby , himse lf a f i ne Wordswor t h i an
scholar , conc l ude s :
" I n sp i te of Wordswor th ' s place i n
the canon one cannot be sure he i s nowadays read " ( 1 ) .
Be f urther sugges ts that over the years Wordsworth
" became part of the Word swor th i an i sm that has
blanketed h i s poems and preven ted them f rom be i ng read ,
part of an urban cult of ' nature ' , or a c h i e f witness
aga i n s t the sp i r i t of Victorian doubt to a ben evo len t
universe and man ' s place i n i t as a f avour i te son • < 3 > .
I n short , Wordsworth has been read too of ten as a
one-s i ded poet , parti cularly in the Lyr i ca l Ba llads .
Howeve r , when correctly perceived both as i nd i v i dual
expe r iments and as part of the developing body of the
Lyr ical Bal lads volumes , the poems demons trate that
Wordswo r th was learning how to perce i ve and was teach i n g
others how t o perc e i ve the real wor ld o f forms on a new
level .
As Danby argues , Wordswor th ' s apparent
" simp l i c i ty i s an i nvi tat ion to a new i n timacy , a new
d i sc i p l i ne , and a n ew complexity" ( 2 6 > .
Rea l i z i ng that h i s purpose and , i n fact , that the
very nature of h i s poems were not be i ng unders tood ,
Wordsworth offe red a Preface to the 1 8 0 0 edi t i on of
Lyr ical Bal lads and extended i t in 1 8 0 2 .
Th i s P re face ,
wh i l e of ten con f u s i n g and certai nly sub ject to broad
86
i n terpretat ions , does tel l us much about Wordswort h ' s
p urpose and the nature of h i s poet ic expe r imen t s .
Spec i f i c a l ly , for the purposes of th i s s tudy , several of
Wordswor th ' s commen ts from the Preface prov i de an
essen t i a l backdrop ag a i n s t wh ich to cons i de r those poems
that conta in grotesque image patterns .
I n h i s Preface , Wordsworth explai ns that the
pr i ncipal object he proposed in the poems was " to chuse
i nc i den ts and s i tuat i ons from common l i f e" and to
relate them in the language actua lly used by men , and
also " to th row over them a certain colour i ng of
imag i nation , whe reby ordinary thi ngs should be presen ted
to the m i nd i n an unusual way " ( 2 4 4 ) .
Th i s explanation
ag rees wi th Coler idge ' s commen ts about what he and
Wordsworth proposed to do in the Lyri c a l Bal l ads .
In
Chapter XIV o f Bi ograph i a Li terar i a , C ol e r i dge exp l a i n s
that he and Wordsworth agreed that "my endeavour s s hou ld
be d i rected to person s and characters supernatur a l , or
at leas t roman t i c " and that Wordsworth should " g i ve the
charm of nove l ty to th i ngs of every day , and to exc i t e a
fee l i ng analogous to the supe rnatural , by awaken i ng the
mi nd ' s atten t ion from the lethargy of cus tom , and
dir ecti n g i t to the lovel iness and the wonder s of the
world bef ore us " (2 : S-6),
I t i s apparen t that
Wordswo r th ' s a im wa s to demons trate how the mind can ac t
87
and react with the world of f orms around us to g i ve us a
new way of see i n g : to perce ive the usua l wo rld of
everyday th i ngs unusually .
Wordsworth f ur ther expla i ns that he woul d make th i s
percept i on i n teres t i ng by trac i ng i n the i n c i dents of
common l i fe " t he pr imary laws of our nature : c h i e f ly as
far as regards the manner in which we assoc i ate i deas i n
a state o f exc i temen t " ( 2 4 5 ) .
Wordsworth ' s purpose , as
he explained to I sabel la Fenwick concern i ng h i s youthful
poetry , was to relate the " i n f i n i te var iety of natural
appearances " whi c h had been "unnoti ced by the poets of
any age or coun try , " but not on ly to relate the var ie ty
of natural appea rances but also to demonstrate the laws
by wh ich these appearances operate on . our mi nds at
cert a i n momen ts .
As Jacobus demons trates , Wordsworth
early on was at trac ted to the trad i t ional supernatur a l
bal l ad techn i que , s uch as h e saw i n the ba l lads of the
German poet Bu rger , but even tually , " t he uncongen i al
va lues of the supe rnatural bal l ad led h im to create a
new k i nd of bal lad emphas i z i ng the importance of the
everyday , of f eel i ng rather than s i tuat ion " ( 2 0 9 ) .
Jacobus argues that by h i s rejec t i ng the ba l l adry of h i s
contemporar ies and looking to the forms and f igures of
the common world , Wordsworth became a truly u n i que poet ;
h i s orig i n al i ty " lay i n approach i ng the im i tat i on ba llad
88
from a startling an ti -li terary di rec t ion " ( 2 1 2 ) .
Geof frey Ha rtman agrees , noting that "Cole r i dge ' s
a s s igned duty i n LB , to natura l i z e the s upe rnatur a l ,
carr ies on the Romance tradition i n lyr i ca l form ,
whereas n o clear pro totype for Word sworth ' s attempt has
been f ound " ( 3 7 3 } .
Dan by s tresses , l i ke Ha rtman and
Jacobus , th at the Lyr i cal Ba llads poems are
unpreceden ted , and the result is that they create "a new
mode of sen s i b i l i ty and a new non-sep t i c manner of
wr i ting " ( 1 } .
Wordswor th ' s be s t-known words f r om the P re f ace
about the nature of poetry bear di rectly on h i s i n te res t
in the laws of our nature and the mani fe s tat ions of
those laws through poet ry .
He expla ins that a l l good
poetry " i s the spon taneous overflow of powe r f u l
f ee l i ng s : i t takes i ts o r i g i n from emoti on recol lec ted
i n tranqui l l i ty : the emot ion is contemp lated t i l l by a
spec ies of reac t i on the tranqui l l i ty g radua lly
di sappea r s , and an emot ion , simi lar to that wh ich wa s
before the sub j ec t of comtemplat ion , i s gradua l ly
produced , and does i tself actually exi s t i n the mind "
( 26 6 ) .
As Wordswo r th explains , fee l i n g s o r percept i on s
from everday exper i ences a re later recalled i n the
poet ' s m i nd , and the se recol lect ions are ac ted upon by
the imag ination , wh ich in turn causes the o r i g i n a l
89
tranqui l l i ty to d i sappear , and a feel i n g a r i ses wh i ch i s
s imi lar to the o r i g i nal exc i t i ng emoti o n .
Thi s second
fee l i n g , of course , is a more heightened poetic
exper ien c i ng � the orig inal expe r i ence because the
i n i t ial emot ion has been transf ormed by t he poet ' s
c reat i ve imagi nation and rec reated i n to poet i c
expre s s ion .
C r i t ically important here i s the ph rase n the
tranqui l l i ty g radua lly d i sappears . n
The mi nd , i n
reac t i ng to a remembered experience , los es i ts tranqui l
nature : the m i nd beg i n s to expe r i ence ten s i on .
In a
letter to Mrs . Joh n Mars hall , wr it ten when the Lyr i cal
Bal lad s was going to press , Doro thy des c r i be s thi s s tate
as she saw it exh i bi ted i n Wordsworth :
nwi l l i ams hea lth
i s by no means s trong , he has wr itten a great deal s i nce
we f i rs t wen t to Allfoxden , name ly dur i ng the year
preceding our g o i ng i nto Germany , wh i l e we were there ,
and s i nce our arr i val i n Eng land , and he wr i te s wi th s o
much feel i n g and ag i tat i on that i t br i n g s o n a s ense o f
pa i n and i n ternal weakn ess about h i s left s i de and
stomac h , whi ch now of ten makes i t impos s i bl e for h im to
wri t e when he i s in mind and feel i ngs i n such a s tate
that he cou ld do i t wi thout d i f f i culty n ( Letters Ear ly
Years 2 9 8 ) .
90
The expe r i e nce of the poet as Wordsworth relates
i t , and as Dorothy sees it through her brother , i s a
pa i n f u l one , yet i t i s that exper i ence wh ich Word sworth
attempt s to convey to h i s reade r s .
But as he is careful
to expla i n in h i s P reface , the expe r i ence u l t imately
s hould i n volve a feel i ng of pleas ure .
The poems "carry
along w i t h them a purpose , " for " i f we be pos ses sed of
much sens i b i l i ty , such habits of mind wi l l be produced ,
that , by obey i ng bl i nd ly and mechan i ca l l y t he impu lses
of those hab i ts , we shall des c r i be ob j ec ts , and utter
sen t iments , of such a nature and in s uch connect i on wi th
each o ther , that the understanding of the be i ng to whom
we addres s our s e l ves , i f he be i n a healthful s tate of
assoc i ation , mus t neces sar i ly be in s ome degree
en l i ghtened , and h i s af fec tions ame l i ora t ed " ( Brett and
Jon es 2 4 7 ) .
More spec i f ically , Wordswo r th s tates h i s
purpose i s " to fol low the f l uxes and r e f l uxe s o f the
m i nd when ag i tated [ my ital i cs ] by the g reat and s imple
affec t ions of our nature " ( 2 4 7 ) .
The s e s tatemen ts
suggest that Word sworth 1 s interest i n natural f o rms has
to do wi t h the truth that l i e s wi th i n d i vers i ty : he i s ,
as C layborough assoc i ates wi th the c reator of the
g rotesque , seeking a relat ionship between con t iguous
ob j ec ts ( s ee pages 2 6 - 2 7 above ) .
The importance of the
relat ion s h i p for Wordsworth , however , has to do wi th the
91
va ry i ng s tates of the mind and wi th how a comp lexi ty of
thi ngs f r equen ts the m i nd .
And these vary i ng forms ,
through the comb i n i ng power of the imag i n at ion , can
br i ng about a new consummat ion between man and the
external wor ld .
But they can also threaten man ' s
h armonious commun ion wi th nature .
Wordsworth i s careful to make a d i s t i nc t i on between
the nature of h i s poetry and that of other poets of h i s
day .
He s tresses that i n h i s poems " the feel i ng therein
deve loped g i ves importance to the act ion and s i tuat ion ,
and not the act i on and s i tuat ion to the feel i n g " ( 2 4 8 ) .
H i s techn ique i s to explore the subtle windi ngs of the
mind , not to force the reader i nto an art i f i c i a l s tate
of exc i temen t , but rather to di scover in the world of
the ord i nary i nherent qua l i ties whi ch are not us ua lly
d i s cover ed but wh i ch nevertheless are v i t a l ly important .
H i s purpose i s to develop within h i s reader a new
capabi l i ty f o r perce i vi ng : •For the human m i nd i s
capable o f be i ng exc i ted wi thout the app l i cat i on of
g ros s and violent s t imulants � and he mus t have a very
f a i n t percep t i on of i ts beauty and dign i ty who does not
know thi s , and who does not further know , that one be ing
is e le vated above another , in p roportion as he pos sesses
this capabi l i ty " ( 2 4 8 -4 9 ) .
Wordsworth thus revea ls that
u n l i ke h i s techn ique in much of the poetry of h i s youth ,
92
he i s avo i d i n g a rt i f i c i a l , supernatural image s ( the
Goth i c trapp i ngs so popular at the time ) , i n f avor of
what he c a l l s i n the P reface " the company of f lesh and
blood " ( 2 5 0 ) .
He i s g rounding h i s poe t i c images and
express ions i n reali ty , the wor ld of natura l forms .
And
he i s acutely aware that thi s real wor ld conta i ns
i ncong ru i t ies : f igures and forms of the natur al wor ld
are both beaut i ful and unattrac t i ve , norma l and
abnormal , pa i n f u l and pleasurable :
" I wou ld not be
m i s unde r s tood ; but wherever we sympath i z e wi th pa i n i t
wi l l be found that the sympathy i s produced and carr i ed
on by subtle combi nations wi th pleasure " ( 2 5 8 ) .
The e s s en t i a l poi n t i s that Wordsworth ' s commen ts
in the P re f ace show that he has not approached h i s
poe t i c task l i ghtly , but rather has s elec ted ca refully
those combi nat ions of images f rom the natura l worl d
wh i c h exc i te the m i nd o f the reader subtly , yet on a
he igh tened leve l .
As Frederick Pottle argue s ,
succ e s s f u l desc r ipt i on of the natural world through
poetry req ui res that the poet rea l i z e that the real
s ub j ec t matter i s not the obj ect , but r ather is "man ' s
inner l i f e , the mot ions and changes of wh i c h , in s ome
mys ter i ous f as h i on , may be symbol i z ed " and that the Poet
"must rea l i z e the prec i se qua l i ty of th i s men ta l l i fe
wh i ch i s i t s sub j ec t ma tter and not on ly s e lect i ts
93
symbol s but di rec t them " { Id i om 1 2 0 ) .
Wordsworth ' s
P re f ace reflects h i s g rowi ng awarenes s of prec i sely t h i s
qual i ty .
In add i t ion , Word sworth records h i s awareness
of the complex i t ies of the natural world and chal lenges
h i s r eaders to be aware of subtle , paradox i ca l
relationships .
Wordsworth ' s commen ts bear a s tr ik i ng resemblance
to Ruskin ' s commen ts about the creator of the grotesque .
As previous ly di scussed { see pages 35�2
above ) , Ruski n
contends that the false or ignoble g rotesque develops
when a natura lly apathet ic man forces h imse l f i n to
temporary exc i tement .
The res ult i s that the g rotesque
he envi s ions does not have a true f orce of rea l i ty in i t .
Likewi se , Wordsworth has come to real i z e , a s the P reface
shows , that "gros s and violent s t imulan ts " are
unn eces sa ry to exc i te the m i nd .
True mental exc i tement ,
percept ion on a h i gher level , occ urs i n subtle
combi nat i on s .
H i s purpose i s to keep h i s eye s tead i ly
on everyday f igures and f orms as they are colored i n
recollec t i on by the imag i nation . 4
The result i n the
Lyrical Bal lads is that Wordsworth exper iments with
see i ng the world a round h im and with tr anslating h i s
v i s ion i nto poetry .
Rusk i n ' s comments about the mas ter
4 see pages 10 -11 above for Pottle ' s commen ts about
Wordsworth ' s "eye . "
94
of the true g rotesque apply quite wel l to many of
Wordswo r th ' s poet i c undertaki ng s i n the Lyr ical Ballads ,
for , to borrow f rom Ruskin , i n the poems we " f ind the
evi dence of deep i n s ight i nto nature .
H i s beasts and
bi rds [ and we might add ' humans and natural obj ec ts ' ] ,
however mons trous , wi ll have profound relations with the
true " ( S tones 3 : 1 6 9 ) .
As Wordsworth asserts in h i s
P reface , one o f the chief cause s of succes s f ul poetry
" i s to be rec koned a pri nciple wh ich mus t be well known
to those who have made any of the Arts the ob j ect of
accurate ref lec t ion : I mean the pleasure wh i ch the mind
der i ves from the percepti on of s imi l i tude in
d i s s imi l i tude . "
This pri nc iple is essen t i a l not only i n
poetry , but i n the development o f human i t y :
" ·
•
•
upon
the accuracy wi th wh ich s im i l i tude i n d i s s imi l i tude , and
di s s imi l i tude i n s imi l i tude are perce i ved , depend our
ta s te and our moral fee l i ngs " ( 2 6 5 ) .
One importan t
man i festat i on of th i s princ iple i n the Lyr i cal Bal lads
is the g rotesque image patterns wh i ch haun t many of the
best poems .
In " S imon Lee , " on e of the poems of the 1 7 9 8
edi t i on employ i ng g rotesque images , the speaker
addres ses the r eade r :
reader ! had you i n your m i nd
Such stores as si len t thought can br i ng ,
0
95
0 gentle reader ! you w::nld
l find
A tale i n every th i ng .
( 7 3 - 76 )
The challenge here i s clear : the reader mus t th i nk , as
Wordsworth s tres sed the poet s hould do , long and deeply
be fore he can determi ne what the " tale " of th i s poem i s .
True to Wordswor th ' s explanations i n the Preface , the
poem depends not on act ion or s i tuat ion , but rather "on
the fee l i ng therein developed . "
The fac ts he g i ves
about S imon Lee develop i n pattern s , j uxtapos i ng images
of youth with images of old age .
These pattern s , wh i ch
are g rotesque i n nature , make of S imon Lee an emblem ,
and i t i s t h i s g rotesque emblem wh ich bodies forth the
central concern of the poem .
I n the P re f ace of 1 8 0 0 ,
wordsworth explains that in desc r i b i ng the i n c i dent of
" S imon Lee " he is plac i ng the reader " i n the way of
r ec e i v i ng from ordi nary moral sensat i ons another and
more salutary impress ion than we are accus tomed to
rece i ve from them " ( 2 4 8 ) .
The phrase " sa l utary
impress ion " sugge s ts that the poem should do more than
provide " ordi nary moral sensat i on s " 1 if the reader
unders tands the complexi t ies of the poem , he wi l l g a i n
an impres s i on that i s "conduci ve to hea l t h " a n d whi ch
serves to •coun teract a deleter ious i n f l uence " ( OED ) .
I n o ther words , the poem has moral impl i cat i ons , but
they are in some fash ion heightened beyond the level one
would normally expect .
Th i s poem serves as a f i ne
96
i l lus tration of how grotesque image patterns func t ion
wi t h i n the con text of an i ndividual poem i n the Lyri ca l
Ba l lads , and i t exemp l i fi es the func t ion of g rotesque
image patterns as they are employed i n several o ther
importan t poems in the 17 9 8 edi t ion .
The g rotesque
image patterns work to he ighten the f eel i ng of the
i n c i den t , and thus they play an essen t ia l part i n
proj ect i ng the sa l utary impres s i ons the poet has i n
mind .
I n h i s note on the poem to I sabe lla Fenwi ck ,
Wordswor th expla i n s that " S imon Lee " i s based on an
actual i nc ident he exper i enced .
True to h i s plan ,
Wordswor th i s recol lect ing a momen t from real l i fe , but
as colored over by h i s imag i nat ion in memory .
He notes
that he has , " af ter an i n terval of 45 years , the image
of the old man as fresh before my eyes as i f I had seen
h im yesterday " ( 2 8 4 ) .
And as the note h i n ts , the images
of S imon , g rotesque in nature , rema i n con s tantly before
our eyes and br i ng to us a heigh tened awareness of
i ncong r u i ty .
The f i rs t stan z a of the poem e s tab l i s he s
contras ts about h i s appearance and age :
In the sweet sh i re of Cardigan ,
Not far f rom pleasant I vor-ha l l ,
An old man dwel l s , a l i t tle man ,
I ' ve heard he once was ta l l .
Of years he has upon h i s back ,
No doubt , a burthen we ighty 1
He says he is three score and ten ,
But ot hers say he ' s e ighty .
97
The j uxtapos i t ion between what he i s or i s not
continues , but the patterns become more grotesque : " And ,
though he has but one eye lef t , I H i s cheek i s l i ke a
cherry " ( 15 -16 ) .
And
His
His
His
And i n stanza f i ve :
he i s lean and he i s s i c k ,
l i t t le body ' s half awry
anc les they are swoln and th i ck
legs are th i n and dry . ( 3 3 -3 6 )
These images of d i sease and old age are s harply
con tras ted with images of h i s youth : "No man l i ke h im
the h orn cou ld s ound , I And no man was s o f u l l of glee "
( 1 7 -1 8 ) ; and i n stanza s i x : " He all the coun try could
outrun , I Cou ld leave both man and horse beh i n d " ( 4 1 - 42) .
We are told more of h i s poverty and the har s h rea l i t i es
of h i s exi s tence i n h i s dec l i n i ng year s , and these facts
are s upported by vi sual images of S imon ; h i s hun t i ng
feats "have h im bereft I Of h i s r i gh t eye , as you may
see • c��26 ) , and •
•
•
•
s t i l l , the more he works , the
more I H i s poor old ancles swel l " ( 6 7- 6 8 > .
In short , we
are led to see c learly the dif ference between what S imon
Lee once wa s and what S imon has become , 5 and the
images of what he has become are made more graph ic by
h i gh l i ght i ng h i s phy s i ca l abnormal i t ie s .
We are told
5 As Bret t and Jones note , the text of th i s poem
unde rwen t numerous changes between 1 7 9 8 and 1 8 4 5 , the
objec t be ing to he ighten th i s contra st .
98
not once , but twi ce , that he i s beref t of one eye and
that h i s ankles con t i nue to swell .
H i s deformed and
pathetic s tate i n old age , or apparen t old age , s tand
out s harply aga i ns t the backdrop of h i s phy s i cal prowe s s
and j oy i n youth .
We are led t o en vi sion the
i ncongrui t i e s of hi s l i fe , but s ubt ly s o , wi thout
overplayi ng .
The speaker then relates the inciden t : he sees
Simon Lee attempt i ng to sever the root of an old tree ,
but because of h i s weak condi t ion , it i s clear that h i s
ef forts are i n vai n .
The speaker , wi th a s i ng le blow ,
severs the root , and Simon overzea lous ly thanks h i m :
The tea rs i n to h i s eyes were brought
And thanks and pra i ses seemed to run
So f a s t out of h i s heart , I thought
They never wou ld have done . ( 9 7 - 1 0 0 )
The result i s that the i nc iden t moves the speaker to
s adnes s :
--I ' ve heard of hearts unki nd , kind deeds
With coldness s t i l l return i ng .
Ala s ! the gratitude of men
Has of tner left me mour n i ng . ( 10 1-10 4 )
The grat i t ude of S imon h imself i s pathet ically sad ,
obvi ously because he demon s trates what man can become .
But al s o , he demons tra tes man ' s i nhuman i ty to man :
because of s oc i a l cond i t i on s he i s forced i n to poverty ,
and the grati tude that he should rec e i ve for h i s l i f e of
work has not come to S i mon Lee .
He stands as an example
99
of the pl ight of the aged and the poor who are so of ten
forgotten by other men .
Thus , the poem has " salutary " overtones , and they
work on more than one level .
The g rotesque image
patterns i n the poem , ch aracter i z ed by a j uxt apos i t i on
of norma l , attract ive s tates of being w i th abnorma l ,
unat trac t i ve s tates of mutab i l i ty and decay , work to
heighten the feel i ng of the s i tuat ion and ac t i on of the
inciden t because they br i ng together a combi nat ion of
forms which conta i n subtle mixtures of fear ful s tates of
exi s tence with joyf ul s tates of be i ng .
The end result
is that S imon Lee becomes a g rotesque f igure in the
imag i nat ion of the reader .
The image of S imon , as
Wordsworth relates i n h i s note on the poem , rema ined
vivi dly i n the poet ' s i nner eye of the imag i nat ion , and
because of the g rotesque image patterns in the poem , the
ef fect i s to leave a s imi lar v i vi d , g rotesque image of
S imon Lee i n the reader ' s m i nd .
Ult imately , the poem
has a d i s t i nc t mora l purpos e , and the g rotesque image
patterns i n the poem are there to add a heightened
feel ing of anxiety relat i ve not only to S imon Lee , but
a lso to the hunan cx:mdition ,
A.s Stephen Parrish
suggests , the f un c t ion of Wordswor th ' s art i n the
Lyr ical Ba llads is " to d i s tance both poet and reader
from rea l i ty in such a way as to transf igure pa i n f u l or
100
shocking events and he igh ten the i r mean i ng " ( 1 4 ) .
Certa i n ly , this i s the ef fec t of Wordsworth ' s image
patterns i n " S imon Lee . "
"S imon Lee " makes us aware of how exter nal
forces--man ' s i nhuman i ty , ag i ng , etc . --can make l if e
fr igh ten i ng ; t he g rotesque images we are led to
associ ate with S imon Lee a re meant to i n s t i l l wi thi n us
a fear of l i f e and i ts unknown , anxi ety-produc i ng
pos s i b i l ities .
I n o ther Lyr ical Ballads poems , however ,
the g rotesque image pat terns wh ich are af f i xed to our
understandi ng of cha racte r ref lec t not only the
threaten i ng a spec ts of external forces , but also , and
perhaps even more s i g n i f i cantly , symbo l i z e how the se
external f orces a f fec t us psychologically , fos ter i ng i n
u s a powe r o f m i nd wh i ch c a n make us grotesque be ings
our selves .
Poems such as "The Mad Mother " and "Goody
Blake and Harry G i ll " both dramat i z e and symboli ze how
our own respon ses to a fr ighten i ng external wor ld can
cause us to become g rotesque , psycholog i ca lly abnormal
human be i ngs .
I n h i s edi t io n of Lyr i cal Bal lads , Thomas
Hutch inson suggests that several of the poems cou ld be
g rouped together as curse poems .
Be descr i bes three
poems on wh ich Wordsworth and Coleridge had col laborated
--"The Three Graves , " "Cai n , " and 11 The Anc ien t
101
Mar i ner " --as shar i ng a common tra i t :
a a pa i n ful idea
vividly and suddenly impres sed upon the m i nd " ( 2 5 5 ) .
The poems are , as Hartman terms them , poems dea l i ng
with the "p sychology of the imagi nation " ( 3 7 2 ) .
Hutch i n s on a l s o s ugges ts that two of Wordsworth ' s poems ,
Peter Bel l and "Goody Blake and Harry G i ll , " likewi se
are curse poems .
Wi t h i n these curse poems , grotesque
image patterns play an important role i n Word sworth ' s
attempts to impres s upon us the relat ionsh ip between our
��
. i nner s tate of be ing and the external worl d , or as &he
���
� expresses i t , " to fol low the f l uxes and ref luxe s of
..peet
the mind when ag i tated by the g reat and s imple
't
affec t ions of our nature " �ee-paqe 90
abevei .
"Goody
Blake and Harry G i l l " i s an excellent example .
In h i s Advert i sement to the 1 7 9 8 Lyr ical Bal lad s ,
Wordsworth tel ls u s : aThe tale of Goody Blake and Har ry
G i l l is f ounded on a wel l-authen ti cated fact wh i ch
happened i n Warwi ck s h i re "
?
-�·
Wordsworth ' s knowledge
of the s tory came f rom Erasmum Darwi n ' s Z oonomi a , wh i ch
(J
he borrowed f rom Joseph Cottle i n 1 7 9 8 {Moorm�) .
I n the 1 8 0 0 Preface , Wordsworth expl a i n s h i s i n tention
in wr i t ing the poem :
" I wi s hed to draw atten t ion to the
truth that the power of the human imagi nat i on i s
suf f i cient t o produce such changes even i n our phy s i cal
1
nature a s migh t a lmos t appear mi raculous "
�) .
The
102
poem , l i ke othe rs of the Lyr i cal Bal lads , i s an
. expe r imen t .
I t i s an attempt by the poet to delve i nto
how a s i ngle f r ighten i ng image can shock the perceiver
i n to a sudden awareness of his own decayed moral s tate 1
the result i s that the i n terna l , ch i l led mora l cond i t ion
becomes outwardly apparent in a visua l , phys i cal
mani festation .
I n the poem the grotesque image s aff ixed
to Harry G i l l ob j ec t i fy h i s inner decrep i tude .
A k i nd
of "doc tr i ne of correspondences , " �emiais�n t of
�ena i ssance
mod�, i s suggested through the poem ' s
image patterns 1 Barry G i l l ' s physical d i sorder ref lects
h i s di sordered s oul .
The speaker beg i n s abrupt ly , asking the reader to
determine what has caused Barry Gi l l ' s problem :
On ! what ' s the matter ? what ' s the mat ter ?
What i s ' t that a i l s young Harry G i l l ?
That evermore h i s teeth they chatter ,
Chatter , chatter , chatter s t i l l .
The poet ' s repe t i t ion of the word chatter mi r rors the
movement of Barry ' s teeth .
The speaker then i nf o rms us
that Barry is wrapped in f i ne f lannel wa i s tcoats
( suggesting h i s wea l th ) but rema i n s cold .
con t i nue to "chatter , chatter s t i l l . "
And h i s teeth
As is us ual i n
the g rotesque image patterns Wordsworth create s , h e i s
care f u l t o con tra s t the abnormal , unattrac t ive s tate
wi th a previous normal , appea l i ng condi t ion :
103
Young Harry was a lusty drover ,
And who s o s tout of limb a s he?
His cheeks were red as ruddy clover ,
H i s voice was l i ke the voice of three .
< 17 - 2 0 )
The speaker con t i nues by i n troduc i ng poor , ag ed
Goody Blake , i l l fed and thi nly clad .
She l i ves on a
cold h i l l s i de and when the wi nter set i n , " then how · her
old bone s wou ld s hake ! "
But in the s ummer , s he i s warm ,
un l i ke Harry Gi l l who continues to be cold even i n July .
The speaker relates the plight of Goody Blake : her lack
of fuel f or her f i re , her be i ng forced to s l ip out at
night and s teal broken boughs and rotten wood from
Harry ' s hedge , and f i nally , her be ing caugh t i n the act
by Harry G i l l , who in h i s sc rooge- l i ke way had h idden i n
the cold t o catch her .
He grabs her f iercely and s hakes
her ; her respon se i s a prayer , ee r i ly direc ted to the
heavens by her outstretched hand :
She pra y ' d , her wither ' d hand upr ea r i ng ,
Wh i le Harry held her by the arm-"God ! who art never out of hear ing
" 0 may he n ever more be warm ! " ( 9 7 - 10 0 )
Her curse i s called down on Harry , and he tur n s away
" i cy-cold . "
And , of cour se , he rema i n s cold .
His
condi t ion i ns tantly changes from a young , lus ty ,
powerful man to a mutteri n g , decay i ng h ypochondr i ac .
There i s no i nd i cat ion that any s upernatur a l force
changed Barr y ; r ather , the sugges t i on is that Harry ' s
own imag i nat ion , somehow shocked i n to fear by the
104
wi thered hand and f r ighten i ng prayer , has made him a
g rotesque f igure :
Yet s t i l l h i s j aws and teeth they c latter ,
Like a loose casemen t in the wi nd .
And Har ry ' s f lesh i t fell away 1
And a l l who see h im say ' t i s p l a i n ,
That , l i ve as long as l i ve he may ,
He neve r wi l l be warm aga i n . ( 1 1 5 - 1 9 )
The speake r ends wi th a warn i ng a imed di rec tly at those
landowners of Harry ' s clas s : "Now think , ye farmers a l l ,
I pray , I Of Goody Blake and Harry Gi ll . "
The speaker ' s
prayer at the end has the fr igh ten i ng , curse - l i ke
qua l i ty of Goody B l ake ' s prayer , and the imp l i cation i s
clear .
The poet i s asking for human i t a r i an treatmen t
for the underpr i vi ledged , but a subtle , fr ighte n i ng
threat accompan i e s the clos i ng moral sugges t i on . 6
As i n " S imon Lee , " Wordsworth has employed g rotesque
image patte r n s to he ighten the e f f ect of the poem ' s
sa lutary impr e s s ion , but the g rotesque f eatures no
longer appl y j us t to a thi rd-person characte r 1 they
subtly threaten to i nhabi t some of the aud ience the poet
addresses .
The g rotesque images proj ect a f r i ght ful
portrayal of a v i sual man i festation of man ' s i nhuma n i ty
6 I t i s certa i n ly true that the poem i s not
aggre s s i vely f r i gh ten i n g . A comic , mocking tone
under l i e s much of the poem ' s lang uag e . Neve rthel ess ,
the very qua l i ty of the images and the real i ty of moral
and phys i cal decay i n trude upon the comic tone .
See
note 8 be low .
105
I t seems that the grotesque , wi thered hand of
to man .
Goody Blake coupled with her s imple prayer brought about
a sudden rea l i z at i on withi n Harry that he
psyc hologically pro jected i n to h i s out er appearance .
Wordsworth employs grotesque image patterns
s imi larly i n another poem of the 1 7 9 8 edi tion , "The Mad
Mother " ( g iven the t i tle " Her Eyes Are Wi ld " i n 1 8 1 5 ) .
I n that poem , the speaker descr i bes the mother as hav i ng
wi ld eyes , sunburnt coa l-black ha ir , and eyebrows that
" have a rus ty s ta i n . "
ta lks and s i ngs to i t .
insan i ty :
She carries wi th her a baby and
Her monologue re f lects her
"A f i re was once wi th i n my bra i n ; I And in my
head a dull , dul l pa in " ( 2 1 - 2 2 ) .
And , as in previ ous ly
men tioned poems , we learn that her present cond i t ion
contrasts s hocki ngly wi th her ea r l i er s tate : she bad
been married and had a love ly chi ld , but now the father
bas de serted her , ca ring no longer for her a l te red
cond i t ion :
Thy father cares not for my brea s t ,
' T i s th i ne , sweet baby , there t o re s t :
"Tis a l l thine own ! and i f i ts hue
Be changed , that was so f a i r to view ,
"Ti s fai r enough for thee , my dove ! ( 6 1 - 6 5 )
James Aver i l l ' s s uggestion that Wordsworth " does not
avert h i s eyes f rom wretchednes s ; q u i te the con trary , he
seems fasci nated by i t " ( 1 0 ) certa in ly ri ngs true in
th i s poem .
The sweet babe is pic tu red n u r s i ng at the
106
mother ' s brea s t , but in her maddened s tate the mother
grotesquely tel l s of her pa s t exper ience :
And f iend i s h faces one , two , th ree ,
Hung at my brea s ts , and pul led at me .
But then there came a sight of joy 1
I t came at once to do me good 1
I waked , and saw my l i ttle boy . • • •
{ 2 3- 2 7 )
I n her insan i ty , the mother confuses the n ur s i ng ch i ld
wi th f r i ends pu l l i ng at her breas ts , and in the clos ing
sections of the poem , we see that she con t i n ue s to
confuse her chi ld with evi l forces :
What wi cked looks are those I see ?
Alas ! alas ! that look s o wi ld ,
I t never , never came from me . ( 8 6 - 8 8 )
The e f f ec t of the g rotesque image pa tterns here are
l ike those i n "Goody Blake and Ha rry G i l l " in that the
abnormal , fr ighten i ng i nner state of the character i s
graph ically heigh tened by grotesque de scription s .
The
f i endi sh faces sucking grotesquely at the d i scolored
breast of the i n sane woman are ana logous to the dar k ,
alien forces at work i n her bra i n .
And the poem a l s o
ref lects the p l ight o f t h e homeless poor , employing
g rotesque image pat tern s to he ighten the feel i ngs of the
reader to make h im s imul taneously aware of both the
ugl i ness of one segment of humani ty and of the
f r i ghten i ng powe r of the imag i nat ion to a l te r rea l i ty .
I t is a tens ion-pr oducing poem , not mean t to s oothe the
107
r eader , but rather to shock him i n to a he ightened
a wareness of i ncongruous rea l i ty .
These poems from the Lyr i cal Bal lads on the one
hand c learly evidence what M. H . Abrams argues wa s the
spi r i t of the Roman tic age : the poets of the 17 9 0 s were
motivated by the spi r i t of the French Revolut ion .
They
we re s oc ial poe ts who we re obsessed with the s tark
rea l i t ies of the i r age ( Rom . Recon s i dered 2 8 - 4 3 ) .
But
on the other hand , the poems vi vidly enta i l what
Nor throp F rye sugge s ts : the real revolut ion of the age
was i n dict i on and i n the location of archetypes i n
common l i fe rather than in heroic l i fe .
Roman tic i sm
i n volves a revolution i n poet ic imagery ( Rom .
Recon s idered vi i ) .
Haz l i t t ' s asssertion that the
authors of the Lyr ical Bal lads were tur n i ng the world
topsy-turvy , "a r enewal of the world and of letter s , "
and had f ounded a new school on " a princ iple of s heer
humani ty , on pure nature vo id of art " ( Howe 16 2 ) , i s
particularly true i n these poems .
Wordsworth ' s
technique i s to choose i nc idents from common l i fe ,
relate them i n s impl i f i ed language , draw from these
i nc iden ts a mor a l purpose related to human i ty , and
heighten the reader ' s feel ing for human i ty through
care f u l ly selected and di rected g rotesque image
pattern s .
But h i s moral and psycholog i ca l imp l i ca t i ons
108
are not s i mple , for wh i le the poems sugge s t an overt
moral l esson , they also subtly suggest a dar k , a lien
world i n habited by haun t i ng external f igures and forms
and by haunt i ng powers of the imag i nation wh i ch threaten
to confuse or even des troy us .
Wh i le the poems attempt
a pos i t i ve moral purpose , they also i ns t i l l a fear of
life through the i r g rotesque image pattern s .
And i n
other poems o f the Lyr i cal Bal lads , pa rticularly " The
Idiot Boy " and " The Tho rn , " Wordsworth expe riments even
more boldly with g rotesque image patterns , and h i s
search f o r h i s true poetic idiom becomes even more
comp l i cated .
Perhaps no poem i n the Lyr i cal Bal lads has received
more harsh reader respon ses than " The I d i ot Boy . "
Southey at tached i t sharply i n the C r i t i cal Rev i ew ,
asserting that " no tale less deserved the l abour that
appears to have been bes towed upon th i s " C qtd . Bret t and
Jon es 3 1 9 ) .
Coler i dge also c r i t i c i z ed Wordsworth ' s poem
in Chapte r XVI I of B i ograph i a Li terari a , agree ing that
" the author has not , in the poem i tself , taken
suf f ic ie n t care to preclude f rom the reader ' s fancy the
d i s gusti ng images of ordi nary morbid idiocy
C Shawc ross 2 : 3 5 - 3 6 ) .
•
"
Yet Words,orth was par t icularly
fond of the poem , as he relates in his note to I s abella
Fenwick : "
•
•
in truth , I neve r wrote anyt h i ng with so
109
much g l e e " { 2 9 2 ) .
And he was qui te sen s i t i ve to
c r i t i c i sms leveled at the poem, as h i s l e t ter { 18 0 2 ) to
John Wi lson witnesses . ?
The problem at the hea rt of
the poem seems to be the idiot boy : numerous readers
have found him to be too di sgus t i ng , bor i ng , or i n poor
taste , at least .
But a few reade rs have apprec iated the
subt le humor i nhe ren t in the poem , 8 not on ly for the
s ake of laughter , but a l so for the mock-he r i oc techn ique
Wordsworth emp loys .
I n short , the images of the boy ,
Johnny Foy , seem to arouse some ten s io n : the reader i s
uncer ta i n whether to en joy the portrayal or to di sm i s s
i t a s a bad j oke .
Dowden ' s comment seems the mos t pertinen t :
"At rare
t imes in h i s poetry Wordsworth s hows an i n c l i nati on for
f rol i c : it i s the frolic of good sp i r i ts i n the
habitually g rave , and he cannot caper l ightly and
g racefully " { qtd . Danby 4 8 ) .
As previous ly noted ,
Rusk i n i dent i f ies Wordsworth as an example of
playf u lness expres sed i n i ts highe s t state by the ar t i s t
o f the grotesque { see pages 3 5 -4 2 above ) .
Ruskin
7 r sha l l quo te from the letter momen tar i ly .
8 see John Jordan on Wordsworth ' s humor , and
Jacobus , pages 2 5 0 - 6 1 , for an excellent d i scus s ion of
Word swort h ' s mock-heroic stance and sense of humor .
llO
observe s that the works of such art i s ts do some t imes
condescend to playfulness , " but neve r wi thout s uch deep
love of God , of trut h , and of huma n i ty , as s h a l l make
even i ts l ightest words reverent , i ts idlest fanc i es
prof i table , and i ts keenest sat i re i ndulgent " ( Ston es
3 : 153 ) .
Certai n ly , Wordsworth ' s comments i n h i s le tter
respond i ng to John Wi lson ' s cr i t ic i sm of the poem
sugges t that Dowden and Ruskin unders tood the true
nature of the poem as Wordsworth did .
con fe s s es :
Wordsworth
"I wrote the poem with exceeding d e l i ght and
pleasure , and whenever I read it I read i t wi th
p leasure " ( Letters 1 : 3 5 5 ) .
But to th i s he adds :
[ I t ] is not en ough for me as a poet , to de l i neate
me rely such feeli ngs a s all men do sympat h i z e
wi th but , i t i s also highly des i rable t o add to
these others , such as all men may sympath i z e
wi th , and such a s there i s reason to be l i eve
they would be be tter and more mora l be i ngs i f
they d i d sympathi z e wi th . "
( Letters 1 : 3 5 8 ) .
wordsworth ' s intent i s as he expres sed i t i n the
P reface : to wr i te the poem with a purpose and to
heigh ten the feel i ng of h i s reade r .
But the nature of h i s exper iment i n the poem i s
unl ike the previous ly di scus sed poems from the Lyr i c a l
Bal lads .
Wordsworth ' s use of g rotesque images i n " The
Idiot Boy " i s espec i a l ly f raugh t wi th emot ion , and he
chall enges h i s readers to ri se with h im to a new level
of i ns i ght i n to how a common inc i den t wi th accompany i ng
111
g rotesque images can teach us much about huma n nature
and , more spec i f i cally , about ourselves .
I n " The Idiot
Boy , " Word sworth 1 s s imp le and often humorous s tory of
s ome unremembered acts of kindn ess and love have no
s l ight i n f luence on us , or at lea s t so Wordsworth
i n tended .
As he sugges ts i n hi s let te r to John Wi lson ,
the poem was wr i tten by a poet who perce ives divers e ,
complex , and deeply personal feel i ng s i n an i nc ident
invol ving a retarded boy and h i s mothe r :
It i s there th at we see the s trength ,
d i s i n teres tednes s , and g randeur of love , nor
have I ever been able to con template an object
that cal l s out so many exc ellent and vi rtuous
sent iments without f i nding it hal lowed thereby
and havi ng someth i ng i n me wh i ch bea rs down
before i t , like a deluge , every feeble sensat ion
of di sgus t and avers ion .
( Let ters 1 : 3 5 7 ) .
For Wordsworth , at leas t , it appears that he was so
moved by the nature of the relationship between a
retarded ch i ld and a paren t that the f r ighten i n g ,
abnormal appearance of the retarded chi ld was
trans f ormed i nto someth ing almos t holy .
As Rus k i n
sugges ts , there seems t o have been a deep l ove of God ,
truth , and human i ty at work i n Wordsworth , even i n
momen ts o f recreat i on ( see pages 3 5 -4 2 above ) .
In
f ac t , i n the letter t o John Wi lson , Wordsworth h imse l f
goes s o f a r as t o say : " I h ave often appl ied t o Id iots ,
lU
i n my own m i nd , that subl ime expre s s ion of scr ipture
t hat ,
' t hei r l i fe is hidden wi th God ' " 9 ( Letters
1 : 357 ) .
"The I d i ot Boy " does , I be l ieve , i n tend that
we readers feel what Wordsworth desc r i bes in h i s let ter
to John Wi lson , but what compli cates ma tters for
Wordsworth ' s effec t ive commun icat ion of such feel i ng s i s
the grotesque na ture of the boy , wh i ch cons tan tly
threatens an a l i en vi s ion and a skewi ng of our respon s e .
The dramatic s i tuat i on of the poem i s s imple : Betty
Foy i s forced by cond i t ions beyond her control to send
her retarded son , Johnny Foy , to fetch a doctor for a
s i ck n e ighbor .
The n ig h t i s clear , the moon up , and
Johnny mus t be on h i s way , desp ite h i s not be i ng mi ndful
of h i s purpos e or the inheren t dangers .
He leaves and
h i s mother worr i es and wor r i es about h im .
He does not
return on time , she seeks h im throughout the n i gh t , he
f i na lly appears , and s he learns that he has spent the
n ight wh i l i n g away the hours idly in the moon l i gh t .
only explanat ion for whe re he has been i s :
His
" ' The cocks
did crow to-whoo , to-whoo , I ' And the sun did s h i n e so
cold ' " ( 4 6 0 - 61 ) .
Th roughout the te l l i ng of the s tory ,
Wordsworth does frol i c : the humor i n the poem i s
unmi s t akable and , as scholars h ave so carefu lly noted ,
9 see Ephe s i an s i i i . 9 and Coloss i ans i i i . 3 .
113
mock-hero ic i n nature ( see Par r i sh , e . g . 8 8 ) .
portraya l of Johnny i s primari ly gleeful .
The
And a ll turns
out for the bes t : the s i ck neighbor mi raculous ly
r ecovers , Betty Foy is overcome with j oy , and Joh nny i s
a happy boy .
But wh i le s imp le and humorous on the sur face , the
poem is compli cated in depth .
The reade r does not know
un t i l the end that the neighbor wi l l s imply recover or
that Johnny has s i mply been of f havi ng fun .
I n fac t ,
Word sworth tediously spends nearly ha lf o f the poem
te l l i ng us abou t a l l of the many men tal con tortion s
Bet ty Foy suf fers worrying i n a rather hen- like way
about her boy ( one could eas i ly th i nk the mo ther a
greater idiot than her son , as Byron sugges ts ) . l O
Wordsworth ' s word se lect ion often seems too harsh or
repu ls i ve in the mid s t of h i s humor : "Burr , bur r --now
Johnny ' s l i p s they burr , I As loud as any mi ll , or near
it
•
•
•
"
( 10 7 - 8 ) .
The ef fect of the s truc ture of the
narr a t i ve and the language of the narrator , and o ther
factors such as the pathetic aspec ts of retarda t ion , is
to thrus t i nto the poem elements of fear , the i r subtl ety
dependent upon the reader ' s own percept ion of
retardat ion and i ts accompanying i nf luences .
In
! O see Byron ' s "Eng l i s h Bards and Scotch Revi ews . "
114
attempt ing not on ly to be humorous but also to provide a
heightened feel i ng of the nature of love , Word sworth i s
not able to di sarm the fearful , perhaps unattract ive
aspects of the human condi tion .
As Dan by sugge s ts , i t
" i s mos t important to remember the s e r i ousness that
embraces the comic in Wordsworth ' s ach ievement .
"But
Danby admi ts that the retarded boy indicates " worlds
un rea l i zed that may be rea l i z able " ( 5 4 - 5 6 ) .
Bos ton
clearly s tates the problem : the facts of the poem are
" obsc ured by the poem ' s mixed atmosphere of buf foone ry
and t he bi z arre " ( 3 9 ) .
But Bos ton goes too far in argu ing that the poem
"carr ies us through a series of images of
our-world-gone-unconnected , of b i z arre j uxtapos i t ions "
and that Wordsworth was unable rather than unwi l l i ng to
keep looking at the ki nd of wor ld that appears in the
poem , a wor ld Bos ton des c r i bes as one i n whi ch
" vacant-eyed i d iots get los [ s i c ] i n the cold and ,
neverthe less , con t i nue to g r i n and burr l i ke wind -up
marionettes " ( 40 ) .
A careful con s i derat ion of the
evi dence makes s uch an interpretat ion an imp robable one ;
Wordsworth i s not afra i d to look a t the wor ld of the
retarded boy .
On the contrary , Wordsworth does not
h imself seem at all frigh tened .
I f the poem has such
s trong imp l i cat ions , they depend upon f ac tors exte rnal
115
to the poem wh i ch have to do with the reader ' s own
i nabi l i ty to look at the rea l i t i es of retardat i on .
For
Wordsworth , the boy clearly appear s to be a d e l i gh t ,
e ven i f some of h i s reader s don ' t thi nk s o .
In s hort , the g rotesque nature of the images i n the
poem are too subject ive , and ult imately that exp l a i n s
the cont rove r s i al qua l i ty o f the poem .
U n l i ke the more
calculated g rotesque image patterns of other poems i n
the Lyr i c a l Ballads , t h e grotesque patterns i n " The
Idiot Boy " seem not to have been so apparent to
Wordsworth , but that does not mean they do not exi s t for
the reader .
The poem was i n tended all along to be an
exper imen t , and in thi s case Wordsworth learned a lesson .
Undoubted ly , th i s poem and the nega t i ve commen ts about
i t mus t h ave been i n Wordsworth ' s m i nd when he wrote the
fol lowi ng in h i s Pref ace to the Lyr i cal Bal lads :
I am s en s i ble that my associat ions mus t have
some t imes been part icular ins tead of gener a l ,
and that , con sequently , g i ving to things a false
importance , somet imes from d i sea sed i mpulses I
may have wr i tten upon unworthy subjects • • • •
Hence I have no doubt that i n s ome i n stances
feel i ng s even of the ludi crous may be g i ven to
my Reade rs by expressions whi ch appeared to me
tender and pathet ic .
( 26 8 )
But he i s careful to explain further that he wi l l not
correct these matters because it is dangerous to do so
on the aut hor i ty of a few men rather than to ac t on the
author i ty of h i s own fee l i ng s .
And he remi nds the
116
Reader that " he i s himself exposed to the same errors
as the Poet , and perhaps i n a much g reater degree " ( 2 6 8 ) .
The tone here i s very much echoed i n h i s let ter to John
Wi l s on wher e he s tates that wh i le s ome readers have been
di sgus ted by images i n "The Idiot Boy " othe r people have
expe ri enced " �site de light , " f i nding the poem to be
the i r f avor i te .
He conc ludes : " Th i s proves that the
f ee l i ng s there delineated [ are ] such as a l l men may
sympath i z e wi th .
Th i s i s enough for my purpos e " ( 3 5 8 ) .
Mar i an Mead ' s splendid comments about " The Idi ot
Boy , " a lthough rather general i n nature , are borne out
by the poem and by Wordsworth ' s remarks in the letter
and P re face .
Mead sugges ts that the i ncong rui ty wh i ch
Haz l i t t s aw i n Wordsworth ' s face and wh i ch we can see i n
the poem i t s e l f may " teach u s afresh that Wordsworth ,
though h i s too-early ag ing mind h i d i ts e l f i n
plati tudes a n d mora l i s i ngs , was , i n h i s poet ic sea son , a
being i n whom enormous forces met , forces s omet imes
unres tra i ned and ' convul s i ve ' " ( 2 0 2 ) .
She fur ther
sugge s t s that Wor dsworth , " whether i n h i s m i rth or h i s
maj e s ty , i s n o t always i n good taste o r q u i t e
i n te l l i g i ble t o manki nd i n general . "
B u t s he i s care ful
to poi n t out that the " Idiot Boy • does have much to
teach u s : "
•
•
•
and to f i nd the p i ece me rely i n s ip i d ,
tr ivi a l , or absurd , i s to miss an ins truct ive
117
opportun i t y " ( 2 0 2 ) .
Her po i n t i s wel l taken , for
th rough h i s poem Wordsworth challenges us to atta i n the
s tature of mind wh i ch he apparently fe l t wa s the
approp r i ate one .
And it is the same s tature of m i nd
which Rusk i n as soci ates wi th the creator of the noble
g rotesque .
" The Idiot Boy " wa s a somewh at uncharac ter i s t ic
experiment for Wordswor th , but i t undoubtedly served to
fos ter his poet ic growth .
"The Thorn " s tands as an
example of the poet ' s experimen ting on another , even
more compl ex leve l , and it i s represen tat ive of the
height of Wordsworth ' s perfec t ion of h i s true poet ic
idiom in the Lyr ical Ba l lads .
"The Thorn " i s perhaps
the mos t experimenta l of the Lyr ical Bal lads poems , and
certa i n ly one of the mos t inexpl i cable .
As Albert
,
Gerard sugge s t s , the complex organ i z at i on of the poem
" accoun ts for the uncommon amount of cr i t ica l d i s s en s ion
wh ich cha racte r i z es i nterpretat ions of The Thorn " ( 6 6 ) .
The problem wh i ch any ser ious reader of the poem faces
is to dec i de what the subject matter of the poem
actually i s . l l
The thorn i tself certa inly domi nates
the poem , but the narrator and the centra l characte r ,
Martha Ray , also haunt the poem throughou t .
Part of the
l l see Gera rd , pages 6 6 - 6 7 , for an excel lent summary
of c r i t ical revi ews and Parr i s h , pages 9 8 - 9 9 .
118
problem s eems to have been created by Word sworth ' s
commen ts about the poem , f or in h i s Adverti semen t of
1 7 9 8 he s tates that " t he character of the loquac i ous
narrator w i l l suf f i c i ently shew i tself in the course of
the s tory " ( 28 8 ) , but in the 1 8 0 0 ed i t ion he
cons iderably expands h i s comments , suggesti ng that his
purpose was to focus on the character of the nar rator to
" fol low the turns of pas s i on " i n a superst i t i ous
charac ter to " exh i b i t some of the genera l laws by whi ch
s upe r s t i t ion acts upon the m i nd " ( 2 8 8 ) .
He further
s tresses that he wi s hed to represent "a p i c ture whi ch
s hou ld not be un impress ive yet consi sten t wi th the
character that should descr i be i t " and that he wi shed to
take care that words " shou ld likewi se convey pas s i on to
Readers who are not accus tomed to sympa th i z e wi th men
feel i ng i n that manner or using such language " ( 2 8 8 ) .
I n short , Wordsworth ' s purposes i n the poem are many ,
and ult imately the poem has a r i ch array of sub j ect
mat ter s : nar ra t ive , descript ive , and psycholog i ca l .
But a s Albert G�rard s o convincingly a rgues , the
poem exh i b i t s an i ntr icate interplay of three
imag i nat i ve e l emen ts : the thorn and i ts s e tt ing , the
s tory of Mar t ha Ray , and the att i tude of the narrator .
Yet , G� rard as serts , " the only pos si ble bas i s for an
analys i s of the poem as a whole i s the assumpt ion that
119
i ts primary theme i s the tree , and that the Martha Ray
s tory and the narrator be long to the ' i nvent i on ' devi sed
by Wordsworth to impress the thorn on the imag i nat ion of
h i s reader s • ( 6 9 ) .
We know f rom Dorothy ' s Journal that
Wordswor th began the poem on a bleak , cold day , March
1 9 , 1 7 9 8 : •we we re met on our return by a seve re
h a i l s torm .
Wi l l iam wrote some li nes descr i b i ng a
s tun ted thorn " < 1 : 1 3 ) .
In h i s note to I sabella
Fenwi ck , Word sworth con f i rms Dorothy ' s entry and relates
what he recal l s about h i s purpose :
17 9 8 .
Arose out of my observi ng , on the r i dge
of Quan tock H i l l , on a Stormy day , a thorn wh ich
I had of ten pas sed i n calm and br ight weather
I said to myse l f , ' Cannot
wi t hout not i c i ng i t .
I by some inven t ion do as much to make th i s Thorn
permanently an impressive object as the storm
has made i t to my eyes at th i s moment? ' ( 2 9 0 )
The s tun ted thorn i tself seems to be at the heart of the
p oem .
But i t i s c r i t ical to note that the thorn impre s s ed
i ts e l f upon Wordsworth ' s mind only when v i ewed in
contra s t .
He has seen the thorn i n calm wea the r and has
hardly not i ced i t ; the sudden impres s i on it makes on h im
re l i e s i n some mys ter ious way upon a he igh ten ed
awareness of the thorn i n a more f r i ghten i ng way ,
aga i n s t the backdrop of i ts usual appearance on a normal
day .
In h i s letter to John Wi lson , Wordswor th sugges ts
that the poet should g i ve men " new compos i t ions of
120
f eel i ng " by rendering these feel i ngs "more consonant to
nature , " and he i l lustrates h i s point by referr ing to
the poet Cowper , who when he saw a gorse , [ a sp i ny
s hrub ] made " i n s ome degree an ami able boast of h i s
lovi ng i t ,
' uns ightly and un smooth [ ' ] as i t i s . "
Wordsworth concludes : 11 There are many ave r s i ons of thi s
kind , wh ich , though they have some foundat ion i n nature ,
h ave yet so s l ight a one , that though they may h ave
preva i led hundreds of year s , a ph i losophe r wi l l look
upon them as acc idents " ( Letters 1 : 3 5 6 ) .
It i s with
the " acciden t " of h i s new percept ion of the s tun ted
thorn on a s tormy day that Wordsworth i s mos t concerned
as a poet speak i ng new compos i t ions of feel i ng to other
men . The grotesque .iJrage patterns which Wo::>X'dswprth
a ssoc iates wi th the obj ec t of the thorn are mean t to
foc us and d i rect our attent i on a s we read the poem , and
f i na l ly these grotesque images proj ec t to us the true
subjec t matter of "The Thorn . •
The poem beg i n s with the narrator desc r ibing the
thorn as he sees i t : old and g rey .
But Wordsworth i s
careful to j uxtapose the age of the thorn with youth ,
and more spec i f i ca l ly , wi t h the youth of a human be i ng ,
not the youth of a plan t :
Not h i gher than a two-year ' s ch i ld ,
I t stands erec t th i s aged thorn J
No leave s i t has , no thorny po i n ts J
121
It is a m:tss of knotted joints ,
A wretched thing forlorn . ( 5 -9 )
The thorn i s thus person i f ied , and i ts knotted jo i n ts
subtly sugge s t human old age , wretched and for lor n .
The
narrator desc r i bes the thorn as ove rg rown with
"melancholy " crops of moss and l i chens whi ch seem to be
ben t wi th " plain and man i fe s t i ntent , I To drag i t to
the g round " ( 1 9 - 2 0 ) .
The forces wh i ch pu l l at the thorn
and threaten i ts exi s tence are l i kewi se person i f ied , and
s o the images beg i n to a l i gn themse lves not only with
the Darwi n i an rea l i t ie s of a botanical wor ld , but also
wi th a symbol i c suggestion of a l i en forces threa tening
human be i ng s .
A con f l i c t is e s tabli shed between the
thorn and destruct ive natural forces and between man and
harsh reali t ies , such as old age and death .
The narrator then desc r i bes the thorn a s be ing h i g h
on a mounta i n ' s r idge where t h e f orce of win ter s torms
threaten i t .
Near it is a " l i ttle muddy pon d " whi ch i s
" three feet long , and two feet wide " ( 30 - 3 4 ) .
Bes i de
the thorn and pond i s another ob j ect wh i ch i s
j uxtaposed with the i r unattract ive images :
And close bes i de thi s aged thorn ,
There i s a f resh and l ovely s igh t ,
A beauteous heap , a hi l l of mos s ,
Jus t h a l f a foot i n heigh t . ( 3 4 -3 7 )
I t i s descri bed a s cons i s t ing of • lovely colou r s " and a
woven network of moss , sugges t i ng beauty and order as
compared to the ug ly , di sordered thorn .
But , the beauty
122
o f the mound i s threatened by images of i t as a grave ,
and i t and the muddy pond become assoc i a ted wi th the
death of an i n f an t , pe rhaps by drown i ng : "The heap
that ' s l i ke an i nfant ' s grave , I The pond --and thorn , so
old and g rey
•
•
•
" ( 9 3-94 ) .
As Dan by suggests , the
result i s that the "mound is g rotesquely prett i f ied "
( 63 > .
The image patterns of the poem set up s triki ng
and sudden i ncongru i t i e s wh i ch a re both appeal i n g and
threaten i ng in nature .
No doubt , the purposeful
j uxtapos i t i on of these images cor responds to
Wordsworth ' s des i re to relate the same type of fee l i ngs
he experienced on Quantock ' s R idge when he sudden ly was
impres sed by the image of a thorn vi ewed i n s tormy
weather rather than i n calm cond i t ions .
But what the reader i s to learn from a l l of thi s i s
never s tated or even very d i rec tly impl ied i n the poem .
Wordsworth comp l i cates matters more by i n troduc i ng i nto
the poem the f igure of Martha Ray , and the reader learns
that she has perhaps had an i l leg i timate chi ld , that she
i s in mi sery , and t hat rumo rs have i t that she may have
k i l led the chi ld .
The narrator never reports these
even ts as actual facts , but rather as thi ngs that " they
say . •
The narrator knows only that Martha i s obsessed
with thi s spot high on the moun ta in :
At al l t imes of the day and night
Th i s wretched woman th i ther goes ,
U3
And she i s known to every s tar ,
And every wi nd that blows i
And there bes ide the thorn she s i t s .
(67-70)
•
•
•
And so Mar tha i s assoc i ate d with the thorn , and l i ke the
thorn she res i s ts the forces wh ich threaten her : the
weather , the supe r s t i t ious and gos s i ping vi l lagers who
want to dig up the g rave but are f r i ghtened away , and
her own bereaved and troubled m i nd .
The narrator
concludes the poem by leaving the reade r w i th the images
of Martha and the thorn adamantly wi thstand i ng a l i en
forces :
But plain i t i s , the thorn i s bound
Wi th heavy tuf ts of moss , that strive
To drag i t to the g round .
And th i s I know , full many a t ime ,
When she was on the moun ta in h igh ,
By day , and i n the s i lent n ight ,
When all the s tars shone clear and br ight ,
That I have heard her cry,
' Oh mi sery ! oh mi sery !
' O woe i s me ! oh mi sery ! ' ( 2 4 4 - 5 4 )
True to the previous contrasting pattern s of the poem ,
the wretched images of the thorn and Mar tha s tand
aga i nst the backg round of the s i len t , clear , beaut iful
n ight .
Thus , the poet leaves us wi th l i tt le doubt that the
wretched , s tunte d thorn and the l ikewise wretched ,
forlorn Martha Ray are endur i ng .
Desp i te the f orces
wh i ch th reaten to des troy them , they are weathe r i ng the
s torms , li teral and f igurat ive , wh i ch blow aga i n s t
124
them , and the reader i s left wi th the image of the two
rock - l i ke forms , ma i n ta i n i ng the i r v i gi l .
But there i s
no f i nal resolut ion o f the ten s ions the poem creates .
The reader has no assurances that Mar tha Ray or the
thorn wi l l u l t imately defy the forces wh ich antagon i z e
them .
The poem of fers a sudden awa reness of not only
the i r plights , but because of i t s subtle person i fying
and symbolic q ua l i t i es , also of the rea l i t ies of
destruc t ive forces i n nature and in soc iety .
The thorn
becomes a symbol , and Mar tha Ray ' s attract ion to i t
suggests that someth i n g i n the nature o f the endur i ng
thorn has mean ing for her , g i vi ng her a tang ible ,
concrete object upon wh i ch to af f ix her own psyche .
True , as Hartman s ugges ts , the thorn has the symbo l i c
qua l i ty of " the emergen t self conservi ng i t s be i ng
despite everyth i ng ( i nc luding i ts own strength , i ts mas s
o f knotted j o i nts ) that consp i res to bury i t " ( 1 4 7 ) .
But i t i s a vas tly comp lex symbol , sugge s t i ng triumph ,
but wi thout gua ran teed permanen ce , hope threatened by
fear and con t i nued s u f f e r ing .
In the f i nal analys i s ,
the poem accompl i shes j us t what Wordsworth def i nes a s
the poet ' s purpose : " What then does the Poet ? He
cons i ders man and the objects that sur round h i m a s
act i ng and reac t i ng upon each other , so as t o produce an
inf i n i te complex i ty of pa i n and pleasure " ( P reface 2 5 8 ) .
125
Unl ike " S imon Lee " and the other previ ous ly
ment i oned poems , " The Thorn " does not make a f i nal
attemp t to mora l i z e or to relate the g rotesque images to
a truth i n some pos i t ive way .
The re i s not a clear
s ugges tion that right wi l l u lt imately preva i l , nor i s
there a guaran tee tha t ev i l , destructive forces w i l l not
tri umph .
The poem ends on a stoic note , yet i t does
suggest a complex af f i n i ty between ob j ec ts of the rea l
world of forms and the power of the human m i nd .
But the
exact nature of that a f f i n i ty is left for the reader to
ponde r .
,
As Gerard suggests , the thorn becomes "a livi ng
natural metaphor for something human " ( 6 9 ) .
We j ust a re
not certa i n what that someth i ng i s , at leas t not on the
level whi ch would a l low us to s tate it i n any d i rect
verbal way .
,
Gerard ' s assert ion i s that Wordswor th , like
the romant i c poets in general , was seeki ng what T . S .
Eliot later assigned a s the purpose of art i n h i s e s s ay
on Hamlet :
" The only way of express i ng emo t i on in the
form of art is by f i nd i ng an ' objec t i ve correlat ive ' 1 i n
other words , a set o f objects , a s i tuation , a cha i n of
events wh i ch shall be the formula of that par t icular
emot ion 1 such that when the external fac ts , wh i ch mus t
termi nate i n sensory experience are g i ven , the emotion
I
i s immediately evoked " C qtd . Ge rard 6 5 ) .
,
Gerard
br i l l i antly argues that "The Thorn " is an example of
U6
t h i s princ iple and that the natural form , the thorn , i s
an emblem o f " human i nwardn ess rather than o f cosmic
unity" ( 6 4 - 6 5 ) .
Certa i n ly , Wordsworth wi shed to impress upon us the
particular emot i on he felt that stormy day on Quantock
R idge in 17 9 8 .
As he had done wi th the swans i n An
Even i ng Walk , Wordsworth seems to have sensed complex
tens ion-pr oduc i ng a s soc i at ions between i ncons i s ten t
percep t i ons of the natural world and the uncerta i nt i es
and i n j us t ices of l i fe .
His in terest on one leve l is to
spark wi thin the heart of h i s reader a more acute mor a l
and social awarenes s .
And importantly , h e recogn i z e s
the value o f g roundi ng h i s poet ic expres s i on o n the
actual forms and f igures of da i ly experience , wh i ch are
more human i z ed and more emot ionally val i d than the forms
and f igures drawn f rom the s tockpi le of conven t ional
poeti c expres s i ons and s tale images .
On a second and
more important leve l , Wordsworth revea l s his i ntere s t i n
the work i ng s of the m i n d , an i n teres t h e had attempted
to develop in " The Idiot Boy " through h i s dramat i c
portrayal of l i ttle Johnny Foy , whose s trange perception
of reality seems somehow myster i ous ly " hi dden wi th God "
( see Wordsworth ' s letter to John Wi lson ( pages 111-12
above > .
But i n "The Thorn , " Wordsworth moves toward a
more profound poet ic v i s i on .
He extends the
127
complex i t ie s of h i s images , suggesting my s ter ious
connect i ons between a power at work in nature and a
power at work i n the human mind .
The poem s ig n i f icantly
revea ls Word swor th ' s developing abi l i ty to employ
grotesque image patterns func tionally .
He has shi f ted
h i s emphas i s f rom employing grotesque image patterns to
impress a mora l and s oc i a l awareness to employing the se
images to explore the p sycholog i cal impl i cations of
exper ience .
The poem depends on feel i ng rather than s tated
truth .
And i n t h i s sense , Wordsworth achi eved i n " The
Thorn " wh at Keat s later admi red i n poetry , and which he
felt Coleridge lacked : the abi l i ty to be con ten t wi th
half truth s . l2
In h i s letter to John Ham i lton
Reyn olds ( 3 May 1 8 1 8 ) Keats prai ses Wordsworth ' s power
of " sharpe n i n g on e ' s vi s ion i nto the heart and nature of
Man , of convinci ng one ' s nerves that the wor ld i s f u l l
o f mi sery a n d heartbr eak , pai n , si cknes s , and
oppre s s i on --whereby thi s chamber of ma iden- thought
becomes g radual ly darkened , and at the s ame time , on all
s ides of i t , many doors a re set open--but a l l dark --a l l
lead i ng t o dark passages . •
Keats seems t o s e e
Wordsworth a s a true mas ter o f that k i nd of poetry that
1 2 ( see page 28 above for Keats ' s definition of
negative capabi l i ty > .
128
evi dences nega t ive capabi l i ty : "We see not the ba lance
of good and evi l --we are i n a m i s t--we are now in that
s tate .
We feel the ' burden of the mys tery . ' "
as serts about Wordsworth :
n
•
He
and i t seems to me that
h i s gen ius i s explorat ive of those da rk passages "
( Letters of Kea t s 1 : 2 7 9 > .
And , as d i scus sed earl ier
( Chapter I I ) , Rus k i n and others cons ide r i ng the
g rotesque suggest that i t i s prec i sely the nature of the
true g rotesque in art not to lead the art i s t to a
reconc i l i at i on of oppos i tes , but rather to leave h im i n
a s tate of ten s ion and part ial confus ion .
Yet , as
Ruskin s tates , " i t seems not on ly pe rmi s s i ble , but even
des i rable , that the art by wh i ch the g rotesque i s
expres sed s h ould be more or less impe rfec t . "
def i n i ng characte r i s t ic of the true g rotesque :
That i s a
"Now , so
far as the truth is seen by the imag i nati on i n i ts
wholeness and quie tnes s , the v i s ion i s sublime ; but s o
f a r as i t i s narrowed and broken by the i ncon s i s tenc i es
of the human capa c i ty , it becomes grotesque ( see page s
4 1-42 above ) .
" The Thorn , " then , serves as a f i ne example of the
noble g rotesq ue i n the Lyr ical Ballad s .
Wh i le the poem
offers no f i na l mora l insight , it does obj ec t i f y the
process of the recept ive imag i nation in terac t i ng wi t h
the conf l i c t ing images of transi tory nature .
But we are
U9
not taken beyond that process to s ome resolut ion or
j us t i f i cat ion of fear and suf fer i n g .
The e f f ect on the
reader is un resolved tens ion , yet a ten s ion that
suggests pos s i bi l i t i e s because nature and the human mind
are shown to be sympathetic to one anothe r in some
mys ter i ous f a s hion .
Mar tha Ray a f f i xes her own p syche
to the endu r i ng thorn , and l i kewi se nature protec ts
Mar tha Ray f rom the nosey vi l lage goss ip s .
I f the poem
does noth ing more , i t certai nly sugges ts that a power i s
at work both i n nature and i n the mind of man , a complex
power that inhab i ts both worlds and whi ch is intui ted i n
and through the habi tual interaction o f the imag i nation
with forms and ob j ec ts of nature .
The funct ion of the
grotesque images i s to s how the reader how the human
mind sympathet ic to natural f orms rece ives va luable
i n f l uenc es , even if these i n f luences make no immediate
promi se of renova t i ng power .
The poem offers i n s i g h t
i n t o the proces s of man ' s interact i on w i th nature , not
the ult imate va lue of that i n terac tion .
Like nThe Idiot
Boy , " nThe Thorn " demons trates Wordsworth ' s g rowi ng
i n tere s t i n the psychology of the imag i nat ion , that part
of the human mind h i dden from the d i scur s i ve eye .
The
grotesque image s function poet i cally not merely as
s t imul i meant to a rouse emotions of fear or to pro j e c t
a n al ien ex i s tence , but rather a s s igns whi ch emblem
130
forth the process of man ' s m i nd a s it i nteracts with
li fe ' s and nature ' s i ncongru i t i e s .
The i n terest of the
poem does not l i e in a v i s i on of dar k , a l i en forms , but
rather i n the psychology of the imag i nati on unde r the
i n f luences of both beauty and fear , pleasure and pa i n ,
t he pa s t and the presen t .
Both " The Thorn " and " The Idiot Boy " show
Wordsworth moving away f rom poems wh ich employ g rotesque
images me rely to he igh ten fee l i ng or to effec t moral
ins ights or i n s t i gate soc ial change toward poetry
wh ich emp l oys g rotesque images to revea l the laws by
wh i ch nature i n teracts with man to feed the imag i na t i on
and shape i t toward ma tur i ty .
And i n the proces s , the
grotesque images funct ion to implant i n f luences in the
imagi nat ion of the sympathet i c reader , provid i ng
obj ect i ve correlat i ves for complex p sycholog i ca l
phenomena .
In "The Thorn , " Wordsworth emp loys grotesque images
to explore the i n terac t i on of the imag i nat i on w i th
nature , focus i ng on the recept ivity of the mind to
somethi ng mys te r i ous it senses i s i nherent in the
i ncongruous forms of the external wor ld .
But other
poems of the Lyr i ca l Ba l lads volume of 1 8 0 0 reveal
Wordswor th ' s develop i ng abi l i ty to us e g rotesque image
patterns not only to show the recept ive q ua l i ty of the
131
m i nd toward the i ncongruous images of natur e , but also
to unders tand the func tiona l value of the g rotesque to
the psycho l ogy of the imag i nat ion ' s growth .
Importantly , the two poems of the Lyr i cal Ballads whi ch
Wordsworth cons i dered the most i l lus trat ive of h i s
poeti c g en i us i n the 1 8 0 0 s volume , "Nutt i ng " and " To
Joan na , " are the poems wh i ch bes t exh i bi t h i s develop i ng
use of g rotesque image patterns .
Wordswo r th expla i n s in h i s Fenwi ck note that
"Nutt ing , " wr i tten 1 7 9 9 -1 8 0 0 , was in tended as part of
The P relude but was " s truck out as not bei ng wan ted
there " and i nserted i ns tead i n to the 1 8 0 0 Lyr i cal
Ballad s .
The poem , Wordsworth recal l s , " arose ou t o f
the remembrance o f feel i ngs I had of ten had when a boy "
( 304 ) .
And the open i ng li nes of the poem make c lear
that th i s memory exemp l i f ies many s imi lar ones :
" It
seems a day , I ( I speak of one f rom many s i ng led out ) . "
Wordsworth obvious ly provides the poem as represen tat i ve
of a comp lex p sycholog i cal phenomenon not uncommon to
h i s youthful exper ience .
As Hartman sugge sts , the
images of the poem serve as an emblem to the reader , " a
kind of p i c to ri a l mach i ne di spos i ng the argumen t i n to an
e as i ly i n tu itable f orm• ( Wordsworth ' s Poetry 7 3 ) .
The poem reca l l s a " heavenly " day i n wh i ch the
speake r , then a young boy , sall i e s forth i n a carefree ,
132
happy mood to gather hazel nuts , wear ing c l othes " of
power to smi l e I at thorns , and brakes , and brambles . "
He forces h i s way i n to a quiet , unvi s i ted bower .
The
poet carefully s t res ses the beauty of the scene in te rms
s ugges t i ng human i nnocence and pur i ty , de s c r i b i n g the
hazels " wi t h mi lk-wh i te clus ters hun g , I A v i rg i n
scene ! " The boy approaches the un rav i s hed bower
breath les s ly , " wi th wi se restra i n t I Voluptuou s ,
fearless of a r i val , " h i s heart , in i t s s ec ur e joy ,
luxur i at i ng " wi th i nd i f ferent thing s " ( 1 1 - 4 0 ) .
But thi s
indif feren t , happy mood abruptly and shocki ngly snaps ,
for the boy ' s q u i et respec t for the lovely scene
suddenl y changes , and he mut i lates the vi r g i n bower :
"Then up I ros e ,
And dragg ' d to earth both branch and bough ,
wi t h crash
And merc i le s s ravage � and the sh ady n ook
Of hazels , and the g reen and mossy bower
Def orm ' d and sul l i ed , pat ien tly gave up
The i r quiet be i ng • • • • ( 4 2 - 4 7 )
The bower becomes grotesque , des cribed i n terms
suggest i ng the rape of an innocen t , trus t i ng ma i den .
At
thi s poi n t , the poet has projec ted to the reader through
the emblem of the ravi s hed bower the con f l i c t i ng
percept ion of the youth ' s v ivid imag i nat ion , which
imaged the bower i n human terms , f i rs t i n j oy and beauty
worthy of re spec t and admi ration , and then as an ob j ec t
o f abuse a t the mercy o f the dark , destruct i ve forces o f
133
t he boy ' s own psyche .
The g rotesque images symbol i ca l ly
p roj ect the inner worki ngs of the youth ' s imag i nat ion .
And then Wordsworth takes the poem one s tep
farthe r , for the speaker expla ins h i s reac t ion a s he now
remembe rs i t :
and un less I now
•
•
•
Confound my presen t fee l i ngs wi th the pa s t ,
Even then , when from the bower I turn ' d away ,
Exult ing , r i ch beyond the wealth of kings
I fe l t a sen se of pa in when I behe ld
The s i len t trees and the i n truding sky . - ( 4 7-5 2 )
Recollec t ing the scene i n tranqui l l i ty , the speaker now
reca lls the pa in of the expe r i ence , and the result i s
that the speaker , now able to perc e i ve the even t
symbol i cally w i th h i s more mature , expe r i enced
imag i nat ion , can appreciate the va lue of the g rotesque
images and can of fer ins truct ion :
Then , deare s t Ma iden ! move along the se shades
In gen tleness of heart wi th gen tle hand
Touch , --for there i s a Spi r i t in the wood s . ( 5 3 - 5 5 )
Wordsworth has developed the poem beyond the
imag i ng of a f i ne g rotesque .
He has demonstrated
through the use of grotesque images the spec i f i c
importance of the event , an event whi ch l i ke o thers ,
perc eived now i n the l i ght of maturer rec ollec t ion ,
reveals to h im the rea l i ty of a power that l ies beyond
nature and wh ich can be perce ived only through the
i n te ract i on of h i s own myste r i ous , matur i ng mind with
the beaut i f u l forms of nature .
The poem ' s grotesque
134
i mage s provi de the key , for the speaker does not sen se
the Sp i r i t in the woods when as a boy he pe rce i ves the
bower merely as beaut i f u l or pleasurable in the g u i s e of
an unspo i led ma i den .
I t i s only when he perc e i ves the
woods in fearful forms of destruc t ion and mut i l at ion ,
forms wh i ch make concrete to h i s sensory percept i on the
dark f orces wh i ch haun t h i s own mind , that he is able to
sense a pa i n within h imsel f wh i ch eventua l l y becomes
vi t a l to h i s sp i r i tual awa renes s .
The s truc ture of the
poem ' s image patte rns eluc i dates the nece s s i ty of both
beauty and fear to the maturat ion of the speake r ' s
imag i nat i ve percept i on .
Funct iona l ly , the g rotesque
image pat terns symbol i z e the worki ngs of the boy ' s
imag i nation , and they i l lumi nate a v i s i on of not only
the beauty of nature , but also the mysterious and
f r i gh ten i ng images the imag i nat i on creates i n i ts
relat ions h i p wi th natural forms .
Such a v i s i o nary
proces s has the potential to lead us to an awareness of
an i n f i n i t e power that l i e s beyond the outwa rd forms of
nature and yet i s env i s i oned th rough our i n terac t i on
with those external f orms .
I t i s on ly through the
matured percei ver ' s awareness of the tran s i tory beauty
of nature as i t con f l i c ts wi th h i s own psych i c impul se s
that the speaker envi s i ons the va lue o f the expe r i ence .
For Word sworth , the not ion that beauty i s truth , tr uth
135
beauty , does not suf f ice here ; images of both beauty and
f ear are neces sary if the perce i ver i s to move beyond
nature to an awareness of h i s own imag i nat ion and i t s
relat i on s h ip to a n i n s tructive power a t work both within
nature and w i t h i n the mind of man .
Wordsworth has
chosen a representat i ve imag i nat i ve even t to embl em
f orth the power of the imag i nat ion to draw upon both
beauty and fear to ach ieve a heigh ten ed percept i on .
The speaker ' s war n i ng to the " Ma iden " ( apparently
h i s s i s te r , Dorothy ) at the end of the poem i s i ron i c ,
for i t i s only through h i s not gen t ly touc h i ng the
beauty of nature that he i s able to perc e i ve the sp i r i t
i n the woods .
H i s mut i l i at i on of nature i s the catalys t
wh i ch sparks h i s awareness of the va lue of natura l
beauty and h i s real i z at i on of the de struct ive poten t i a l
of h i s own dark m i nd .
Undoubtedly , h i s hope i s that the
ma i den wi l l not , l ike the bower and the boy , have to
suffer the ravi shmen t of her innocence in order to
envi s ion an i n f i n i te spi r i t and i n s truct i ve powe r .
Hi s
poet ic purpose i s to reveal vicar ious ly to her and to
the reader through the g rotesque images of the poem the
exper i ence wh ich he suf fered i n order to matur e .
Perhap s the g rotesque images are proj ected i n the
contra s t i ng , person i f ied guise of a pure and then
ravi s hed ma iden in order to hei gh ten more e f f ec t i vely
136
the fear of the "Mai den " to whom the poem i s d i rec ted .
Thus , "Nutt i ng " reveals a poet who i s matur i ng i n the
approp r i ate fun c t ional use of grotesque i mage patterns .
Wordsworth ' s func t i onal use of g rotesque image
pat terns i n the Lyr i cal Ba l lads i s l ikewi se exemp l i f ied
by his poem "To Joanna , " wh i ch aga i n extends and
deve lop s h i s i n terest i n the psychology of fear as i t
a f f ects t h e matur ing i mag i nat i on .
As i n "Nutt i ng , " the
poet uses g rote sque image pa tterns to demons tra te how
the imag i nat i on , i nf luenced by a power i n nature ,
recreates sen s ory expe r ience i n to i ns truc t i ve
psycholog i cal expe r i ence .
The poem serves not only to
i n s truc t Joanna , to whom it is addressed , but also to
p rov ide the dramatic framework nece s sary to imag i ng to
the reader the complex i nteraction of nature and the
i mag i nat i on .
Wordsworth does not merely p ro j ect the
rea l i ty of an al ien v i s ion � he offers th i s vi s i on to
exemp l i f y why he and others are sympatheti c love rs of
nature .
The speaker beg i n s by addres s i ng Joanna and
rev i ewi ng her past .
She has g rown up amid " the smoke of
c it i es • and has learned to love the " li v i ng Be i ngs " by
her own f i re s i de w i th s uch a s trong devo t i on that her
heart is " s low towa rd s the sympathies of them I Who look
upon the h i l l s wi th tende rnes s I And make dear
137
f r iendsh ips with the streams and g rove s " < 1 - 8 ) .
Be then
narrates a s tory about h i s havi ng c h i s e led out Joanna ' s
name upon a rock , l i ke a " Run i c P r i e s t , " and then havi ng
been chas ti sed by a loca l vicar for thi s revival of
" obsolete I dolatry . "
H i s reply to the vicar i s to tel l
a s tory about an expe r i ence h e once had wh i l e wa lki ng
with Joanna .
They had strol led out on a beaut i f u l day along a
r i ver bank , and he , i n awe of the vi s i onary beauty of
the scene , s tood gaz i ng for "pe rhaps two mi nutes ' space . "
Joanna , upon observing h i s eyes ' " ravi s hmen t " of the
scene , laughed a loud , presumable at h i s be i ng s o
a f f ec ted .
Immedi ately , the surround i ng rock , " l i ke
s omething s tart i ng from a sleep , " echoed Joanna ' s
laughter , as did a rock on a d i s tance crag , wh i ch looked
l i ke an old woman cower i ng , that " anc ient Woman seated
on Belmcrag " ( 3 5 - 5 6 ) .
Likewi se , other moun ta i n caverns ,
portrayed i n person i f ied images of old , anc i e n t be i ngs ,
echoed her laugh ter .
The speaker adm i t s that he cannot
now tel l if " th i s were in simple truth , a work
accompl i sh ' d by the brotherhood I Of anc ien t mounta i n s , "
or i f h i s "ear was touched I Wi th dreams and vi s i onary
impul ses , " but he is s ure that " there wa s a l oud uproar
in the h i l l s " ( 5 7-73 ) .
The result of th i s eery ,
h aun t i ng laughter i s that to hi s s i de " Joan na drew , as
138
i f she wi sh ' d I To she l ter from some ob ject of her fea r "
( 7 5 - 76 ) .
Ob viously , the echoi ng s ounds , whi ch seemed
haun t i ngly rea l , were fearful in tone , mock i ng Joanna ' s
laughter wh ich had rather di srespec tfully s ounded her
lack of sympathy for the speaker ' s reverence for natural
beauty .
The speaker conc l udes h i s s tory to the vicar by
s tat ing that now, " long af terwards , when e ighteen
moon s I Were was ted , " he has sat down i n "memory of
affec t ions old and true " to ch i sel out " in thos e
rude character s I Joanna ' s name upon the l i v i ng s tone . "
And he and h i s f r i ends , in apparent memory of both
Joanna and that spec i a l even t , have g i ven a name to the
carved s tone : " And I , and all who dwe l l by my f i re s i de I
Have cal led the lovely rock , Joanna ' s Rock " ( 7 7-8 5 ) .
The speaker ' s words revea l much about the i ns truc t i ve
nature of h i s exper i ence with Joanna , for the s tone upon
which he ch i seled i s now seen as a " li vi ng s tone , " and
h i s memory of that t ime ' s affec t i ons , recol lec ted now i n
h i s tranqui l l i ty , i s perce i ved a s "old and true . "
The
f r i ghteni ng images of the anc i en t l au g h i ng forms that
nature has carved out i n the moun ta i n s are s ubtly
connected w i th a s ense of durat i on , he ightened by h i s
men tion i ng Run i c letters and anc ient mou n ta i ns whose
names extend f rom ages past .
These forms seem a l i ve and
139
ag eles s , no matter whether they be real or produc ts of
h i s own " dreams and vi s i onary impu l s es . "
The person i f ied , anc i ent , g rotesque s ton es suggest
that a l i vi ng , t ime less sp i r i t may haunt our percept ion
of exte rnal f o rms , making the s tones l ivi ng s tones i n
the sen se that the imag i nat ion , under the inf luence of
acc i dents of nature , recreates the scene i n to a vi s ion
of someth i ng true , a sen se that nature in league wi th
the imag i nation serves an i n s truct i ve purpose to teach
us to reve rence the va lue of trans i tory beauty .
The
i n s truc t i ve f orce of the poem comes full c i rcle , for the
speaker demon s trates that j us t as Joanna learned to love
the " l iving Be i ngs " by her own f i res i de ( open i n g l i nes
of the poem ) , he has learned to be sympa thet i c towards
the " l i ving s tone " ( c los i ng lines ) admi red by all who
dwel l at h i s f i res i de .
Although neve r s ta ted d i rec tly ,
there i s i n the poem a sugges t i on that an apparent
acci den t of nature may not be acc iden ta l , that there i s
a l i vi ng , renovating power inhab i t i ng natural obj ec ts
and affecting the perce iver ' s sympathe t i c vi s i on .
In a
way , the old vi car ' s acc usat i on that the speake r i s
reviv i ng obsolete idolatry i s true , but not i n the Run i c
sense .
The speaker ' s carving refl ects both h i s
apprec iat ion o f the va lue of that spot and a l l that
it suggests to h i s pe rsonal exper i ence and h i s
140
apprec iat ion of Joanna , whose act ive imag i nat ion drew
her i n to sympathy with nature , even in s uch an abrupt
and unwi l l i ng fash ion .
The tel l i ng of the s tory i s a imed a t the reade r .
Wor dswor th employs the g rotesque image patte rns as
repre sen tat ive of a law by wh i ch nature affects the mind .
Only th rough fear i s Joan na made aware of the powe r of
nature .
She is not able to perce ive th i s power through
surround i ng s cen es of beauty , to whi ch she i s not
attuned .
She mus t expe r i ence a sudden awa reness of
incong ru i ty wh i c h fearfully j ol ts her i mag i nat i on i n to a
heightened awareness .
Likewi se , as an observe r able to
recollect the moment of he r j ol t i ng later i n h i s own
imag i nation , the speaker g leans from the exper i ence a
vi s i onary awaren ess he bequeaths to h i s readers .
In •N utti ng • Wordsworth reveals h i s awaren ess of a
sp i r i t i n the woods , but i n •To Joan na • he extend s h i s
vi s i on t o s ee the va lue of this awareness of something
other-wor ldly , both to himself and to othe r s . •To
Joanna " demonstrates how the expe r i encing of the
g rotesque , i mplan ted i n the mind and recol lec ted i n
tranqui l l i ty , serves to spa rk and mature our
appreci a t ion of tra n s i tory beauty .
But the poem f ur ther
shows how the exper iencing of the g rotesque through the
accidents of nature leads to a love of man , because the
141
speaker ' s apprec iat ion i f not j us t for " l i v i ng " nature ,
but also for what l i ves within Joan na and others by h i s
f i re s i de .
I t i s the grotesque ' s ac t ion upon the
sympathet i c imag i nation wh ich Wordsworth celebrates i n
" To Joanna . "
As he reveals , the f unc t ion o f the
g rotesque spec i f i cally i s to set i n to mot i on the truly
perceptive faculty of the human m i nd : the imag i nation .
The scene the speake r reca l l s i s not merely a
celebrat ion of the power of beauty or fear , but rather a
celebrat i on of how a power at work i n nature can i n ve s t
itself i n to the imag i nat ion to lead m a n beyond nature to
a he ightened awareness of the value of the i nt r i cate
human mi nd , wh i c h through the mys ter ious v i s i onary power
of the imag i nat i on can glean from the i ncong ruous images
of expe r i ence a vi sio n of the i nf i n i te sp i r i t a l i ve
w i t h i n nature and within othe r s who come to dwe l l at our
f i re s i de .
The poem celebrates the process by wh i ch the
imag i n at i on i s sparked to u n i te observers of nature ' s
beaut ies and fears i n sympa thy , and i t demon s trates the
e s sent i a l funct i on of the grotesque as one of the mean s
by whi ch nature operates o n the human m i nd to develop
a nd f ocus the imag i nat ion .
The g rotesque , then , plays a v i t a l role i n the
poet i c vi s i on developing within the Lyr i ca l Ba l lad s .
the s i xty -four or i g i nal poems of the Lyr ical Ba l lads
Of
142
volume s of 17 9 8 and 1 8 0 0 , twelve conta i n g rotesq ue image
pat terns wh i ch funct i on s i g n i f icantly w i t h i n the
contexts of the poems .
Of those twelve , f i ve poems
func t i onally employ g rotesque image pa tterns to help
deve lop themes concern i ng the al levi at ion of soc i a l or
moral evi l s : " Li nes Le ft Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree , "
" The Fema le Vag ran t , " "Goody Blake and Harry G i l l , "
" S i mon Lee , " " The Mad Mother . "
These poems dwe ll on
human forms of fear and suf fer ing as ref lect ive of
decaying moral or phys i cal states , and they all appeared
origi nally in the 1 7 9 8 Lyr ical Ba l lads
•
Two other
poems of that volume , " The I di ot Boy " and " The Thorn , "
appear as trans it ional poems , ma rking a sh i f t i n
empha s i s by Wordsworth towards employi ng g rotesque
images wh i ch func tion to reveal the proce s s by wh i ch the
recept ive imag i nati on i n teracts with forms and obj ects
of the wor ld of sens ory exper i ences .
" The Thorn "
particula rly exh i bi t s a bold new use of g rotesque i mage
patterns to provi de i ns i ght i n to the i n terac t ion of the
huma n mi nd and transi tory nature .
The second volume of Lyr i cal Bal lads ( 18 0 0 )
i nc ludes f ive poems wh i ch conta i n g rotesque image
pattern s : " Hart -Leap Wel l , " " Ruth , " "Nutt i n g , " " The Old
Cumbe rland Begger , " " To Joanna , "
All of these poems
employ these images functionally and symboli cal ly to
143
i l lumi nate the proce s s by whi ch nature i n terac ts wi th
the expe r i enc i ng imag i nation to i n f orm and di rec t our
unde r s tand i ng of the va lue of both beauty and f ea r and
to teach us more spec i f ically th at , as the speaker i n
" The Old Cumber land Begga r " procla ims ,
' T i s Nature ' s law
That none , the meanest of created t h i ng s ,
Of forms c reated the mos t vi le and brut e ,
The du l le s t or mos t noxious , should exi s t
Divorced f rom good , a sp i r i t and puls e of good ,
A li fe and soul to every mode of be i ng
Inseparably l i nk ' d . ( 7 3 - 79 )
Fur thermore , the Lyr i cal Bal lads poems emp l oying
g rotesque image patterns show Wordsworth ' s deve lopment
of a consc ious and formal poet ic idiom wh ich rej ec ts the
art i f i c i al pi cturesque ( pro j ec ted scenes of vi s i onary
beauty ) or the popu lar Goth i c ( forms of gros s and
violent s t imu lants drawn from f i c t i on s ) in f avo r of a
poet ic tech nique wh ich br i ngs together "wi th blended
mi ght" images whi ch embody the fears and beaut i es
i n herent wi th i n the common forms of nature and w i t h i n
the mind o f man .
The exp l i c i t funct i on o f thi s
develop i ng poet i c idiom i s to show how love of nature
leads to the development of the mind , a mind w i th
inf i n i te poten t ia l , and to unders tand the growth of the
imag i na t i on as i t i s repa i red and res tored by a power at
work i n and yet beyond nature .
Thus , these poems react
aga i ns t Wordsworth ' s neoclass ical predeces s o r s both in
144
technique and i n theme , suggest ing the value of the
ordi nary and the i r rational .
They ant i c ipate the g reat
theme of The Prelude , and they re veal Wordsworth ' s
g rowi ng i n tere s t in the psychology of the imag i nat i on .
I n The Pre lude , Wordsworth unve i l s more exactly the
spec i f i c role of the grotesque wi th i n the larger s cheme
by wh i ch an i nf i n i t e power at work i n nature gui des and
d i rec ts the sympa thetic perce i ver toward joy and
harmony .
145
CHAPTER V
THE FUNCTION OF THE
GROTESQUE IN THE PRELUDE
Dur ing the years 1 7 9 8 -17 9 9 , when Wordsworth was
compos i ng many of the bes t poems for h i s s econd ed i t ion
of Lyr i cal Ballads , he also embarked upon h i s mos t
important poet i c j ourney , the wr i t i ng of The
Pr elude . !
As he expla i n s in h i s P re f ace to the 1 8 1 4
ed i t i on o f The Excur s ion ( Prose Works 2 : 1 4 5 - 4 8 ) ,
Wordsworth f i r s t had i n tended to wr i te a long ,
phi losophical poem "conta i n i ng vi ews of Man , Nature , and
S ociety , " but that poem wa s never completed , for as
preparatory to i t s wr i t i n g , he began an autobi ograph i cal
poem " to take a review of h i s own m i nd , and examine how
far Nature and Education had qua l i f ied h im f or such
l For an exce l lent , conc i se di scus s ion of the
s tructure and un i ty of The Prelude , see M . H . Abrams ' s
"The Des ign of The PrelUde " ( rpt . The Pre lude , Jonathan
Wordsworth et al . 5 8 5 -5 9 8 ) .
Abrams spec i f i ca lly argues
that Wordsworth ' s poetic accoun t in The Prelude is held
together by the per s i s tent image of a j ourney , and he
fur ther demon s trates that th i s organ i z i ng f i gure works
in two dimen s ions : The poem represen ts the l i fe wh ich
Wordsworth narrates as a self-educat i ve j ourney , and the
imag i n at ive enterpr i se of conc e i v i ng and compos i ng The
Prelude i tself i s portrayed as a per i lous quest th rough
the dark regions of the poet ' s own m ind . Abrams
sugges ts that Wordsworth "converts the wayfa r i ng
Ch r i s t ian of the Aug us t i n i an sp i r i tual journey i n to the
self -forma t i ve traveler of the Roman t i c educati ona l
journey " ( 5 9 1 - 9 2 ) .
146
emp loymen t . "
He f urther proposed that the
autobiographical poem , addressed to Coler idge , would
have the same relation as " the ante-chapel has to the
body of a goth ic church . "
But the long ph i losoph ical work was never compl eted .
In 17 9 8 he began what he hoped wou ld bec ome h i s magnum
opus , The Rec lus e , but by 1 7 9 9 he had turned h i s primary
atten t i on to the poem to Coler idge , The Prelude .
For
more than forty years , Wordsworth worked on th i s
autobiog raph ical poem to h i s fr i end , and i t now rema i n s
a s the greatest of Wordsworth ' s poe t i c accomp l i shments .
Wordsworth did complete the f i rst book of The Rec luse ,
Home at Grasmere , in 1 8 0 6 , but almos t immed i ately turned
back to The Prelude .
By 1 8 1 4 he completed The Excurs ion
( the narrative sec t i on of The Rec luse ) whi ch had been
planned as early as 18 0 4 and wh ich was founded on the
The Ruined Cottage of 1 7 9 7-78 , but aga i n he turned back
to the rev i s ion of The Prelude throughout the r ema i nder
of h i s l i fe . 2
In short , Wordsworth never seemed to
f i nd the i n sp i ration necessary to comp lete The Reclus e ,
2 For a deta i led d i scuss ion of The Prelude ' s textual
c ompos ition , see " The Texts : Hi s tory and Presen tat i on "
pr i n ted i n The Prelude : 1 7 9 9 , 18 0 5 , 1 85 0 , edi ted by
Jonathan Wordsworth , M . H . Abrams , and Stephen G i l l .
As
these d i s t i ngu i shed edi tors sugges t , no l i terary
mas terpi ece " has a more compli cated textual h i s tory than
The Prelude . • • •
As ide from notebooks that con ta i n
147
and as h i s i n tere s t i n The Prelude indi cates , he came to
unders tand that h i s poet i c vo i ce was to be f ound in h i s
own past unders tood f rom the present , not in the
compos i t ion of the sti lted philosophical poem which
Coler idge had urged him to wr i te .
As Mary Moorman
argues , by 1 7 9 9 Wordswor th ' s true i n terest wa s the mind
of man and i ts ass oc i ation wi th nature , for his growing
f a i th was " the result of i nward experi ence of
except iona l power , extended back to the ear l iest
recesses of memory " ( 3 6 8 ) .
And a s already d i scussed i n
Chapter IV , important poems of the second volume of
Lyr ical Ba llads pa rticularly attes t to Wordsworth ' s
g rowi ng awareness of the value of explor i ng the
i n terchange between nature and h i s own imag i nation to
the i l luminat i on of h i s true poet ic v i s i on .
The route
of di scovery for Wordsworth mus t involve s a i l ing the
seas of h i s own memory and rec reat i ng the past i nto a
i solated drafts , seven teen maj or Prelude manus cr ipts
surv i ve i n the Wordsworth l i brary a t Grasmere , and many
of these con ta i n several stages of revi s i on " ( ix ) .
Unless otherwi se noted , all my refe rences to the poem
are to the t h i rteen -book Prelude text , rep r i n ted in the
edi t ion c i ted above , f i n i shed ca . May 1 8 0 5 and cop ied
November-February 18 0 5-6 . My preference for the 1 8 0 5
Prelude over the more formal 1 8 5 0 Prelude pub l i shed
a f te r the poet ' s death i s in keep i ng wi th my des i re to
con s ider Wordsworth as a develop i ng poet , and the 1 8 0 5
text i s , a s Jonathan Wordsworth sugges ts , by far the
more accurate vers ion for " ref lec t ing the th ough t
processes i t had bee n Wordswor th ' s o r i g i nal i n tent ion to
evoke . "
148
mean i ngful presen t .
Moorman r ightly conc l udes that
C ol e r i dge h ad i n terests based more on i n tellectual
conceptions and images drawn from read i ng than on
personal expe ri ences ( 3 6 8 ) .
But as Wordsworth proc la ims
i n book 1 of The Prelude , h i s sou l had experienced
" fa i r seed-t i me " and was " f os te red al ike by beauty and
fear , " for he had been "much f avored " in h i s bi rthplace
( 3 05-07 ) .
H i s poet i c vo ice must s i ng of h i s own
personal experi ences recol lec ted i n tranqu i l l i ty rather
than articulate phi losop h i ca l v i ews .
By 1 7 9 8 - 9 9 ,
Wordsworth apparently sensed w hat Keats later
recogn i z ed , that " axioms in ph i los ophy are not ax ioms
unt i l they are proved upon our pulses "
Hami l ton Reynolds 3 May 1 8 1 8 ) .
( Letter to John
In fac t , in 1 8 1 4
Wordsworth proc laimed t h i s idea in h i s P reface to The
Excurs ion :
" It i s not the Author ' s i n tent i on forma l ly
to announce a sys tem :
i t was more an imat ing to h im to
proceed i n a d i f ferent cour s e ; and i f he s h a l l s ucceed
i n conveyi ng to the m i nd clear though ts , l i vely images ,
and s trong fee l i ng s , the Reader wi l l h ave no d i f f i culty
in extrac t i ng the sys tem for h imself " ( Prose Works 2 :
146 ) .
The Prelude became the mos t an imated of
Wordsworth ' s poetic creations .
In i t he g i ves l i fe and
mean ing to h i s falteri ng poet ic s oul and i l l umi nates the
to ta l poet i c v i s ion for wh i ch he had been str i v i ng i n
149
t he poems of h i s youth and i n the Lyr ical Ba l lads .
In
The Prelude , a s F . R . Leavis sugges ts , Wordsworth
creates an " expos i tory ef fect " that produces mood ,
feeling , or expe r i ence and at the same t ime appears to
be g i ving an explanat ion of i t .
Leav i s conc ludes :
"He
had , i f not a phi losophy , a wi sdom to commun icat e "
( 163 ) .
I t i s i n The Prelude that Wordsworth ach i eves h i s
complete poet i c v i s ion .
Not only does he d i scover h i s
true purpose , but h e al so rea l i zes the essen t i a l nature
of h i s images and focuses them wi thi n a care fully
s truc tured f rame that encompa sses a whole v i s ion of man ,
nature , and the eternal .
Grotesque image patterns play
a v i tal role i n the deve lopment of th i s un i f i ed v i s i on ,
and Wordsworth i l lumi nates spec i f i ca l ly the s i gn i f i cance
of the g rotesque to the highest percep t i ve facu lty , the
imag i nat ion .
As M . H . Abrams suggests , The Prelude i s c l i maxed
by two ma jor revelat i on s , the f i rs t being "Wordsworth ' s
di scovery of prec i sely what he has been born to be and
to do , " as imp l i ed in books 3 and 4 and resolved i n the
"my off ice upon earth " pas sage of book 10 ( 9 0 4 - 2 0 ) .
The
s econd reve lat ion , proj ected th rough the symbo l i c
landscape vi ewed from the top of Mt . Snowden ( bk . 13 ) ,
" i s the g rand locus of The Rec luse wh i c h he announced in
150
the P rospec tus ,
' The Mind of Man -- I My haun t , and the
ma i n reg ion of my song , ' as well as the ' h igh argument '
of that poem , the un ion between the mind and the
exte rnal wo rld and the resul t i n g ' creat ion '
•
•
•
wh i ch
they wi th b lended might I Accomp l i s h ' " ( " Des ign "
589-590 ) .
In book 1 2 of The Prelude , Wordsworth
proc la ims that he wi l l 11 bend i n reverence I to Nature ,
and the power of human minds , " and wi ll " teac h " and
" insp i re 11 h i s theme
No other than the very heart of man
As found among the bes t of those who l ive
I n Nature ' s presence--thence may I
•
•
•
select
Sor row that is not sor row but de li ght ,
And mi serable love that i s not pa in
To hear of , for the glory that redounds
Therefrom to human ki nd and what we are .
( 2 38-48 )
I n br ief , Wordsworth ' s poetic accomp l i shmen t i n Th e
Prelude i s to envi s i on the revelation wh ich he proc laims
in h i s P rospectus to The Rec luse :
Parad i s e , and g roves
Ely s i an • • • - -why should they be
A h i s tory only of departed th ings ,
Or a mere f i c t ion of what never wa s ?
For the di scern i n g i n tel lec t o f Man ,
When wedded to th i s goodly un i verse
In love and holy pa s s i on , shall f i nd these
A s i mple produce of the common day .
( Poeti cal Works 4 7 - 5 5 )
As The Prelude revea l s , man ' s "di scern i ng
i n tellec t " i s the imag i nat ion , and the j ourney on wh i ch
Wordsworth embarks and on wh i ch he invites h i s readers
Bl
i s a pa ssage th rough the poet ' s m i nd from i ts ear l i e s t
remembrances t o the presen t : a h i s tory of t h e growth o f
h i s imag i nation i n ch i ldhood and youth , i t s c r i ses as i t
i s threatened by t h e real i t i e s o f the French Revolution
and per sonal d i sappoin tmen ts , and i ts restorat i on under
the power ful i n f luence of na ture .
H i s theme is the
imag i nat ion ' s tr i umph , and h i s poetic technique is to
recreate h i s pas t i n to a matured v i s ion wh ich deta i l s
the progress of h i s m i nd as i t developed under the
myr i ad images and i mpres s i ons of exper i ence .
As M. H .
Abrams concludes , s i nc e the spec i f i cat ion of h i s poetic
purpose " en ta i l s the de f i n i t ion , in the twe l f th book , of
the part i cular i nnovat ions in poetic subjec ts , style ,
and va lues towa rd wh i c h h i s l i f e had been imp l i c i tly
orien ted , The Pre lude i s a poem wh ich i ncorporates the
d i scovery of i ts own ars poet ica " ( " Des i g n " 5 9 0 ) .
Scholars s tudy i ng The Pre lude have long been aware
that the poem does not offer abso lute factual val i d i ty
regarding Wordsworth ' s own l i f e .
Abrams warns aga i nst
attempting to read the poem as b i ograph i c al fac t ,
argui ng that " the ma jor a l terat ions and d i s loca t i ons of
the even ts of Wordsworth ' s l i fe are imposed
del i berately , in order that the des ign i nherent in that
l i fe , wh ich has bec ome appa ren t only to h i s mature
awa renes s , may s tand revealed as a princ iple wh ich was
152
i n v i s i bly operat i ve from the beg i nn i ng 11 ( " Des ign 11 5 8 8 ) .
S imi larly , Raymond Dexter Havens con tends that
Wordsworth purposely avo ided the merely personal ,
ma intai ned a sense of form and art i s t i c e f f ect i venes s ,
and s imp l i f ied i n the interest of clar i ty because "The
Pre lude i s not so much an account of its author ' s
developmen t as of the deve lopmen t of certa i n tr a i ts i n
h im and the i n f luence of certa i n forces o n h i m 11 ( 2 7 3 ) .
Herbert Read even more boldly asserts that the poem " i s
a del i berate ma sk .
I t i s an idea l i sat i on of the poet ' s
l i fe , not the rea l i t y 11 ( 2 1 ) . 3
The po i n t of these c r i t i c s i s es sent ial to a
complete apprec i a t ion of the poem and to th i s s tudy .
In
The P relude , Wordsworth selects only those even ts wh i c h
are important t o the i l l umi nat ion o f h i s theme .
These
events are mean t to func t i on as representati ve of the
process by wh i ch the imag i nat ion in league wi th nature
enables one to mature toward a un i f i ed v i s i on , a
spi r i tual harmony between f i n ite man ex i s t i ng i n
tran s i tory nature and a creat ive power a t home i n
i nf i n i ty .
not
his
his
not
and
Based o n Wordsworth ' s mature v i s i on of an
l it should not be surpr � s � ng that Wordsworth chose
As he expla i ns in
to be bound by factua l va l i d i ty .
note to I s abella Fenwick about An Even ing Wa lk , in
wr i t i ng of that youthful poem he had a l ready dec i ded
"to submi t the poetic sp i r i t to the c h a i n s of f act
r eal circumstance " ( se e pag e 6 3 above ) .
B3
i nherent order in nature wh i ch in h i s you th had been
i nvi s i bly operat i ve , though gl impsed momentar i ly , The
Prelude symbol i ca l ly unf olds the laws by wh i ch nature
can ins truct one and di rec t h i s l i fe toward sp i r i tua l
fulf i l lmen t .
The faculty neces sary to th i s heigh tened
s tate i s the imag i nation , and it is repa i red and
res tored by expe r i ence .
In an important recent s tudy of
Wordswor th ' s poetry , J. R . Watson unde rtakes an
an thropo log ical approach to argue that Wordsworth d raws
from the temporal to ach i eve for us a my thi cal
unders tandi ng of our everyday world .
Wa tson concl udes
that " The Pre lude is thus a poem which i s both h i s tory
and myth :
it records events i n the poet ' s l i fe , but
arranges and selects them in such a way that they
re-enac t the myt h of the los t parad i s e .
H i s func tion
wi t h i n the poem is not al legor i ca l but symbo l i c , in
Coleridge ' s def i n i t ion :
i t i s characterzed by the
trans lucence of the Eterna l th rough and in the Temporal "
{ 12 ) .
The Prelude spec i f ically orders exper i ence to
i llumi nate i t s va lue to the g rowth of the imag i nat ion ,
and the grotesq ue , env i s ioned for us through
Wordswor th ' s image patte rns drawn f rom h i s own
exper ience , plays a cruc i a l role in th i s i l lumin at ing
vi s ion .
Wo rdsworth funct iona lly employes g rotesque
154
i mage patterns i n The Prelude to help un rave l the
mys tery of the m i nd ' s growth and to reveal to us the
exp l i c i t value of certa in laws by wh i ch nature ope rates
on our imag i nat i ve faculty .
He revea ls that the
imag i nation ' s evo lut ion , if it i s to evolve i n to a
faculty of heightened percept ion , depends upon natural
effects wh ich feed i t and wh ich are s tored for future
nouri shment .
On e of the means nature employs to nour i s h
and res tore our imag in at ive percept ion i s the �� ·
Wh i l e Wordsworth had had in tu i t i ons of the importance of
the grotesque , as revealed i n poems from h i s youth and
the Lyr i cal Ba l lads , such as An Eve n i ng Wa lk and 11 The
Thorn , " it i s i n The Pre lude that he ach i eves a c lear
v i s i on of the va lue of the grotesque .
As The
Prelude itself revea l s , such a tota l v i s ion wa s not
pos s i ble for h i m in h i s youth .
exper ience and then mature .
The imag i nat i on mus t
On ly through habitual
i n f luence i n the l ight of recollec t i on , through a
cumulat i ve e f f ec t , could nature lead h im to a he ightened
awareness of the i n t r i n s i c va lue of natural i n f luences ,
and more spec i f i c a l ly to an understand i ng of the
importance of the process by wh i ch nature develops t he
imag i nat ion to ach i eve a un i ty between man , nature , and
the Eternal .
B5
As nearly every cri t i c of The Pre lude has
recogn i z ed , at the heart of Wordswor th ' s poet ic
reve lat i on in the poem are what the poet c a l l s in book
11 11 spots of t i me . "
These are those momen ts in l i f e
character i z ed by what Wordsworth cal l s "vi s i t ings of
imag i n at ive power " wh i ch as sure th at he w i l l s tand i n
nature a " sen s i t i ve , and a creative sou l " ( 2 5 2 , 2 5 7 ) .
Th i s pas sage , proc laiming the importance of certain
spots of t ime , was wr i tten ear ly on in Wordswor th ' s
compos i t i on of The Pre lude ( ca . January 1 7 9 9 ) but
appea rs for s tructural reasons in the latter part of the
poem , and i t funct i ons to draw toge ther a numbe r of
important ep i s odes detai led wi thin the poem :
There are i n our exi s tence spots of t ime ,
Wh ich wi th d i s tinc t preemi nence retain
A renova t i ng virtu e , whence , depressed
By f a l s e op i n ion and conten t ious though t ,
Or aug h t of heavier or more deadly we i g h t
In trivi a l occupa t ion s and t h e round
Of ord i nary i ntercourse , our mi nds
Are nour i s hed and i nvi s i bly repa i red-­
A vi rtue , by wh ich pleasure is enhanced ,
That penetrates , enables us to moun t
When high , more high , and l i fts us up when f a l len .
( 2 5 7- 6 7 )
Apparen t ly , Word sworth placed t h i s passage late i n the
poem because p r i or to i t he wanted to offer spec i f ic
inc idents wh i ch would , through example , prepare h i s
reader for the unvei ling of h i s poet i c vi s ion .
In order
to apprec i ate the exact nature of these spots of t ime ,
we must f i r s t con s i der the precedi n g book s of The
156
Prelude , spec i f i ca l ly books 1 and 2 , in wh i ch Word sworth
f i rst narrates what he later terms " spo ts of t ime . "
As previous ly men t i oned , in book 1 Wordsworth
expla i n s that as a chi ld he was fos tered " a l ike by
beauty and by fear " ( 3 0 6 ) .
He de termines to "make
r i gorous i nqu i s i t ion " th rough h imself , to rev i ew h i s
exper i ences for h i s "glorious work , " the wr i t i ng o f h i s
greatest poem ( 15 8 -6 0 ) .
He beg i n s by se lect i ng several
i nc idents from h i s boyhood , involving beauty and fear ,
wh ich he rea l i z es now , in h i s ma turer yea r s , are s omehow
vitally important to h im , and wh ich wi l l bes t se rve to
l ay a founda t i on of symbol ic images for h i s reader .
He reca lls f i r s t an i nc i dent ( 3 1 0 - 3 2 ) wh i ch
occ ur red at about age n i ne , when i n late autumn he had
gon e forth i n to the mounta ins to snare s ome woodcock s .
I t was a beau t i f u l even i ng , moon and s tars were s h i n i ng
and all was at peace .
But the boy had " a s trong des i re "
that " o ' erpowered " h i s "better reason , " and h e took a
bi rd whic h " was cap t ive of another ' s toi l s . "
The result
was sudden fear and a sen se of unrecogn i z ed sound s :
" Low
breath ings coming after me , and sounds I Of
und i s t i ng u i s h able mot ion , s teps I Almos t as s i len t as
the turf they trod " ( 3 3 0 -3 3 ) .
He then reca l l s a s econd
event ( 3 3 4 -5 0 ) involving plunder ing th roug h bi rds ' nests
as he hung upon a mounta in c l i f f , suspended " by the
157
bla s t wh i ch blew ama i n , I Shoulder i ng the naked crag . "
Suddenly , as he c lung i n fear on the c l i f f , he became
aware of a world wh i ch seemed s trangely al i en to h i s
own :
Wh i le on the peri lous r idge I hung alone ,
Wi t h what s trange ut terance did the loud dry wi nd
Blow through my ears ; the sky seemed not a sky
Of earth , and with wh at mot ion moved the c l ouds !
( 3 4 7 -5 0 )
Now , in the l ig h t of h i s mat urer years , he marve l s to
h imself that s omehow these ea rly expe r i ences , in wh ich
he felt a sudden fear and became aware of new modes of
exi s tence , are v i ta l ly importan t to the heigh tened s ense
of u n i ty and peace he now feels dur i ng the be s t momen ts
of h i s l i f e :
Ah me , that all
The terrors , all the early mi series ,
Reg rets , vexat ion s , las s i tudes , that all
The thoughts and feeli ngs wh i ch have been i n f used
I n to my mind , s hou ld ever have made up
The calm ex i s tence that is m i ne when I
Am worthy of mysel f .
( 355-61 )
These expe r i ences , character i z ed by image patterns
j uxtapo s i n g beauty and fear and ending in a sudden
awa renes s of i ncongru i ty between h i s normally perce ived
wor ld and a n ewly perce ived one , are thus s hown to be
momen ts of t ime v i tal to the developmen t of h i s m i nd and
representat i ve of the process by wh ich na ture employs a
mini s try of fear and beauty to fos ter the imag i nat ion ' s
g rowth .
BB
Wordsworth then progress ively develops h i s complex
v i s i on revea l i ng the laws by whi ch nature acts upon the
imag i nat ion .
Be cla ims that not on ly does nature " f r ame
I a favored bei ng " with such inc idents of "gentlest
vi s i tat ion , " but also "hapl y aiming at the s e l f -same
end , I Does i t del igh t her s omet ime s to employ I Severer
i n terven t ions , m i n i s try I More pa lable
•
•
•
( 36 3-71 ) .
Be de sc r i bes two more i nc idents f rom h i s chi ldhood wh ich
represen t these " severer interven t ions " of nature , and
he poses for the "pre sences of Natur e " a rhetor i cal
que s t ion :
can I th i nk
A vulgar hope wa s your s when ye emp loyed
Such mi n i s try--when ye th rough many a year
Haun ti ng me thus among my boyi sh spo rts ,
On caves and t rees , upon the woods and h i l l s ,
Impressed upon all forms the characters
Of danger or des i re , and thus did make
The sur face of the un iversal earth
Wi th t r i ump h , and deligh t , and hope , and fea r ,
Work l ike a sea? ( 4 9 3 -50 1 )
The two even ts Wordsworth describes i n th i s sec t ion , one
i nvolving borrowi ng a boat wi thout permi s s i on , and the
other i ce-skat ing in the even i ng , like the ear l i e r
scenes of book 1 , i nvolve a heightened exper ienc i ng o f
beauty and fear .
The se expe riences sparked e i ther a
dark , a l i en vi s i on of s trange modes of be i n g , such as
t he boat-stea ling i nc iden t ( 3 7 3 -4 2 6 ) , or a sooth i ng
vi s ion i n wh ich a l l became " tranqui l as a dreamless
sl eep , " such as the i ce- skat i ng epi sode ( 4 7 4 - 9 0 ) .
In
159
t he boat - s tea l i ng i nc i den t , fear dom i na tes the boy ' s
v i s i on , and the result i s unres t and a prof ound sense of
i ncongru i ty .
In the ice-skat ing scene , beauty
dom i nates , and the boy feels a prof ound sen s e of harmony .
Thus the f i r s t inc iden t represents the type of i n f l uence
nature has on the imag i n at ion when f ear overr ides
beauty 1 the lat ter incident shows nature ' s i n f luence on
the i mag i nat ion when beauty domi n ates .
Wordsworth has
selec t i ve ly chosen i nc iden ts and i mages wh ich symbo l i z e
t o us the s i s ter i n f luences of nature --beauty and
fear--as they work upon us in va ry i ng degrees .
And a s
he expla i ns later ( 1 . 5 7 1 - 6 4 1 ) , nature " by ext r i n s ic
pa s s i on f i r s t I P eopled my mi nd w i t h be aut eous forms or
g rand I And made me love them , " and spoke rememberable
" th i ngs 1 s omet imes ,
' t i s true , I By chance co l l i s i ons
and q ua i n t acc i den ts-- I Like those i l l-sorted union s ,
work suppos ed I O f evi l-mi nded f a i r i e s •
•
•
• "
Yet
t hese are not wi thout purpose
if haply they impres sed
Col latera l [ " i nd i rec t " OED ] ob j e c ts and
appearances ,
Albe i t l i f eless then , and doomed to s leep
Un t i l maturer seasons cal led them forth
To impregnate and to elevate the mind .
I n short , he represents to h i s reade r s the ki nd of
i n f l uences he has expe r i enced and then broadens h i s
vi s ion t o i l lumi nate the spec i f i c func t i on o f th e s e
memor i e s to he i g h t e n t h e powe r of h i s ma t u r i n g m i nd ,
all
160
of th i s serving to exemp l i f y to us the l aws by wh i ch
natu re i n f l uences the sympathet ic observer .
Th i s pattern of presen t i ng selected scenes imag ing
beauty and fear in wh i ch one or the other of these
i nf luences domi n ates occurs throughout The Prelude , a l l
helpi ng t o reveal how nature and t h e imag i nat ion can
habi tua l ly act and reac t upon each other to teach man to
real i z e a d i v i ne j oy and harmony , to rega i n lost
parad i s e here and now wi thout despa i r i ng of the pa i n s
and d i s appoi ntmen t s i nheren t i n our be ing an active part
of human i ty and nature .
It i s a complex pattern tha t
Wordsworth offer s , exh i bi t ing to u s vary i ng degrees o f
expe r i ence , s ome more f r i ghten i n g and severe than
other s , some more profoundly beaut i f u l .
But he i s
careful to ma i n t a i n a ba lance , to recon c i l e the
beaut iful and fearful images wh ich ref lect the d i vers i ty
of h i s exper i ences .
H i s structur i ng of image patterns
in book 1 is an excellent example of th i s ba l ance .
Remembrances of boyhood expe r i ences i n volving beauty and
ca lmnes s , such a s the s teady cadence of the sounds of
f lowi ng water blend i ng w i th h i s nurse ' s song ( l i nes
2 7 3 -85 ) , are j uxtapos ed with recol lec t ions of fear and
confus i on , such as the " und i s t i nguishable motion " of
" low brea t h i ngs " wh ich the boy imag i nes after h avi ng
t aken a b i rd from another ' s snare < l in es 3 0 6 - 3 3 ) .
These
Ml
remembrances , in each case j uxtapos i ng images of fear
with images of beauty , are con s i s ten t ly followed by the
mature speaker ' s un i fy i ng pronouncemen ts ; he assures the
reade r that the scenes of h i s chi ldhood , i n c i dents in
wh ich the boy rema ined unconscious of the worki ngs of
nature on the imag i nation , are a vital pa rt of an
ult imate ba lance , a blending of beauty and f ear now
apprec i ated by the matured speaker .
Wordsworth leaves
no doubt about the result of these past momen ts :
The mind of man i s framed even l i ke the breath
And harmony of mus i c . There i s a dark
Invi s i ble workmanship that reconc i les
D i scordant elemen ts , and makes them move
In one soc i e ty . "
( 3 5 1- 5 5 )
The cl imax of these scen es i s the Mt . Snowden
ep i sode ( 1 3 . 1 0 - 1 1 9 ) i n wh ich Wordsworth desc r i bes the
mos t profound and i n s ightful of h i s expe r i ences , the
ascent of Mt . Snowden . 4
There he envi s ions the
paradi se to wh i ch nature has been di rec t i ng h im .
The
ear l ier i nc ident s desc r i bed in The Prelude are
4 As M. H . Abrams argues , the ascen t of Mt . Snowden
desc r i bed in the f i na l book of � Prelude i s a
cl imactic revelat ion i n wh ich Word sworth achi eve s the
vi s i on of which he s i ngs in his P rospectus to The
Recluse . Abrams sugges ts that the ascen t of the
mountain becomes a metaphor for the c l imac t i c s tage
n both of the journey of l i fe and of the imag i nat ive
j ourney whi ch i s the poem i tself .
Th i s t ime , howeve r ,
the wa lk i s not a movement along an open p l a i n but the
ascent of a mounta i n , the traditional place f or
def i n i t i ve vi sions s i nce Moses had climbed Mount S i n a i "
( " De s i gn " 5 9 3 ) .
p repa ratory to that c l imax , not only imag i ng to us
Wordsworth ' s expe r i ences , but also symbo l i ca l ly
develop i ng the poet ic myth of rega i n i ng lost parad i se ,
wh i ch i s Wordsworth ' s greatest ac hievement .
W i t h i n the
framework of developing image patterns wh i ch Wordsworth
employs to tran sport us on hi s poet i c j ourney through
the mi nd , the g rotesque plays a spec i f i c role .
It is
one of the mean s by wh i ch the mind ascends o n i ts
journey upward toward a sublime v i s i on .
No better example of Wordsworth ' s use of g rotesque
image patterns e x i s ts in The Prelude than the
boat-stea l ing scene in book 1 ( 3 7 2 - 4 2 6 ) .
Reca l led i n
the l ight o f memory by a matured m i nd and pre sen ted i n
the context o f the ent i re poem , that i n c ident
i l lus tra tes spec i f ically the func t i on of the g rotesque
w i th i n Wordsworth ' s tota l poet ic vi s i on .
The scene beg i n s ( 3 7 2 -8 4 ) with the poet ' s
recol lect ion of one part icular even i ng f rom h i s boyhood
when he bor rowed , wi thout permi s s i on , a s hepherd ' s boat
t ied up by the edge of a beaut i ful lake .
Be was a
traveler there wh i l e on a hol i day f rom school , s o the
countrys i de and lake were unfam i l i ar to h i m .
The n ig h t
was espec i a l ly beaut i ful , with the moon s h i n i ng
br ightly on the lake among · the "hoary moun ta i n s , " and a s
h e g l i ded out upon the water in hi s boat , facin g the
163
shore as he rowed outward , he saw •• c i rc l e s g l i tter i ng
i dly in the moon , I Unt i l they mel ted a l l i n to one trac t
I Of sparkl i ng l i ght . "
Wordsworth i s carefu l to inf use
elemen ts of fear within the images of v i s i onary beauty .
H i s en joymen t of the expe r i ence i s dampened by h i s
awareness o f h avi ng s tolen the boat :
s tealth I And troubled pleasure . "
" I t was a n act of
An d the hoary
mounta ins ' echoi ng of h i s boat ' s s ounds in the othe rwi se
" s i lent lake " undoubtedly increases the fearful ten s ion
w i th i n the boy ' s m i nd .
As he rows out ( 3 8 4 - 4 2 6 ) , he f i xes h i s view upon a
" craggy ridge , I The bound of the hor i z on , " but as hi s
boat moves g racef u l ly through the water " l i ke a swan , "
suddenly an other moun ta in appea rs , prev i ou s ly out of
view beh i nd the craggy r i dge : " a hugh c l i f f , I As i f
with voluntary power i n s t i nct , I Upreared i ts head . "
As
the boy des c r i bes , he str uck the lake aga i n and aga i n
with h i s oars , but " g rowi ng s t i l l i n s tature , the hugh
c l i f f I Ros e up between me and the s tars , and s t i l l I
With measure mot i on , l i ke a l i ving thing I Strode after
me . "
The boy , tremb l i ng with fear , s to le h i s way back
to the cavern where he f i rs t di scovered the boat .
The i mages of beauty--moon l ight ref l ec t ion s , the
swan- l i ke boat , the s tar s--con trast sharply with sudden ,
fear ful images--t he mount ain ' s uprear i n g , se rpen t-like
164
head and i ts s t r i d i ng af ter him " l ike a l i v i ng
thing " --and they pro j ec t concretely the boy ' s i nner
s tate of troubled pleasure , but wi th fearful image s
over bear i ng images o f beauty .
T he result i s that the
boy , having left the boat at the lake , i s h aun ted by an
a l ien , fr ighten i n g vi s i on :
and after I had seen
That spectacle , for many days my bra i n
Worked with a dim and undetermi ned sen se
In my though ts
Of unkn own modes of be i ng .
There wa s a darknes s--ca ll it soli tude
Or blank de sert ion--no fami l i ar shapes
Of hour ly ob jects , images of tree s ,
Of sea or sky , no colour s of green f ields ,
But hugh and mighty forms that do not l i ve
Like l ivi ng men moved slowly through my mi nd
By day , and were the trouble of my dreams . ( 4 1 7 -2 6 )
The boy ' s mind bec ome s una ble to perc e i ve i t s usual
world of beaut i f u l nature .
Ins tead , h i s v i s i on s ugge s ts
to him unknown modes of be i ng that are awesome i n f orm ,
g rotesque and f r i ghten i ng s upernatural bei ng s born of
h i s imagi nat ion but g rounded upon the rea l i ty of the
mountain crag , whose form sparked the imag i nat ion .
The exper ience of the boy s tr i ki ngly portrays on e
kind of exper ience wh i ch Wordsworth de s c r i be s i n h i s
f ragment " The Subl ime and the Beaut i ful " and wh i ch I
have suggested i s appropriately termed the �te�
(� pages 4 0-42 above) :
Yet i t cannot be doubted that a C h i l d or an
unpracticed person whose mind i s possessed by
the s i ght of a lofty prec ipice , with i t s att i re
of hang i ng rocks & sta r t i n g trees , & c . , has been
165
vi s i ted by a sen se of sublimity , i f personal
fear & surpr i se or wonder have not been carr i ed
For wha tever suspends
beyond cer ta i n bound s .
the compa r i ng power of the m i nd & pos ses ses
it wi th a fee l i ng or image of i n ten se un i ty ,
wi thout a con sc i ous con templat ion of parts ,
has produced that s tate of the mi nd wh i ch i s
the consummat ion of the subl ime . - -But i f
personal fear be stra ined beyond a certa i n
poi n t , th i s sensation i s des troyed .
But i f that Power wh ich i s exa l ted above our
sympathy impresses the mind wi th person a l fea r ,
so as the sen sat ion becomes more l i vely than
the impres s i on or thought of the exc i t ing caus e ,
then self -cons i derat ion & al l its accompany ing
li ttleness takes place of the s ub l i me , &
whol ly exc ludes i t . ( P rose Works 3 5 3 - 5 4 )
•
•
•
Thus , by Wordsworth ' s own def i n i t ion the expe r i ence i s
not the cons ummat i on of the subl ime , a l though i t does
involve many of the same attr i butes wh i ch can lead to
the su bl ime i f the perceiver i s able to elevate h i s own
m i nd so that the re i s a feel i ng or image of in ten se
un i ty , wi thout a contemplat i on of par ts .
I f the
perceiver cannot accomp l i sh th i s eleva ted s tate, the
s ubl i me i s de s troyed .
As Wordsworth as serts ,
if th i s [ the sen sat ion of sub l i m i ty ] i s
ana lyz ed , the body of th i s sen s a t i on wou ld be
found to res olve i tself i n to three component
par ts : a sen se of individua l form or f orms ; a
sense of durat ion ; and a sen s e of powe r .
The
whole complex impre s s i on i s made up of these
elemen tary parts , & the ef fect depends upon
the i r co-ex i s tence . For , i f any one of them
were abs tracted , the others would be depr i ved
of the i r power to affec t .
( Prose Works 3 5 1 )
I n short , the boy i s unable to ach i e ve a sub l i me v i s i on ,
for h i s m i nd lacks the mature power to e f f ec t a tota l
vi s i on of un i ty .
166
But as Wordsworth makes quite c lear , the even t ,
g rotesque i n nature rather than subl ime , i s not w i thout
purpose , for he immed iately fol lows the boat-stea l i ng
i n c ident wi th an of fer i ng of pra i se to a " w i s dom and
sp i r i t of the un i verse " :
not i n va i n ,
By day or star-ligh t , thus from my f i r s t dawn
Of ch i ldhood didst thou i n tertwine for me
The pa s s i ons that bui ld up our human s oul ,
Not wi th the mean and vu lgar works of man ,
But wi t h h igh objec ts , wi th endur i ng th i ngs ,
Wi t h l i fe and Nature , pur i f ying thus
The elemen ts of fee l i ng and of thought ,
And sanc t i fyi ng by such di scipl i ne
Both pa i n and fear , un t i l we recogn i se
A grandeur i n the beatings of the hea r t . ( 4 3 1-41 )
As Wordsworth vividly expresses here , the value of the
boat- s teal i ng " spot of time" i s that i t represents the
proce s s by which an i n forming spi r i t works over time to
i ntertwine certa i n pas s ions i nto the human s oul and by
such d i sc ipl i ne to sanc t i f y both p a i n and fear un ti l we
mature to the recogn i t i on of a grandeur i n our own
hearts .
The c r i tical word i n th i s passage i s unt i l , for i t
i s evident that the boy does not come t o a n awa reness of
g randeur immediatly .
at that moment .
He does not exper i ence the subl ime
The subl ime vi s ion , such as Wordsworth
late r exper i enced on Mt . Snowden , requi red a more
matured imag i nat i on .
On the contrary , the boy i s left
with conf u s i on , an ove rpower i n g sense of i ncongru i ty
167
between his normally :perceived \\Urld and a shocking ,
newly pe rce i ved world which troubles h i s con s c i ous m i nd
and h i s dreams .
He i s not one wi th the un i ve rse of
thi ngs about h im, but rather is d i s t i nc t l y a l i enated
f rom h i s world .
Thi s po i n t i s e s sen t i a l , for cr i t ical
to apprec i a t i ng Wordsworth ' s poeti c vi s i on of man ' s
i n terac tion wi th the external wo rld i s an under s tand i ng
of the proces s of the imag i nation ' s growth .
The
boat- stea l i ng i nc ident becomes valuable later i n the
l ight of an expe ri enced imag i nat i on that th rough a
habi tual d i sc ipl i n e of fear and beauty i s able to
ach i e ve a subl ime vi s ion .
As previous ly men tioned ( pages 2 - 3 above > , in h i s
attempts t o s tudy the grotesque i n Wo rdsworth , Ronald
Earl Morgan con fuses the grotesque experience with the
sublime .
S imi larly , i n a recent s tudy of the s ubl ime in
Engl i sh poetry and pa i n t i ng , James Twi tchel l refers to
the boa t- stea l i ng i nciden t of The Prelude as an example
of the deve lopmen t of the " subliming s e l f " theme i n
Wordsworth , and more spec i f i cally labels that scene an
examp le of the subl ime as derived f r om Burke ' s
def i n it ion ( 6 1 - 6 2 ) .
Yet Twi tchell f o ll ows that notion
with a di scus s i on of Wordsworth ' s requ i s i tes for the
subl ime , not i ng that a sense of durat i on i s one of the
elemen ts Word sworth def in es as essen t i a l to the subl ime .
168
C learly , the re i s no true sen se of durat ion appa ren t to
the boy in this scene .
The f i nal sense of duration the
poet rea l i z es comes later , fol lowi ng the ascent of Mt .
Snowden , only af ter early expe r i ences are unders tood in
the light of a matured , expe ri enced i mag i nat ion .
The
boa t- s tea l ing i nc i den t i s grotesque i n nature , not
subl ime , and thus it s function i s to play a part i n a
m i n i s t ry of fear that helps develop the boy and prepare
h im for a later total , subl ime v i s ion .
I n the boat ing
scen e , the boy becomes aware of unknown modes of be i n g ,
o f a pos s i ble sp i ri tual realm that l i es beyond nature ,
but he achieves no complete vis i on of that sp i r i tual
realm, rather soli tude or " blank desert ion , " and a vague
s en s e of "huge and mighty forms " wh i ch trouble h i s m i nd .
In h i s br i l l i an t comments on The P r e lude , Geof frey
Hartman warns that the pattern of the poem i s extremely
comp lex and that on e mus t be care f u l to recog n i z e
Wordsworth ' s s tr uggle t o unf old t h e process of the
developing i mag ination , espec i a l ly i n the early books .
As he exp lains , the "narrat i ve we ight of The Pre lude ,
therefore , i s not on chi ldhood , but on the d i f f i cult
proces s whereby the sou l , hav i ng overcome i tself through
nature , mus t now overcome nature through nature . n
In
s hort , Har tman suggests that the "problem of how the
senses lead beyond themse lves , or bear w i tness to the
169
u n s ubdued imag i nat ion , i s an extreme ly comp lex on e �
contrad i c t i ons hedge i t about " ( Wordsworth ' s Poetry
221-22 ) .
Cer t a i n ly such i s the case in the boat-steal i ng
i nc iden t , wh ich i l luminates the k i nd of s trugg le the
boy ' s imag in ation underwen t on i ts journey upwards
towa rd a total , c lear vi s ion .
mag n i tude .
The i n c ident is one of
The boy has moved beyond perce iving forms of
nature as mere s t imul i to a recogn i t i on of nature as
offer i ng s i gns of an inf i n i te realm lying beyond h i s
f i n ite , tempora l wor ld .
But it i s too s imple t o assume
t hat the boy ' s exper ience of the g rotesque moun tai n and
the s ubsequent dark forms i n h i s mind ' s eye i s i tself
subl ime .
J. R. Watson r i ghtly argues that the boy ' s
observing the mounta in coming after h i m , at least as he
t h i nk s he sees i t , is "a man i f e s tat ion of a force i n the
u n i verse , " but it serves as a memory that beomes
i l lum i n ated as the ch i ld grows older :
" The
' blood-s t i r r i ng Thou ' rema i n s i n the memory , to
cou n teract the i nexorable augmen tat ion of the world of
I t " ( 13 5 ) .
Early i n th i s cen tury , with h i s charac ter i s t ic
i n s i ght , A . c. B radley argued that to apprec i ate
Word sworth ' s poetry fully , on e mu s t unders tand the
i mpor tance of a " mys t i c " s t r a i n in h i s poems .
Bradley
170
observes that i n Wordsworth ' s poems .. there i s always
traceable a certa i n hos t i l i ty to ' s ense , ' " and he
carefully exp l a i n s that he uses the word sense in a
poe t i c way , in that poetry f rees us from the regular
act ion of cus tomary sen sory exper ience , or at leas t
breaks i n to cus tomary sensory percep t ion , and so may be
cons idered hos t i le to norma l sen s e .
For example ,
Brad ley notes that when Wordsworth wr i tes of daf fodi ls
danc i ng in glee , the hos t i l i ty to sense i s "no more than
a hos t i l i ty to � s ense : th i s ' sp i r i tua l world ' i s
i tself the sens i ble world more fully apprehended " ( 1 3 1 ) .
On the other hand , Bradl ey sugges ts , a more heightened
mys t ic s tra in i n Wordswor th ' s poetry i nvolves the kind
of expe r i ence in which " there is always some fee l i ng of
def i n i te contrast w i th the l im i ted sen s i b le world .
The
arresting feature or object i s felt i n s ome way aga i n s t
thi s background , o r even as i n some way a den i a l o f i t "
( 13 1 ) .
And Bradley s uggests th at the exact nature of
thi s k i nd of hos t i l i ty to sen se var i e s tremendous ly i n
Wordsworth ' s poems .
I t may i n volve " vi s i onary unearthly
l ig h t " or a " feel i n g that the scene or f igure bel ongs to
the world of dream " or an i n t imat i on whi ch contrad i c ts
or aboli shes " the f i xed l im i ts of our habitual v i ew , " or
j us t a complete sense of obscur i ty , " u n l i ke the fami l i a r
modes .. ( 1 3 1 > .
I t i s th i s la s t feel i ng , one of obs cur i ty
171
t hat breaks i n upon the boy ' s sen ses i n the boat i ng
i nc ident .
But , Bradley argues , thi s scene ends i n more
than mere perplex i ty :
"There i s apprehen s ion , and we are
approac h i ng the subl ime " ( 13 2 > .
Bradley • s use of the word approaching provides the
key , for un li ke the several later cr i t ics who assume the
boat i ng i nc i den t i s an expe r i enc i ng of the subl ime ,
Bradley sees i t as mov ing us towa rd the subl ime .
that d i s t i nc t i on i s crucial .
And
The i nc ident moves the boy
toward sublimity , but does not ac tua l ly ach ieve
subl imity .
The expe r i ence i s by def i n i t i on better
termed the g rotesque .
Wordsworth ' s poet i c revelat ion of
the g rowth of h i s mind as symbol i c o f certa i n laws by
wh ich nature operates on the imag i nat ion here
exemp l i f ies the spec i f i c funct i on of the g rotesque .
It
becomes a means o f approach i ng a h i gher realm of
spi r i tual , mys t i c percept ion .
The expe r i ence of the
g rote sque provides food f or the g rowi ng i mag i nat ion , and
i n tertwined over t i me with other experi ences of beauty
and fear plays a v i tal role i n fos ter i ng the g rowth of
the imag i nat i on to move toward a complete v i s i on wh i c h
i ncorporates n o t o n l y t h e f i n i te temporal world , but
a lso the i nf i n i te eternal un i ve rs e .
The habi tua l expe r i encing of the g rotesque , purged
by t ime of its fear ful immediacy , becomes for Wordsworth
172
a revelat ion , and subsequen tly i n h i s poet ry grotesque
image pa tterns become revelatory of the sp i r i tua l v i s ion
pos s i b le for all men .
Through h i s own exper i enc i ng of
the g rotesque , Wordsworth recog n i zes that h i s
imag i nat ion , spa rked by a min i s try of fear born o f
" accidents " of nature , creates i t s own d i m , g rotesque
modes of be i ng .
The g rotesque images are rooted i n
natural phenomena but are expanded by the powe r of h i s
own crea t ive m i nd , and thus become reflec t ive o f h i s
i nward percept i ve abi l i ty that can envi s i on rea lms
beyond the immed iate world which he senses have
mys ter ious af f i n i t i e s wi th an al l-encompas s i ng crea t i ve
power .
But the d i f f iculty i n understand ing the spec i f i c
funct i on of the g rotesque i n Word sworth ' s poetic
unfoldi ng of the imag i nation ' s growth l i es i n
d i s t i ngui sh i ng how the imag i nati on reacts d i f ferently to
experiences wh ich end in con fus ion--in a fearful , ac ute
awareness of i ncong ruou s modes of be i ng --as compared to
expe r i ences whi ch lead h im to a sense of wholen ess and
onenes s with i n f i n i ty .
The an swer l ies in understanding
the complexi ty of the func tion i ng of the imag i nat ion as
Wordsworth apparently unders tood i t .
As w . J . B. Owen
suggests ( "Wordsworth ' s Imag i nat ions " > , the poet never
produced a susta ined , spec i f i c theory of the
173
imag i nation ' s nature and operat ion , al though he did come
to see that the imag i n at ion i s creat i ve and quas i -d i v i ne .
I n h i s poetry and prose , Wordsworth often def i ned the
imag i nat i on as Cole r i dge d id in Biograph i a Literar i a ,
Chapter 1 3 : the imag inat ion i s e i ther P r imary or
Secondary .
The Pr imary imag i nat i on func t i ons to
i n terpret and g i ve s ign i f i cance to the envi ronment--for
example , the abi l i ty to perceive an apple d i s t i nctly as
an apple .
The Secondary imag i nat ion , on the other hand ,
i s the creat i ve imag i nation of the art i s t who can
assemble elements of nature i n to a un i ty wh i ch revea l s
Etern i ty--for example , Wordsworth ' s Mt . Snowden v i s i on
i n book 13 i n wh i ch objects of nature appear as "The
per fect image of a mighty Mind " ( 6 9 ) .
Word swor th ,
un l i ke Coleridge , i s " in tent on eleva t i ng the act of
perception , the mea n i ngful i n terrelation of man ' s m i nd
with the envi ronmen t , to the s tatus of art i s tic
creat ion " ( 2 2 2 ) .
Qui te important to the purposes of th i s s tudy i s
that Wordsworth s ometimes perce ives the imag i nation as
working in a thi rd way , separate f rom i ts func tion i ng a s
e i ther Pr imary o r Secondary .
Wordsworth revea ls that
at t imes the imag i nat ion i s not d i s t i nc t ly crea t ive , but
r ather is i n tensely recepti ve .
For example , in book 2
of The Prelude ( 2 3 7 -8 0 ) , wordsworth pra i ses the " infant
174
ba be , " for i t revea ls to us the way our mi nds deve l op ,
and he ble s se s the i n fant because wi th the poet ' s " be s t
con jecture s " h e wou ld " trace I The Prog re s s o f our
be i ng " ( 2 3 8 - 3 9 ) . 5
Wordsworth pro fesses of the ba be
that "From Nature largely he rece i ves � nor s o I I s
s at i s f i ed , but la rgely g i ves aga i n " ( 2 6 7 -6 8 ) .
And he
procla ims tha t the i n f ant ' s mind , " Even as an agen t of
the one g r e a t mi nd , I Crea tes , crea tor and rece i ver
both , " worki ng in a l l i a nce with the forms of na ture
( 271-75 ) .
Thus , Wo rdsworth es tabl i s hes e a r ly i n The
Pre lude bo th the creat ive and t he recep t i ve
facu l t i es of the imag i n at ion and the i r relat i on s h ip to
the Eterna l . 6
Owen ref e r s spec i f ica l ly to a numbe r of poems and
pas s ages in Wordsworth ' s poetry wh ich revea l t he
recep t i ve imag i nat ion a t work ( 2 18-21 ) .
As he sugges ts ,
one of the mos t importan t i s "There Wa s a Boy , " wh i ch
f i rs t appea red i n Lyr i cal Ba llads ( 18 0 0 ) , was l a t e r
5 Becaus e o f Wor dsworth ' s close relat ion s h i p wi t h
Coler idge , di scuss i ons of Wordsworth ' s v i ews o f the
imag i n a t i o n natura lly tend to compare h i s more p �et i c
t reatmen t of the imagi nat ive faculty wi th Cole r i dge ' s
scattered comme n t s in B i ograph ia Li terar i a .
P robably
the most de f i n i t i ve of the c r i tica l d i s c us s i on s
compa r i ng the two poets ' theor ies i s Raymond Dexter
Haven s ' s commen ts i n The Mind of � Poe t C l . 2 0 5 - 2 9') J
6 Earl i e r , i n Tin tern Abbey " ( 1 7 9 8 ) , Wordsworth
speak s of the eye and e a r "--both wha t they half
c reate , I And wh at pe rce i ve " ( Poet ical Wor ks 1 0 6 - 0 7 ) .
175
i ncorporated i n to The Pre lude ( 5 . 3 8 9 -4 2 2 ) , and was
publ i s hed i n Poems i n Two Volumes ( 1 8 1 5 ) , whe re i t was
placed under the head i ng "Poems of the Imag i nat ion . "
In
h i s commen ts on that poem i n the Preface t o the 1 8 15
ed i t ion , Wordswor th exp l a i n s the poem ' s purpose :
" I have
begun wi th one of the e a r l i es t proces ses of Nature i n
the developmen t o f t h i s faculty [ the imag i nat ion ] .
I
h ave repre sented a commutat ion and transfer of i n terna l
feel i ngs , co-opera t ing w i t h external acc idents to plan t ,
for immorta l i ty , images o f sound and s i ght , i n the
celes t ia l soi l of the Imag i nat ion " ( Brett 2 9 9 ) .
As the poem appears i ncorporated i n to The Pre lude ,
Wordsworth reveals how on many occasions the boy wou ld
stand alone i n t he beauty of nature unde r the even i ng
s ta rs and blow "mimic hoot i ngs to the s i lent owl s I Tha t
they might answer h i m " ( 3 9 8- 9 9 ) .
And i t of ten chanced
that i n paus es of deep s i lence , when the owl s d i d not
respond to h i s ca l ls , " a gentle s hock of m i ld s urpr i se I
Has carr ied far i n to h i s heart the vo i ce I Of moun ta i n
Haven s sugges ts that Wordsworth may have i n f luenced
Coler i dge , not i ng that The Prelude ( 18 0 5 ) precedes
Coleri dge ' s commen ts i n B i ograph i a L itera r i a ( 18 1 7 ) by
H aven s a rgues that Wordsworth i s no
more than a decade .
mere " tame d i s c iple " of Coleridge ' s theor i e s , but
concludes they were i n " subs tan t i a l agreemen t . " Only
Owen has spec i f i ca l ly recogn i z ed the important thi rd
function of the imag i n at ion that Wordsworth reveals and
has of fered a mor e i n - depth ana lys i s of Word swor th ' s
unde r s tandi ng of the imag i n at ive faculty .
176
torrents " ( 4 0 7 - 0 9 ) .
As Owen con tends , th i s pas s age ,
a long with n ume rous others , demons trates the recept i ve
imag in ation wh i ch receive s i n f l uences from 11 accidents 11
of nature wh i ch are carr ied deep i n to the hear t , u s u a l ly
early in l i fe , and a re stored i n " t he celes t i a l soi l 11 of
the imag i nat ion for immor ta l i ty ( 2 1 8 ) .
Thus ,
Wordsworth ' s poet ic vi s ion i l luminates how the recept ive
imag i na t i on implants images wh ich a re stored to later
feed the d i vi nely creat ive imag i na t ion .
The s tored
images , whi ch are s ugges t ive of s omething other-wo rldly
and eternal , h ave not yet coalesced i n to a f i n a l v i s ion .
Nevertheless , they later become a v i tal part of the
sus ta ined vi sion focus ed by the matured imag i na t ion .
In s hor t , Wordswor th ' s poetry , and espec i a lly
certa i n passages of The Prelude , suggests that the
imag i nation can work on an i n tensely recep t ive level not
common to normal exper ience .
Certain acc idents of
nature ( i . e . , a s udden awa reness of i ncongru i ty , the
g rotesque > can so impress thems elves upon the obs erver
that the m i nd becomes acutely receptive of these images
and thei r effects and s tores these experiences for
pos s i ble later recol lect ion in tranqui l l i ty , whe re they
are reshaped by the creat ive imag i na t i on ( an alogous to
Coler idge ' s Secondary , a r t i s t i c imag i na t ion ) i n to a
mean i ngful u n i ty .
177
I f we app ly th i s notion to the g rotesque image
patterns Wordsworth prog res s i vely portrays i n certa i n
pas sages o f T h e Pre lude , w e c a n see spec i f i ca l ly how the
g rotesque tend s to f unction .
F i r s t , it a c ts a s a
cata lys t wh ich spa rks the intensely recept i ve
imag i n at ion , and thus impres ses i ncongruous images on
the mind for future nouri shmen t .
Second , i t f unc tions
as re-c reated images wh ich unde r the i l l umi n at i ng powe r
of the matured imagi nation fos ter a heigh tened awa renes s
of a profound , eterna l powe r that l i e s beyond and yet
speaks through these experiences of the g rotesque .
Thi s
second func t i on i s exemplif ied by the ma ture Wordsworth
looki ng back at these past scenes i nvol v i ng t he
g rotesque and i n the l ight of h i s matu red imag i n at ion
uni f yi ng them i nto a profound understand i n g .
Wordsworth ' s use of g rotesque image patterns i n The
Prelude , then , func tions poet ically a s s i gn i f i cant
re-creations of expe r i ence meant to impress themse lves
upon the reader to i n tens i f y the recept i ve imag i nat ion .
And t h i s expla i ns even more clea r ly why Wordsworth would
choose to relate h i s ch i ldhood exper i ences of the
grotesque early i n book 1 , divorced f rom the later
• spots of t ime n passage in book 11 .
The reader
expe r i ences these abrupt images prog res s i vely , s imi lar
to the way Wordsworth had actually expe r i enced them .
178
The reader i s i n troduced to them i n the ch i ldhood books ,
and the images i mpress themse lves and a re s tored for
later i l lum i nat ion a f ter the reader has experi enced the
poet ' s j ourney form chi ldhood to adu l thood , and thus has
vicarious ly expe r i enced images and objects i n the
progress ive way the poet d id .
The reader ' s process of
imag i nat ion as he reads The Pre lude become s a j ourney of
the imag i na t i on ' s growth s imi lar to the j ourney
Wordsworth h imse l f exper i enced .
Thus , the grotesque
image patterns appea r to the reader as i l l us t r at i ve of
one of the ways that nature , hab i t ua l ly sparking
" accidents " of percept i on , breaks th rough present
rea l i ty to i mpress upon the imag i na t i on a d im sense of
the va lue of other rea lms of bei n g , a n i l l umi nat ion of
the trans i ence of norma l sensory percept ion that
re-v i s i ons images of the presen t world and s tores tha t
new v i s ion to nour i sh and mature the m i nd for i ts
j ourney a loft to an a l l-encompas s i ng v i ew of man ,
nature , and the Eterna l .
The exper i ence o f the
g rotesque i s espec i a l ly va luable not f or any immed i ate ,
consc ious vi s ion i t offers , but rather for i t s f unc t ion
i n the process of s hapi ng and matur i ng the imag i nat i on .
I n i t s immed i acy the value of the g rotesque i s elus i ve ,
bu t purged by t ime and ren ewed by the c re a t i ve
179
imag i na t i on , i t become s a v i t a l l i nk to f i nd i ng u l t ima t e
joy .
I n book 11 ( 2 7 9- 3 2 7 ) , Wordsworth fol lows h i s
exp l anat i on of " spots of t ime' w i th a n example wh i c h
demon s tr a tes how a recol lected grotesque exper i ence i s
transformed over t i me by t h e imag i n a t i on so t h a t the
res idual ef fec t i s not the i n i t i a l fee l i ng of
over bea r i ng fear and c louded vi s ion , but ra ther an
eleva t ed feel i ng of joy and a more ethereal percep t i on
of a d ivine power wh ich feeds the s trugg l i n g imag i na t ion .
He recal l s a ch i ldhood expe r i ence ( not yet qui te s i x
years o ld ) i n wh ich h e had become i nadvertently
separ ated f rom h i s caretake r whi le on a horseback r ide .
He d i smounted h i s hor se " th rough f ear " and led i t to a
val ley bot tom " wh e re i n former t imes I A murderer had
been hung i n i ron cha i n s " ( 2 8 8 - 8 9 ) .
There he chanced
upon the n ame of the murderer carved i n a rock , and s o
he f led away to t he top o f the ad j o i n i ng bare common
where he saw a n aked pool , a s tone s ignal-beacon on a
summ i t , and a g i r l wi th a p i tcher on her head ,
s truggl i ng aga i n s t the wind .
As Wordsworth exp l a i n s , i t
was , i n truth ,
ordi nary s ig h t , but I should need
Colours and words that are unknown to man
To pai n t the vi s i onary drea r iness
Whi ch , wh i le I looked a l l round for my
los t guide ,
Did at that t ime in ve st the naked pool ,
The beacon on the lonely emi nence ,
An
180
The woman , and her garmen ts vexed and tos sed
By the s trong wind . ( 30 7 -1 5 )
But the memory of that inc i den t , reca l led a f terwards
when Wordsworth habi tua lly returned to that s ame
locat ion i n later years , is a recollection not of
fear and visionary dreariness , but rather one of nearly
divine pleasure .
For when he later wa lked i n that spot ,
there " fe l l I The sp i r i t of pleas ure and youth 1 s golden
gleam-- I And t h i nk ye not wi th rad iance more d i v i n e I
From these remembr ances , and f rom the power I They left
beh i nd? " ( 3 21-25 ) .
Wordsworth 1 s poi n t i s clear .
H i s present eleva ted
vi s i on pa radoxica l ly can be achieved only because he
reta ins the vivid imp ression of the ear l i e r g rotesque
images , but purged and transformed over t ime by a
creat ive imag i nat ion so that in blended m i g h t wi th
present exper iences t hey create an i l lumi nat ion w i th i n
h im , a " radiance more divine . "
Wordswort h con c l ude s :
" So fee l i ng comes i n a i d of feeling , and d i ve rs i ty of
s trength I Attend s us , if but once we have been s trong "
( 3 2 5-27 ) .
I t i s the d i vers i ty of h i s vi s i on wh i ch
s trengthen s h i s mind .
Wordswor th under s tand s , then , someth i ng of the
process of the g rotesque and i ts i n f luence on h i s
imag i nat ion , bu t h e also rea l i z e s that wh i le h e gl impses
the proces s , he cannot fu l l y exp l a i n i t :
181
Oh mys tery of man , from what a depth
P roceed thy honours ! I am los t , but see
I n simple chi ldhood something of the base
On wh ich thy g reatness stands--but th i s I feel ,
That f rom thyself it i s that thou mus t g i ve ,
Else never canst rece i ve . ( 32 8 -3 3 )
Wordsworth ' s vi s ion here i s partia l , but as he shows ,
par t i a l v i s ion becomes the foundation for later i n tense
i l lumi nat ion .
Becaus e of h i s having perce ived the
g rotesque at the hands of nature , he has rea l i zed that
i n t ime he both half -creates and half -perc e i ves h i s pas t
i nto a mean i ngful presen t , and it i s thi s imag i nat ive
exper ience he celebrates and envi s ions for h i s readers :
I s ee by g l impses now , when age comes on
May scarcely see at all ; and I would g i ve
Wh i le yet we may , as far as words can g i ve ,
A subs tance and a l i fe to what I feel :
I wou ld enshrine the spi rit of the pa s t
For future r e s toration . ( 3 3 7 - 4 2 )
I t i s h i s exp l i c i t poet ic purpose to transport the
reader on an imag i nat i ve j ourney th rough the process of
the g rowth of the m i nd as i t stores nou r i shmen t for
future crea t i ve restoration .
In book 12 , Wordsworth explains more concr etely the
workings of nature on the imag i nation as he has
exemp l i f ied those worki ngs experien t i a l ly in the ear l i er
books :
From Nature doth emot ion come , and moods
Of calmness equa l ly are Nature ' s g i f t :
Thi s i s her g l ory--these two a t t r i butes
Are s i s ter horn s that con s t i tute her s trength ;
Thi s twofold i n f luence i s the sun and shower
182
all her bounties, both in origin
And end a l i ke ben ignant . ( 1-7 >
Of
G rotesque , fearful exper iences , wh ich by the ir very
nature end i n s t rong emot ion --a trouble to the m i n d ,
are ba lanced over t ime with experiences of beauty , wh ich
leave the perc e i ver i n tranqui ll i ty .
Thi s process
mysteriou s ly develop s the imag i nat ion toward creat ive
g en i us :
Hence i t i s
That gen i us , wh ich ex i sts by in terch ange
Of peace and exc i tat ion , f i nd s in her [ N ature ]
His bes t and purest friend--from her rec e i ves
That energy by wh i ch he seeks the truth ,
Is rouzed , asp i res , grasps , s truggles , wishe s ,
crave s
From her that happy s t i l lnes s of the mind
Whi ch f i t s him to receive i t when un sough t . ( 7 -14 )
I t i s paradox i c a l ly the grotesque expe r i ence wi th a l l of
i ts accompanyi ng exc itement and confu s i on that
even tually enab les the crea t ive ly imag i na t i ve perce iver
to g enerate that s t i l lness of the m i nd necessary to
ach ieving a harmon ious vi sion of inf i nte trut h .
And
that total v i s i on comes upon him unsought , but wou ld not
come wi thout the preparatory proces s nature provides .
And Wordsworth s tresses that th i s kind of
heightened percept ion , th i s gen i us , i s pos s i ble in s ome
measure for a l l of humanity :
Such bene f i t may sou ls of humb l e s t f rame
Par take of , each in the ir degree � ' t i s m i ne
To speak of what myself have known and f e l t-­
Sweet task , for words f i nd easy way , inspi red
By g ra t i tude and con f i dence in truth . ( 1 5 - 1 9 )
183
And so , af ter havi ng progres s i vely prepared h i s
reader and having hi ms elf been prepa red poetical ly , in
the f i nal book ( 1 3 ) of The Prelude Wordsworth unve i l s
the complete poetic vi s i on for wh ich he had been
s tr i vi ng throughout h i s li fe and w i t h i n h i s poetry .
Employi ng the symbol of h i s ascent of Mt . Snowden
( 10 -1 1 9 ) , Wordsworth s i ngs the consummat ion of man ,
nature , and the Eternal .
The Power he envi s i ons upon
that " lonely mounta i n " ( 6 7 ) , bo rn of image s wh i ch nature
t hrus t upon h i s sen ses , become s
the express
Resembla nce--in the fullness of its s trength
Made vi s i ble--a gen uine coun terpart
And brother of the g lorious faculty
Wh ich h igher mi nds bear wi th them as the i r own .
( 86-9 0 )
As Jonathan Word sworth explains i n h i s gloss of thi s
passage , nature has demons trated by ana logy the power of
the human imag i nat ion ( 46 2 , note 1 ) .
Spec i f ically , as
Wordsworth looked out over the vas t expans e of the tops
of hundreds of h i l l s , he became aware of " a blue chasm ,
a fracture in the vapour , I A deep and g loomy
breath i ng-place " ( 5 6 - 5 7 ) .
The va s tness of the spec tacle
with a l l of i ts accompany i ng beauty was the catalyst to
produce tranqui l l i ty , whi le the dark chasm became the
cente r of the v i s i on :
The un iversal spec tacle throughout
Was sh aped for admi rat ion and de l i gh t ,
Grand i n itself alone , but i n that breach
184
Through wh ich the homeless vo ice of waters ros e ,
That dark deep thorough fare , had Nature l odged
The soul , the imag in ation of the whol e . ( 6 0 - 6 5 )
I n analogy , Wordworth explains how that exper i ence
became for him a symbol of gen ius , of the power of the
imag i nat ion :
A medi tat ion rose i n me that n ig h t
Upon the lonely mounta i n when t h e scen e
Had pas sed away , and i t appeared to me
The perf ec t image of a migh ty mind ,
Of one that feeds upon i nf in i ty ,
That i s exa lted by an under-presence ,
The sen s e of God , or whatsoe ' er i s dim
Or vas t i n i ts own be ing-- ( 6 6 - 7 3 )
Wordworth ' s revelat ion , then , i s that the imag i nat ion
f eeds upon the i n f i n i te forms of nature ( s uch as the
moun ta ins r i s i ng above the mi s t ) , wh ich in the i r
vas tness and power create within the perce iver a feeling
of beauty , o f inf i n i te harmony and tranqui l l i ty .
And
l i kewi se , the imag i nat i on i s exal ted by an
unde r-presence , the dark vi s ion wh i ch breaks through
i n to the tranqui l l i ty and harmony of the wor ld ( such as
the dark , romantic chasm ) .
And a s Wordsworth has
explained, s uch an el evat i on of the mind is pos s ible in
some degree f or all men .
The mind wh i ch has habi tually
exper i enced these s i s ter i n f luences of beauty and
f ear-produc i ng images i s now able to fuse them together
i n to a un i f ied vi s i on of the Eternal .
The crowni ng
height , the one to wh i ch Wordsworth had traveled on h i s
j ourney upward to a complete v i s i on , i s that one a t
185
which he ach ieves the " sense of God , or what soe ' er i s
dim I O r vas t i n i t s own be i ng , " formed o f both beauty
and fear , v i s i on and obscur i ty , and t he one at wh ich he
rea l i ze s that the m i nd of man can gl impse that d i vi n e
presence i n the immediacy of external rea l i ty .
That
a lone allows for a comp lete , subl ime v i s ion .
Wordswor th ' s analogy of the deep dark chasm as an
exa l t i ng under-presence that conta ins the " soul , the
imag i nat i on of the whole" is espec ially f i t t i ng to
Wordsworth ' s theory of the imag inat ion ' s g rowth as that
process i s unvei led i n The Prelude .
The " spots of t ime "
epi sodes i nvo lving g rotesque image pa tterns act as an
imag i nat i ve unde r -presence , a sugges t i on of another
i n f i n i te realm of exi s tence , to exa l t the poet ' s
expe r i ences of the vas tness and beauty of na ture , and
t hey act as an unde r-presence for the reader to thrus t
upon him an awa reness of a c reat ive imag i na t i on , a
nonrat ional percept ion , that i s the sou l of the poet and
that ref lec ts the essence of the creat i ve , i n s truct i ve
power that unde r l i e s natural forms .
The matured
imag i nati on that event ua l ly enables the man to re-create
t he boyhood memories of fearful expe r i ences i n to moment s
which portray a r enovating , l i ving power i s shown t o be
nurtured by the g rotesque , spa rki ng an awareness of the
mys ter ious and i n f i n ite , wh i ch so impres ses i ts e l f on
186
the m i nd that i t i s s tored to be syn the s i z ed with other
exper i ences of the g rotesque .
The res u l t is that the
imag i nat ion becomes tempered , is s trengthen ed , so that
r ather than a l lowi ng a per sonal fear of s t range new
percept ions to ove rbear and cloud the m i nd ' s vi s i on , the
imag i nat ion can embrace dark , unknown modes of exi s tence
a s symbol s of the eternal mind , that i s , as s ymbol s of
the c reat i ve
m i nd of God , " or whatsoe • er is dim I Or
vas t in i ts own be i ng-- " ( 7 2-73 ) .
A useful example of Wordsworth ' s awa reness of the
val ue of expe riences of the grote sque in temper i ng the
imag i nation appears in book 5 , where he cons i ders the
relat ionsh ip of books and formal educa t ion to the
imag i nation ' s g rowth in chi ldhood .
There he c r i t i c i z e s
teachers a n d thi nkers " who i n the i r presc ience wou ld
controul I All acc iden ts " ( 38 0 -81 ) , and he wonders
when will they be taught
That i n the unrea son i ng progres s of the world
A wiser spi r i t is at work for us ,
A better eye than the i rs , mos t prodigal
Of ble s s i ngs , and mos t s tudious of our good ,
Even i n wha t seem our mos t unfrui t f u l hou r s ?
( 3 8 3- 8 8 )
Be follows thi s avowa l for "un reason i ng progre s s " and a
f a i th i n a n i n s truc t ive l i fe force w i th the prev iously
men t ioned a there was a boy a epi sode ( see � 15 7-58 �) ,
wh i ch demons t rates how the chi ld ' s recept ive imag i nation
s tores a shocki ng awarenes s of "an uncer ta in heaven " for
187
future restoration .
He then pra i ses what he c a l l s "A
race of rea l chi ldren , not too wi se , I Too learned , or
too good " ( 4 3 6 - 3 7 ) who of ten bend " beneath our l i f e ' s
mysterious weight I Of pa in and fear , yet s t i l l in
happi ness I Not yielding to the happ i e s t upon ea rth "
( 4 42-44 ) .
Thus , Wordsworth reveals h i s be l ie f that mer e
goodness and knowledge alone are n o t enough i f w e hope
to become " real " human be ing s .
Goodness and knowledge
that are too " safe , " that as sume man can perc e i ve
absolutes rationally and exc lude i r rationa l dark
pe rcept ions , are too limi ted to support joyous l i fe .
Rather , true j oy and wi sdom lie i n not knowi ng too much ,
not be i ng aware of goodness alone .
I t i s a heigh tened
expe r i encing of l i fe ' s mysteries , a bendi ng before an
awareness of the ove rwhe lming mys ter ious , wh i ch i s
pa i n fu l and frighten i ng , that paradox iacal l y of fers the
mind supreme h app i n es s .
Later i n book 6 , when he descr i be s part of h i s own
educat ion , h i s expe r i ences as a young man on h i s wa lking
tour of the Alps , he men t ions spec i f i c ep i sodes i n wh ich
he expe r i enced a mys ter ious wei ght of fear born of a
recogn i t ion of s trange realms of be i ng , and yet he
e ventual ly came to real i z e the value of those g rotesque
expe ri ences to h i s own imag inative deve lopmen t .
One of
these epi s odes is h i s di sappoin tment when he learns that
188
h e has an ticl imac t ica lly crossed the Alps , that what he
had so eagerly ant i c ipated was in f ac t over .
He
descri bes how he fel t : " I wa s los t as in a c loud , I
Hal ted wi thout a s trugg le to break through " ( 5 2 9 - 3 0 ) .
Yet , now , in the l ight of maturer v i s ion , he perce ives
t hat moment i n a d i f f erent way :
And n ow , recove r i ng , to my sou l I say
' I recogn i se thy g l ory ' . I n such s trength
Of usurpat ion , i n such vi s i t ings
Of awf u l prom i se , when the l ig h t of sense
Goes out in f lashes that have shewn to us
The i nv i s i ble wor ld , doth greatness make
her abode ,
There harbours whether we be young or old .
our des t i ny , our nature , and our h ome ,
I s with i n f i n i tude--and only there . ( 5 3 1 - 3 9 )
I t i s when h i s mind i s vi si ted by sta rt l i ng experiences
whi ch make h im aware of " the invi s i ble wor ld " that he
r ecogn i z e s the eternal and stores th i s awaren ess so that
the mind becomes " s trong in i tself , and in the access of
joy I Which h i des it l ike the ove r f lowi ng N i le " ( 5 4 7 - 4 8 ) .
The s imi le of the N i le i s espec ia l ly tel l i ng , for i t
sugges ts that the s ta r t l i ng experience has pos i ted , l i ke
the N i le whose f loods br ing l i fe and ferti le soi l ,
someth i ng r i ch and fert i le i n the celes t i a l soi l of h i s
i mag i nation .
Another of h i s educat ive expe r i ences descr i bed i n
book 6 ( 6 1 7 -6 7 > of fers a fur ther exampl e of the
particular abi l i ty of the g rotesque to temper the
imag i nat ion .
He and h i s c ompan ion , lodg i ng near
189
Lacarne ' s Lake , mi sunder stood the time s ounded by t he
Ital i an clocks and arose too early and wandered lost and
bewi ldered i n " woods immense . "
They sat on a rock to
wa i t for dayl ight and watched a "du l l red image of the
moon " ref lected i n the wat er , "chang i ng of ten t imes i t s
form I Like a n uneasy snake . "
They heard s trange
sounds , such as the "cry of unknown bi rds , " and were
d i s tur bed by the haun t i ng forms of nature about them i n
the darknes s .
The result was that the s i ghts and sounds
did not leave them " free f rom pe rsonal fear . "
They
expe rienced there on the shore of the lake , g rotesque
images wh i ch we re a l i en to the i r usual , reasoned sensory
percept ion .
Immed iately fol lowing thi s passage , Wordsworth
care fu l ly expla i n s that such expe r i ences did not leave
h im u lt imately in " hollow exultation , " but rather
whate ' er
I saw , or heard , or fe l t , was but a s tream
That f lowed i nto a ki ndred s tream , a gale
That helped me forwards , did admi n i s te r
To g randeur and t o tendernes s - to t h e one
Directly , but to tender thoughts by means
Les s of ten i n s tan taneous i n ef fect-­
Conduc ted me to these along a pa th
Wh ich , i n the ma i n , was more c i rcuitous . ( 6 7 2 -8 0 )
The scenes of beauty and harmony he experienced there
brought a g randeur to h i s mind, but other scenes , such
as the g rote sque images of Locarno ' s Lake , even tual ly
190
l ed h im to "tender thoughts , " wh ich we can as sume were
subs tan t i a l ly exu lt ing .
The Pre lude , then , sys temat ica lly and prog re s s i vely
unve i l s the mean s by wh ich an i ns truc t i ve powe r can
exper ien t ia l ly lead the sympathe t i c obs erver of nature
to a subl ime v i s i on of man ' s oneness wi th the external
world and with the Eterna l .
Wordsworth ' s avowed f a i t h
i s that nature w i l l not betray the hea rt that loves her ,
but rather wi l l thrus t an " unreasoned " educat ion upon
h im , wh ich , because such an educat i on i s not
accomp l i shed through the usual , l imi ted conceptual
methods of f i n i te thi nke rs , can lead to an i n f i n i t e
unders tand i ng .
Wordsworth undoubt edly had come to see
that true unders tand i ng cannot be taugh t rati ona l ly nor
gai ned wi thout exper ienc i ng fear and angui s h .
A ben d i ng
before the awful mys tery of the eternal i s v i t a l to
gl imps i ng the magni tude of u l t imate rea l i ty .
He
rea l i z ed that an imitative phi los ophical poem or a
topograph ical poem emp loyi ng art i f ic i a l image pattern s
drawn f rom popular poetry or f i c t ions and based on
fanc i fu l assoc i a t ions rather than on real exper i ence
would not s uf f i ce .
H aving been h imse lf educated through
spots of t ime , thr ough moments of i l lum i nat i ng
expe r i ence i nvolving beauty and fear , h i s poet i c process
i n The Prelude mus t be to present selec t i vely image
191
patterns wh ich would transport h i s reader on an
exper ien t i a l j ourney very l ike the on e he had traveled
on h i s f l ight upward to vi s ionary he ights .
As
Wordswor th proc laims in h i s P rospectus , the reg a i n i ng of
parad i se can become the " s imple produce of the common
day " when the imag i nat ion i s " wedded to th i s goodly
un i verse I In love and holy pa ss ion . "
I t i s an understand i ng of the mag n i tude of the
ho ly , wha t Wordswor th ca lls " the one mig hty mind .. , that
the poet acknowledges th rough the g rotesque image
patterns in The Prelude .
As Rudo lf Otto argues i n h i s
cla s s i c s tudy The Idea of the Holy , " the holy " has been
mi s i n terpreted in trad i t ional Ch r i s tian orthodoxy to
mean "compl etely g ood , " and so an understanding of the
idea of the de i ty is limi ted to conceptua l human terms
i n whi ch the nature of God i s " thought of by analogy
with our human nature and persona l i ty " ( 1 ) .
Thus the
de i ty i s v i ewed only in rational , measurable , human
terms .
But , he con t i nues , the holy has and mus t i ncl ude
the i rrat iona l as part of i ts es sence :
" For so far a re
these • rat iona l ' at tr i butes from exhaus t i ng the idea of
dei ty , that they in fact imply a non-rat i ona l or
supra-rat ional Subject of whi ch they are pred i cates " ( 2 ) .
He adopts the word numi nous to name that someth ing
" extra • wh i ch mus t be included i n any true cons iderat ion
192
of the meaning of the holy .
The term numi nous sugges ts
a complexity of feeli ngs or sen s i ng s of the d i vi ne wh ich
are ir reduc i ble to conceptual terms , but i nc l uded wi thi n
th i s complex i ty of feel i ngs i s the emo t i on of a kind of
noth i ngness or blankness of the mind in wh i ch the
observe r i s " subme rged and overwhelmed by i ts own
noth i ngness i n contra s t to that wh ich i s s upreme above
a l l creatures " ( 10 ) .
A pa rt of the num i nous , wh ich Otto s ugge sts i s
ref lec ted i n the mind i n te rms of feel i ng and can only
be sugges ted through indi rec t modes of expre s s i on ,
is What he ca l ls a feel i ng of a " bewi lder i ng s t rength "
wh ich occupies the mind .
mys ter ium tremendum .
Otto c a l l s th i s fee l i ng
Mys ter ium denotes more than that
wh i ch i s hi dden and esoteric or unfami l i a r , because i t
i s not mere r ly a n egat i ve feel ing , but a ls o i s a
pos i t ive feel i ng .
Tremendum i s an emot ion of fear , but
quite d i s t i nc t f rom be i ng merely afraid .
Otto suggests
that the Hebrew word h igd i sh ( ha l l ow ) i s an example ,
because " ' to keep a th i ng holy i n the heart ' means to
mark i t off by a fee l i ng of pecul i ar dread , not to be
mis taken f or an ordinary dread " ( 13 ) .
It i s a
part icula r k i nd of fear of the d i v i n e that often " se i z es
upon a man wi th para lys i ng ef fect , " al though i t can come
upon him more gen t ly .
Th i s fear " beg i n s to s t i r i n the
193
feeling of ' some t h i ng uncanny ' ,
' eerie ' , or ' we i rd ' , "
and i t i s obj ec t i f ied i n diffe ren t modes .
I t i n vo lves
the mys ter ious s tr ength of the d i v i ne loom i ng before the
m i nd .
Perhaps Otto ' s be s t descript ion of th i s not ion of
the numi nous i s that it i s a " f eel i ng of the ' wholly
other ' " ( 1 9 7 ) .
te rms .
I t i s a Subj ec t wh i ch de f i es conceptual
In fac t , he notes that th i s feel i ng of the
" wholly other " g i ve s ri se to a tendency in r e l i g i ous
mys t i c s " to f o l l ow the ' via negation i s , • by wh ich every
predi cate that can be stated i n words becomes exc luded
f rom the absolute Numen --i . e . f rom De i ty-- t i l l f i na l ly
the Godhead i s desi gnated as ' nothingnes s ' and
' nu l l i ty , ' bea r i ng in mind always that these te rms
denote i n truth immeasurable plen t i tude of be i ng " ( 1 9 7 ) .
I t i s i nteres t i ng to note that Geof f rey Har tman , as I
have men t ioned ear l i e r ( see page 168
above ) , has a rgue d
that i n The P re lude Wordsworth came to rea l i z e that
nature i tself led him beyond nature , and in h i s art icle
pub l i shed in Modern P h i logy ( 1 9 6 2 ) , he asserts : " And
s i nce thi s movement of transcendence , or what my s t i c s
h ave often called t h e negat ive way , i s shown by
Wordsworth a s inherent i n l i fe , and as ach i e ved w i thout
violent or ascetic d i scipline , I have thought to name i t
a v i a natural i ter negativa " ( 2 1 4 ) .
" Holy pas s i o n , " a
194
he ightened sen s i ng of the eterna l , i s wi thout que s t ion
shown by Wordsworth to be numinous , and that f e e l i ng of
something extra , non-rational , and ghos tl ike that had
haunted Wordsworth throughout h i s youth and i n to manhood
did i ndeed , to borrow Otto ' s word s , " sur vive wi th the
qua l i ty of exa l tedness and sublim i ty " as i l lumi nated i n
The Prelude . ?
Spec i f ica l ly , i n summary , grotesque
image pa tterns func t i on in The Prelude as
represen tat ive s of the process by wh i ch natur e , spa rking
" acciden ts " of percept ion , awakens the imag i na t i on and
habituates and tempers it so that the mind i s able to
synthe s i z e i n i t ia lly overwhelming and f r i ghten i ng
expe r i ences of a " wholly other . "
These expe ri ences
become a k i nd of dim under-presence , a non-rational
recogn i t ion of holy fear or dread .
Th i s under-presence
exalts i mag i native perceptions s o that the observe r of
nature perc e i ve s the images of natura l expe r ience as
re f lect i ve of both he ightened beauty and awes ome fear ,
7 I n v i ew of Wordsworth ' s images of the mi s t-ve i led ,
dark roman t i c chasm as seen in the moon l i ght f rom Mt .
Snowden , i t i s i n terest ing to note Rudo lf Otto ' s
suggest i on that one of the di rec t means of repre sen t i ng
the numi nous i n Wes tern art i s darknes s .
The darkn es s ,
he sugges ts , " must be s uch as i s enhanced and made a l l
the more percept ible by contra s t w i t h s ome l a s t ve s t ig e
o f brightne s s • • • • The semi-darkness that g l immers i n
vau lted hal l s , or beneath the branches o f a lof ty fore s t
glade , s trang ely quickened and s t i rred by the mys ter i ous
play of h a l f - lights , has always spoken eloquen tly to the
195
the one mighty creat ive Mind that inhabi t s a l l of
crea tion .
And the mind of man i s i tself , as Wordsworth
asserts in the c los ing l i nes , "a thousand t imes more
beaut iful that the earth I On wh i ch he dwe l l s " because
the m i nd " i s i tself I Of subs tance and of fabr i c more
divine . "
Man , h imself at home in i n f i n i ty , is of fabr i c
more divi ne than the fabr i c wh i ch forms the ve i l of
na ture because the imag in ati on i s able to perce i ve
nature as re f l ec t ive of the magn i tude of the awfu l
beauty and holy dread that are i nheren tly part o f the
essence of God .
Thus , the mind of man partakes of
d i vi n i ty .
As men t ioned at the beg i n n i ng of th i s chapter ,
Wordswor th had proposed i n h i s P ref ace to the 1 8 1 4
edit ion o f The Excurs ion that The Pre lude wou ld have the
same relat i on to h i s in tended l ong , p h i losophi cal poem
as an an te-chapel has to the body of a goth i c church .
In h i s An Es say on Ma n , P rofessor Ernst Ca s s i rer
sou l • • • • " ( 6 8 ) . For an i n tere s t i ng di scus s ion of
Wordsworth ' s use of light and dark image patterns , see
Matthew Bren nan ' s "The Light of Word sworth ' s Des i re for
Darkness in The Prelude " ( see List of :References) .
Paradoxically;-Brennan suggests that darkness becomes
the des i red "medi um " for imag i nat i ve vi s i on .
As I h ave
sugges ted throughout th i s s tudy , the g rotesque image
patterns of ten i n volve a con trast i ng of dark , f earful
images wi th images of light and beauty , and these image
patterns are cata lys ts wh i ch spa rk and then temper the
imag i n at ion .
196
suggests that " I n nature , in mora l ity , in h i s tory we are
s t i l l l i vi ng in the propylaeum [ s tr uctured entrance ] of
phi losop i c a l wi sdom : in art we en ter i n to the s anc tuary
i tself .
The true poem i s not the work of the i ndiv idua l
art i s t : i t i s the un iverse i tself , the one work of art
whi ch is forever perfect i ng i tself " ( qtd . Steven s 1 3 6 ) .
I n that sen s e , The Prelude i s not Wordsworth ' s
ante-chape l .
I t i s the body of the church i tself .
What
i n terests Wordsworth in The Prelude i s the process of a
power in the universe per fec t i ng man ' s v i s i on .
And j us t
as g rotesque gargoyles adorn the goth ic cathedral as a
part of the archi tect ' s symbolic process i n creating a
s truc ture of wors h i p that i l luminates God , g rotesque
image patte rns adorn Wordsworth ' s poem , p roviding
symbols of a dark , mys terious presence that is vital to
the process of man ' s rega i n i n g lost paradi se through
imag i nat ive vi s i on .
197
CHAPTER VI
WORDSWORTH AS AN ARTIST OF THE GROTESQUE
The gros tesque image pa tterns appea r i n g i n many of
the bes t poems Wordsworth composed between 1 7 8 8 and
1 8 0 5 --beg i n n i n g s i gn i f i can tly wi th An Even i ng Wa lk and
con t i n u i ng through such poems as " S imon Lee , " "Nutting , "
" The Thorn , " and The Prelude ( 18 0 5 ) --re vea l that , i f
readers are t o apprec iate the magni tude of Wordsworth ' s
poe t i c ach ievemen t , they must avoid overs imp l i f icat ion
and imbalance .
In fa i l i ng to perce i ve the important
func t ion of the incongruous image pattern s i nheren t i n
these poems , readers too frequen tly d i smi ss the poetry
as flawed , not appreciating the va lue of j uxtaposed
imag es .
Typi cal examples are George Meyer ' s and John
N ichol s ' s commen ts about the swans passage of An Even i ng
Walk ( see page 70
above > .
Because they over look the
grotesq ue image s , they do not recogn i z e the complex i ty
of Wordsworth ' s poetic s tructure , the reby m i s s i ng the
r ich imp l icat ions of the poem .
And i n fa i li ng to
perceive the nature of the grotesque images i n h i s
poems , readers of ten relegate some o f Wordsworth ' s bes t
poetry to a body o f " trad i t ional " poems whi ch merely
cel ebrate the va lue of vi sionary beauty or re late mora l
and soc ial me an i ng s .
In The Simple Wordswort h , John
198
Danby righ tly indi cates that much of the be s t of
Wordswo r th ' s poetry has been " swa llowed up in a general
' Wordsworthiani sm ' " relec t ing the i n f luence of readers
such as John Stuar t Mi l l , who sugge s ts in h i s
Autobi ography that Wordsworth ' s poe try i s a "medi c i ne
for the m i nd " wh ich evokes s tates of feel in gs as one
f a l l s under the exc i temen t of beauty ( 1 -2 ) .
Keats ' s comments about Wordsworth ' s egot i sm ( i n h i s
letter to John Ham i l ton Reynold s 3 Feb. 1818) and
Byron ' s commen ts about " the s imp le Wordswor th " i n h i s
"Engl i sh Bards and Scotch Revi ewers " are other examples
of c r i t i ca l notions whi ch have been i n f luent i a l in
f ix i ng a one-s ided preconcept ion about Wordsworth ' s
poet i c content and s tyle .
Wordswor th ' s poetry too of ten
i s as sumed to be an ego t i s t ica l seeking a f ter the
subl ime and the beaut iful , forc ing an i n va l id
i n terpreta t ion of the poems • images and s tructures wh i ch
over looks the fac t that many of h i s bes t poet i c pas sages
are evocat ions , and even celebra t i ons , of the grotesque ,
not the subl ime .
An
excel lent example i s the
boat-steal i ng scene i n book 1 of The Prelude ( l i nes
3 7 2 - 4 2 6 ) , whi ch c r i t i c s such as Rona ld Ea rl Morgan and
James Twi tchel l confuse wi th the sub l i me < see page 167
above ) , but wh ich actually i s grotesque , as are many of
the "spots of time 11 pa ss ages i n The Pre lude .
I n short ,
199
s tudents of Wordswor th who overlook the presence of
dark , fearful images among the images of beauty in h i s
poems and who f a i l t o cons ider h i s poetic revelations
about the e f f ec t of thes e images on the imagi nat ion ' s
g rowth are prone to perce ive Wordsworth as a poet of the
subl ime , an idea l i stic v i s ionary who chooses to look
only at the good and the beaut i f ul .
On the other hand , crit ical reade r s who too avidly
fol low the lead of A . c . Bradley , c . c . C la rke , and
othe r sc holar s who r ightly have recogn i z ed a dark
ten s i on i nheren t in Wordswor th ' s poetry ove r-emphas i z e
the fearful e l ement i n Wordsworth and focus upon the
da rk vi s ion that haun ts h i s poe try and d r i ves him away
f rom looking s tead i ly at an ug ly , d i s j o i n ted wor ld .
Geoff rey Hartman ' s argument i n Wordsworth ' s Poetry that
the poet ' s percept i on of nature f i nally f orces a
"con sc iousness of self rai sed to apoca lypt i c pi tch " ( see
page 15
above ) i s the bes t example of a s tudy of
Word sworth ' s poetry wh ich , though correct in i ts i n ten t
to emphas i z e the dark tens ion i n Wordswor th ' s poetry ,
over z ealously s tates the case at the expense of
bel i t t l i ng Wordsworth ' s optimistic v i s ion and t r i umphant
s trength a s power fully express ed in such poems a s
" T i n tern Abbey " and The Pre lude .
The truth i s that
Wordsworth does not c reate an imba lanced vi s ion of
200
e i ther fear or beauty in the body of h i s poetry , but
rather accomp l i s he s exac tly what Col e r i dge suggests i s
t h e mark o f a true poe t : the essen t i a l " ba lance or
reconc i l i at i on of oppos i te or di scordan t qua l i t i es "
( B iograph i a L i teraria 2: 1 2 ) .
Wordsworth acknowledges
the impor tanc e of th i s ba lance i n h i s P reface to the
Lyr ical Ba l lads where he sugges ts that the plea sure the
mind de r i ves from the perception of " s im i l i tude in
di s s im i l i tude and d i s s imi l i tude in s imi l i tude 11 is the
pr i nc iple whi ch acts as the great spr i ng of the act ivity
of the mind ( 2 6 5 ) .
And the fun c t ion of the g rotesque
w i t h i n the larger framework of the body of h i s poetry
c learly is to help ma i n tain th i s ba lance .
As I have
sugges ted i n Chapter s IV and V of t h i s s tudy , the
gro tesque func tions within the proces s of the
imag i nati on ' s g rowth as a counterba lanc e .
The unusual
"acc idents " of na ture spark the imag i n at ion so that i t
becomes acutely perceptive of a f r i ghten i ng , a l i en wor ld .
And over t ime , the experienc ing imag i n at ion becomes
matured so that i t escapes con f i n i ng i tself to seeking
rat ional " truth s " or retreat ing from the unorthodox .
The grotesque acts as a dark under-pre s ence that exa l ts
percept ions of beauty and harmony by temperi ng and
matur i ng the imag i nation so that i t can syn thes i ze
expe r ience i n to a complete vi sion of the awesome bea uty
201
and holy mys tery of crea t ion , so that the mind can bear
" the burden of the mystery . "
The g rotesque in
Wordsworth ' s poe try is an expres s ion of one of the c h i e f
mean s na ture employs t o nourish a n d mature the m i nd s o
that i t becomes excep t ionally wi se .
Wordswor th
expres ses the essen t i a l nature of th i s process i n h i s
poem " Expos tu lat ion and Reply " :
' The eye--i t cannot choose but see ;
We cannot bid the ear be s t i l l 1
Our bodies feel , where , e r they be ,
Aga i n s t or wi th our wi ll .
' Nor less I deem that there are Powers
Which of themselves our m i nds impress 1
That we can feed th i s mi nd of ours
I n a wi se pass ivenes s . ( Lyr ical Ba l lads 1 0 4 )
The expe r ie n t ial process by wh i ch the mind atta i n s
a "wi se pa s s iven es s " i s the v i s i on Wordsworth unve i l s i n
The Pre lude , symbol i z ed by the images the speaker
perce ives f rom the top of Mt . Snowden , but it i s an
oversimp l i f ication to label Wordsworth as a poet of the
subl ime .
Much of h i s poetry , in fact the ma j or i ty of
i t , is preparatory to the subl ime .
Such poems a s "The
Thorn , " "Nut t i ng , " and " To Joan na , " which con tain
g rotesque image pattern s , are not poems of sublimity or
v i s i onary beauty , but a re an unve i l i ng of the process by
wh ich man can , each i n h i s own degree , f i na l ly envi s i on
subl imi ty ; they are poems abou t how the i mag i nation can
mature to atta i n he i ghtened pe rcept ion .
Wordswor th ' s
202
p oet ic purpose i s to reveal how man can reg a i n los t
parad i s e through the imag i nat ion ' s i nterac t ion w i th the
forms of external nature .
Wol fgang Kays er ' s def i n i t ion of the g rotesque ( see
pages 21-25 above } as the ''ESTRANGED \'()RID" and as ".AN
ATTEMPT TO INVOKED AND SUBDUE THE DEMONIC ASPECTS OF THE
WORLD [ h i s cap i tals ] " suggests that the g rotesque i s
e s sen t i a l ly ali enat ing and pe jora t i ve .
But Wordsworth ' s
poetic creati on of the grotesque revea ls h im to be a
tru ly orig i nal ar t i s t .
He employs the g rotesque
pos i t i vely w i t h i n h i s poetry as vital to the process of
reconc i l i ng man ' s e s trangemen t from the externa l wor ld
and as a means of i n voking the de i ty , not demons .
The
g rotesque i n Word sworth ' s poetry functions i n a
pa r t i cularly i nven t i ve way because i t i s not an end i n
i tsel f , but rather a vital l i nk i n the proces s of
d i scovery .
In h i s excellent book God and the Grotesque , Carl
Skr ade d i scus ses spec if ica l ly in relat i on to a r t Rudolf
Otto ' s argumen t that any true g l imp s i ng of u l t imate
rea l i ty must i n volve a non-rati onal percept ion wh i c h
i lluminates the experi ence o f the de i ty i n i ts en t i rety ,
al lowing for the f ee l i ng of s ometh ing extra , awesome ,
and ghos t l i ke as part of the es sence of the d i v i n e .
Skrade ' s argument i s that any meaningful expres s i on of
203
God mus t not "el imi nate or repress man ' s very real
exper i ence of the non- rat ional " ( 1 2 > , yet i ron ica l ly ,
and i n the face o f cons iderable evi dence to the
con trary , mode rn Wes te rn man has pr imar i ly a ttempted to
comprehend u l t imate rea l i ty rat iona l l y .
He has
subm i t ted truth and rea l i ty to the "pr i nc iples of
non-contrad i c t ion . "
When man encounters that wh i ch does
not bow bef ore these i nviolable truth s , " he dec lares i t
un true o r unreal o r un f i t " ( 1 2 > .
Skrade con tends that
man mus t be wi l l ing , if he i s to rec e i ve d i vi ne
i l l uminat ion , " to look af resh con s tantly , without
b l i nk i ng , i n to the human s i tuat ion , " i n c luding i ts
f r igh ten i ng i ncongr u i t ies ( 1 5 ) .
Skrade ' s suggeston i s that theo log ians , who a re
d i s t i ngui shed by the i r bel i e f s that " t he mean i ng of
being l i es beyond th i s wo r ld of t h i ng s and f ormulas and
reasons , " have not comp letely expressed the not ion of
the deity because they are unable to " ar t i c u late a
con ten t for tha t wo rd [ God ] . "
Yet the i r i nabi l i ty to
ar ti c ulate is " a ' maki ng real ' of the tradi t ional
d i s ti nction between God and man " C l 8 ) .
Skrade ' s
conten t i on i s that i t i s the art i s t thrus t ing
express i on s of the grotesque before u s who part i cularly
cap tures the es sense of ult imate rea l i ty .
He a s serts :
" I be li eve that wh i le the art i s t of the grotesque
204
f requen tly works in a non-rel ig ious s ty l e , he
nonetheless work s wi th rel i g i ous content .
Further , I
bel i eve that the erupt ion of the g rotesque i n our time
i s an a ttack on and a counterbalance to our rationa l i sm
and i s a recogn i t ion of the non-rat ional a s a real and
va l uable aspec t of man and thus , perhaps , of man ' s
exper i ence of God " ( 1 8 ) . 1
Certa i n ly , as Ruskin had apprec i ated , Wordsworth i s
a towering art i s t of the true g rotesque , and the body of
h i s greates t poetry , part icularly The Prelude , s tands as
the proof .
That Wordsworth ' s poetry i s essen t i a lly of a
re l i g i ous con ten t has been arg ued by a number of
prominent Wordsworth i an schola r s .
Geof frey Ha rtman , for
example , conc ludes that "Wordswor th ' s th i nk i ng i s of the
exi s tential or phenomenolog i ca l k i nd , whi ch s tarts with
objects not as they !£! but as they appear to a mind
f r u i t fu lly perplexed by the i r d i f fe r i n g modes of
appearance , and wh i ch does not try to reduce these to a
s ingle standard .
The poet va lue s the varying types of
relat ions and responses of h i s m i nd to objects because
they poten t i al l y un lock s ome truth abou t h imself .
l in her commen ts on the g rotesque i n art and
theatre ( 1 9 2 7 ) , Mary Cass Can f i e ld concludes : " For we
s h a l l not look long at the grotesque wi thout real i z i ng
that there i s i n i t someth ing sp i r i tual l y omi nous , a
qual i ty i n i t more profound than i ts s trangenes s or i ts
humour 11 ( 7 ) .
2 05
Word sworth ' s th ought is also , theref ore , of a bas i ca l ly
rel i g i ous k i nd .
•
•
•
every truth or er ror in
relat ionship is a sourc e of revelat ion " ( 3 8 9 ) .
S imi larly , F . R . Leavis sugges ts that Wordsworth ' s
"preoccupat ion wi th san i ty and spontane i ty " works "at a
level and i n a sp i r i t i t seems appropri ate to c a l l
rel i g i ous " ( 1 6 4 ) .
J.
R . Watson argues t h a t i t i s th i s
rel ig i ous qual i ty i n Wordsworth ' s poetry that has helped
assure h i s con t i n u i ng impor tance as a poet ( 1 3 ) .
Wh i le
these scholars have not spec i f i ca l ly focused on
Wordsworth as an art i s t of the true g rotesque , as Rusk i n
d i d , they do revea l a n unders tanding and apprec i at i on of
the essen t i a l qua l i ty wh i ch character i z e s Wordswor th ' s
use of g rotesque image patterns i n a partic ularly
" noble , " ba s i cally rel i g i ous way .
However , Wordswor th ' s orig i n a l i ty i n break i ng away
f rom trad i t ional poe t i c express ions wh i ch had become too
art i f i c i a l and rat i onal in favor of o r i g i na l poetic
utterance that emp loyed images of i ncongrui ty has been
i nd i rec tly sugge s ted , al though never deve loped
spec i f ically .
Nor throp Frye ' s con ten tion ( see page 9
above ) tha t Romant i c i sm i s par imar i ly a revolut i on i n
poetic imagery chal lenges u s t o look more c losely a t the
spec i f i c patterns of images employed by Wordswor th and
other poe ts of the age .
In h i s study of " s ubl ime and
206
a larming images " in poetry , Edwin Morgan does more
spec i f i c a l ly recogn i z e that employing i ncongruous images
i n h i s poems was part icularly part of Word sworth ' s
gen ius : "Wordsworth , more than any other poet , seems to
have been created to make someth i ng of the
e i ghteenth-cen tury ideas of the subl ime .
•
•
•
The
assoc i at ion of the subl ime wi th the alarm i ng , the
importance of e lemen ts of awe and ter ror , i s
particularly h i s
•
•
•
" ( 295 ) .
w.
J.
B . Owen r ightly
warn s that Wordsworth recogn i zed that we mus t l ook at
nature i n " s evera l " ways .
I n h i s remarks about the
subl ime and the beaut i ful in The Prelude and in
Wordsworth ' s prose f ragmen t on the sublime , Owen
s tresses that the poet i s not saying , as do
con temporar i e s such as Edmund Burke , that the subl ime
and beau t i ful a re merely useful ways of look i ng at
nature , " but rather that the categories are two of the
' severa l ' ways in which we must look at nature i f we
wish to ' con template accurately ' " ( " Subl ime " 7 2 ) .
Thu s
Wordsworth demonstrates that we mus t understand the
means by whi ch nature works on the mind i f we are to
obta i n truth .
For Wordsworth , unders tandi ng the process of the
imag i nation ' s growth i s essential , and s uch poems as
"The Thorn , " "Nutt ing , " "To Joanna , " and The Pre lude
207
s how that the g rotesque is vi tal to that process .
P atr ick Holland , like Owen , wa rns that " i t wou ld be
r i sky for a cr i t i c to u se as a ' useful f ic t ion " those
categor i es tha t Wordsworth h imself regarded as ' grand
con s t i tut ional laws , ' expec ially when The Prelude dea ls
exp l i c i tly w i th the growth of that very mi nd wh i ch wou ld
be everlast i ngly affec ted by nature ' s objects v i ewed
under s uch laws
•
•
•
" ( 17 ) .
Holland ' s poi n t i s
cruc i a l , and h e cou ld have i ncluded the g rotesque as one
of those categor ies , for Wordsworth ' s prose f ragment and
numerous of h i s poems , espec i a lly The Prelude , as I h ave
sugges ted , reveal Wordsworth ' s profound unders tanding of
the grotesque and the power of i ts func tional use .
The importance of Wordsworth as a revo luti onary
art i s t of the true g rotesque now needs to be apprec i ated .
Through h i s profound poeti c expres s ions of the
g rotesque , Wordsworth broke away from the ar t i f i c i a l
poet ic images which were popular i n h i s day ,
supernatural not ions of ghos ts and ghoul i sh forms such
as he had i n he r ited f rom Beatt ie ' s The M i nstrel and
whi ch had provi ded h im with images of grave s and corpses
to be woven i nto his early poetry .
Through the creation
of h i s own u n i que g rotesque images , Wordsworth f reed
himself f rom a reli ance on popu lar Go th i c inages , the
"trag i c super -trag i c " ( The Pre lude 8 . 5 3 2 ) .
Wordsworth
208
began th i s process i n the swans pa ssage of An Even i ng
Wa lk and progres s i vely deve loped it on th rough or ig i na l
image patterns i n the Lyr ical Bal lads and The Prelude .
And he a lso d i s cove red the poet ic i d i om for a true
art i s t ic express ion of h i s poetic v i s ion , the
ach ievemen t of The Prelude .
Wordsworth d i scovered the power of grotesque image
patterns to express the complex i t ies of rea l i ty i n
non-rat iona l , symbo l i c ways rather than i n ordered,
cus tomary , art i f i c i a l expres s ions or image s .
Thus , he
an tic ipated what so many later art i s ts of the n i neteenth
and twen t i eth c entur ies have di scove red .
C layborough ,
Kayse r , and other scholars of the g rotesque i n art and
l i terature have doc umen ted the pro l i ferat i on of the
g rotesque i n art dur i ng the later n i neteen th cen tury and
on to the presen t .
Geof frey Gal t Harpham a rgues that by
the beg i nn i ng of the twent ieth cen tury , the g rotesque
had become a pr imary means of expres s ing tr uth i n
l i tera ture .
He notes that i n h i s Medi tat ions of a
Nonpo l i tical Man , Thomas Mann s t ates that the g rotesque
was "properly something more than the truth , something
real in the extreme , not someth ing arbi trary , f a ls e ,
absurd , and contrary to rea l i ty " ( xix ) .
Harpham
conc ludes : " By the end of the n i n eteenth cen tury it was
more common than not to speak of the ' n aturalnes s ' of
209
the g rotesque " C xi x ) .
Rusk i n had shown i nc redible
ins ight when he iden t i f ied Wordsworth as an arti s t of
the true grotesque .
I n her s tudy of the g rotesque , Sylv i e Henn ing
arg ues that the g rotesque in art has d i s rupted the
clas s i cal percept ion of ordered rea l i ty becaus e it does
not con form to the standards of mimes i s and decorum
establi shed i n the Ren a i s s ance .
The g rotesque
expres s ion , s he sugges ts , "contravenes rat iona l i sm and
any systematic use of thought , " relying ins tead on an
" inner logic " that contests convent ional log ic ( 1 0 7 ) .
Her conclus ion i s that the grotesque provides the mode rn
a r t i s t with " one means of approaching a ' more f l ex i ble
ordering , ' an ' o rde r i ng ' dependent on undec idable ,
rather than h i erarchi cally d i s t i nct categor i es . "
The
art i s t who observe s the g rotesque may be f orced " to
conf ront the i n s uf f i c i encies of h i s wor ld-v i ew" and
rather than crumble upon th i s unset t l i ng f oundat ion , the
art i s t cou ld en joy a playful i n -forming i n wh ich he
reli shes the i r reconc i ble and yet i nseparable opposi tes
as the means of a fresh approach to a rt i s t i c expres s i on
( 11 9 ) .
As I have sugges ted , Wordsworth ' s poetry revea ls
the complex process by wh ich he accompl i s hed j us t s uch a
fresh approach to art is tic expres s i on and a deep and
210
j oyous awareness that i rrat ional percept ions , those
spa rked by unusual natural occ urrences , are essen t i a l to
the imag i nat ion ' s gl imps i ng the creat ive , un i f yi ng power
that dwe l l s with i n man and with i n a l l of creation .
He
emp loys g rotesque image patterns funct ionally to reveal
the proces s by which the imag i nat i on i s developed
through i t s non - rat ional percept ions of grotesque
ob jects and forms wh ich symbo l i z e the " i nner l i f e "
s imultaneous ly i n he ren t i n man , nature , and etern i ty .
And i n so doing , he revea l s a new way of expre s s i ng an
essen t i a l ly rel i g ious v i s ion in a non-rel i g i ous manner
appropr i ate to h i s age and to ours .
He esc hewed stale
and one-d imen s ional forms of expres s i on in favo r of
f resh , mul t i -dimen s i onal image s .
In th i s connect i on , and espec i a l ly i n v i ew of h i s
recogn i t io n o f Wordsworth ' s gen ius in explor i n g dark
pass ages to new chambers of thought ( see page 127
above ) , Keats ' s notion of negative capabi l i ty seems
par t i cula rly app l i cable to Wordsworth ' s unve i l i ng of the
process of the habi tual expe ri enc i ng of the g rotesque to
shape and mature the imag i nat i on , for through h i s
art i s tic expres s ion o f the g rotesque Wordsworth
demons trates Keats ' s de f i n it i on of negat i ve capabi l i ty ,
that i s "when a ma n i s capable of be ing i n
unce rta i n t ies , mys te r i es , doubts , wi thout any i r r i table
211
reach i ng after fact and reason . "
Th i s i s , in ef f ec t ,
Wordswor th ' s notion of "wi se pa ss ivenes s " a s expres sed
in "Expos tulat ion and Reply . "
And as I have sugges ted ,
C layborough i den t i f ies a hi gher rea lm of g rotesque art
i n wh ich the obse rver vi ews incong ruous me n ta l images of
exper i ence and " luxur i ates in the i r i n exp l i cable
' s i gn i f icance ' " ( see 2 7 above > .
Th i s i s the crown i ng
ach i evemen t of Wordsworth ' s expres s i on of the g rote sque
in The Prelude , and we see th i s achievemen t an t i c ipated
in poems such as "The Thorn " and " To Joan na . "
Impor tan t ly , Wordsworth of fers an unde r s tanding of
t he proce s s by wh ich the poet ' s mi nd g rows to th i s s tate .
The Prelude i s s imul taneously a reveal i ng of the process
of the growth of the poet ' s imag i nat ion as wel l as a
procl amat i on that t h i s process i s s u i ted to a l l men ,
each i n h i s own degree .
I n h i s i n i t ia l exper i ences of
the g rotesque , the boy in The Prelude r ema i n s on a lower
leve l , what C layborough c a l l s a " prog re s s i ve " aspec t of
the m i nd in whi c h he " re j ects de l i berate j uxtapo s i t i on s
as po intless o r s trugg les t o establ i sh a log i ca l
connection between them " ( see page 2 7 above for
C layborough ' s theor i e s ) .
Th i s i s l ikewi se ref l ec ted i n
poems s uch a s An Even i ng Walk and the poems of the
Lyrical Ba l l ads vol ume of 1 7 9 8 , in wh ich Word swor th
presents g rot esque image pa tterns but s truggles to f i nd
212
h i s poet ic idiom and to coalesce h i s images i nto a
un i f i ed , extended vi s ion .
T h i s s tate i s marked by
tens ion and a tendency to be overwhelmed by pe rsonal
fear or to seek moral imp l i cation s .
The h i gher level of
grotesque imag i n g , what C layborough refers to as a
" regress ive" aspect , generates a profound s t i llness of
the mind in wh i ch the observer is exa lted by i ncongru i ty
and i r reduc i blenes s , and yet he i s vividly and
rea l i s tically aware of mys ter ious modes of ex i s tence .
Thi s i s the level atta ined by the mature speaker of The
Pre lude , and we see the process of h i s ach i ev i ng that
level in the tran s i t i ona l poems of the Lyr ical Bal lad s
of 1 8 0 0 and i n the early books of The Pre lude ( 1 8 0 5 ) .
Wordsworth ' s abi l i ty to create art i s t i c expres s ion s
of the g rotesque g rounded upon the real i t ies of hi s
everyday exper i ences rather than to imi tate the
art i f i c i a l g rotesque patterns he i nherited f rom h i s
poet i c predecessors and from les ser wr i te r s o f h i s own
era reveal s i n another important way the orig i nal gen i u s
of Wordsworth as an art i s t o f the g rotesque .
Frances K .
Barasch , i n an art icle publ i shed i n Modern Language
S tudies ( 1 9 8 3 ) , suggests that scholars now need to
mod i f y some of the i r evolut ionary theo r i e s about the
developmen t of the grotesque in Eng l i sh l i terature .
Her
spec i f i c argument i s that du r i n g the s i xteenth cen tury ,
213
Shakespeare achieved "the finest free -standing grotesque"
developed in English literature in the character of
Fal s taf f , from King Hen ry IV .
She sugge s ts that dur i ng
the medieva l per i od a rti sts had demon s trated imag i nat ive
freedom in the ir creat ions of grotesque f igures in the
ma rg i n s of man uscripts and on the sur faces of sac red
bui ldi ngs ; they had ove rcome fears by prol i f i c i nven tion
of emba ttled monsters and hel l i s h creatures .
But during
the Renai s sance a revival of classical g rotesque forms
occ ur red , exemp l i f ied by Raphae l ' s des i g n s in the
Vat i can Logg ia in wh ich pag an and Ch r i s t ian h i stories
a re borde red or framed by s trange objects bor rowed f rom
the "Golden House of Nero , " such as satyrs and cup i ds .
She fur ther sugges ts that th i s style , more restrained
and redundant than the imag i native medi eva l g rotesques ,
i s f ound i n Spen ser ' s poetry , for example the " enchased
maz er " in The Shepherd ' s Calendar ( 1 5 7 9 ) portraying
" heres and tygres , that maken f iers warre I And over
them spread a goodly vine , I Entra i led with a wan ton
yvie- twined " ( Aug us t Ec logue 4 8 - 5 0 ) .
S he con tends that
in Spenser , espec i a l ly in the Faer i e Queene , g rotesque
monsters and sp i r i ts come i nto conf l i c t with i deal
f igures such as the chaste Palme r and the ideal kn ight .
The g rotesque figures
are
one-sided , inhuman creations
used for a l l egor ica l purposes .
214
By the s i xteenth cen tury , art i s ts had freed
g rotesque f igures from the i r entangl i ng v i n e s but h ad
reta i ned them as mons trous , not genui nely real .
Examples are un ruly characters--vi ces , f ools , the g r im
j e s ter in the Dance of Death--such as seen i n John
Heywood ' s " ente r ludes " publ i s hed in 1 5 3 3 , but Fa lstaf f ,
Shakespea re ' s great character , i s "more than a comic
monste r , his self-conscious wit and awareness of his own
vulnerabi l i ty are human i z i ng elemen ts that had neve r
been seen be fore i n g rotesque trad i t i on " ( 6 3 ) .
Yet
Fal s taff i s , Barasch argues , grotesque in f orm and i s
made a " trunk of humor s , that bol t i ng hutch of
beas t l i ness , that swoln parcel of drop s i e s " ( 6 4 ) .
Thus
Falstaff is " noble human ity deformed and de form i ty
human i z ed " ( 6 5 ) .
Though often descr i bed i n g rotesque
images , Fa l s taff has human ac tua l i ty and poten t i a l i t y ,
and he stands a s a wel l -rounded character , l i ter a l ly and
f igura t i vely .
But , Barasch conc ludes , res torat ion wri ter s , w i t h
the i r renewed i n terests i n the s ubl ime and i n idea l i zed ,
P lato n i c notions of harmony , were bound by pr i n c i ples of
decorum and mora l i ty .
They returned to the late
Ren a i s sance tendency of employing l imi ted , art if i c i a l
g rotesque f igures , such a s Dryden ' s and D ' Avenant ' s
adaptation of Shakespeare ' s Tempest i n wh i ch
215
Cali ban--half man , half f i sh i n Shake speare-- is made
purely mon s trous when he i s ass igned an attempted
vi olat ion of Mi randa .
She sugges ts that the Res torat ion
wr i ters held the g rotesque we ll apa rt f rom the
non-grotesq u e aspec ts of exi s tence .
Shakespeare , then ,
had rev ived the nat ive med ieva l g rotesque form , an
imag i native g rotesque wi th human poten t i a l i ty , but the
res torat ion wr i ters did not achieve s uch a true
g rotesque , but rather created ar t i f ic i al g rotesque
characters , flat and f orgettable .
My sugges t i on i s that i n c reat i ng o r ig i nal
grotesque images born of actua l experience , Wordsworth
res tored the use of the true grotesque , what Barasch
calls the nat ive g rotesque , in Engl i s h l i terary
trad i t ion , break i ng away from the art i f i c i a l g rotesque
forms wh i ch he i ntui t i vely recogn i z ed a s lack i ng a
"profound relat ion w i th the true " ( Ruskin ' s phrase about
the art is t of the "noble " grotesque ) .
I n the g rotesque
f igures of The Lyr i cal Ba llads ( for example , Simon Lee ,
Goody Blake , Harry G i l l , and the mad mothe r ) Wordsworth ,
l i ke Shakespeare , human i zed grotesque f igures and thus
of fered g rotesque s that were c l oser to human actua l i ty .
As he developed image patterns to explore p s ycholog i ca l
imp l i cations and t o unve i l the process o f the
imag i n at ion ' s g rowth and i t s re lation to the ete r na l
216
( particularly in "The Thorn , " "Nutt i ng , " "To Joann a " and
The Prelude > , Wordsworth expanded the g rotesque i n
Eng l i sh l i terature to explore the realm of human
actua l i ty .
Wordsworth deserves hi s due as a poet who
s i g n i f icantly developed the use of the grotesque i n
Eng l i s h l i te rary tradi t ion , free i ng that mode f rom
ar t i f i c i a l restr a i n ts and bequeathing a revi ved , nat ive
g rotesque to other l i terary art i s ts of the n i neteen th
and twen tieth cen tur ies .
Wordsworth ' s des i re , as he clearly expres sed i n h i s
wr i t i ng s , espec i a l ly the f i na l book o f The Pre lude , was
to be a prophet , to teach others wh at he had learned
f rom h i s own expe r i ences about the imag i nation ' s
poten tia l i ty .
Thomas McFarland argues that Wordsworth
is i ndeed a poet-prophet , that l i ke all g reat poets f rom
V i rg i l to Yeats , Word sworth presen ts h imself as a
prophet .
But McFar land suggests that Wordsworth seems
an anomaly bec ause of h i s preoccupation wi th the past .
Yet , as McFarland convi ncingly argues , Wordswor th ' s
spec i a l poe t i c s tance a llows him to use the pas t as
other prophet i c wr i ters use the future , and he a rgues
that Wordsworth is i n fact deeply concerned with the
f uture , as The Prelude v i vidly reveals .
McFa rland draws
on numerous author i t ies , pa st and pre sen t , to
demons tra te that true prophetic utterance fol lows a
217
threefold c r i terion .
I t mus t have gravi tas ( h igh
ser iousn es s ) ; it mus t view human expe r i ence whole ( see
the pas t , presen t , and future on one vi s i on > ; and i t
must be marked by a certa i n i ndi s t i nc tnes s .
He sugges ts
that prophecy ' s larges t concern in "poi n t i ng to a h i gher
and fuller r ea l i ty than the one we expe r i ence in da i ly
l i fe .
I n mundane ex i s tence , as St . Paul says , we know
on ly i n part , and • we prophesy in part ' " ( 2 5 3 ) .
McFarland draws upon a comment from Wi l l i am Blake as the
bes t expre s s i on of the va lue of the i ndi s t i nc t to the
poet-prophet :
" that wh ich can be made Exp l i c i t to the
Idiot i s not wor thy my care .
The wi ses t of the An c i en ts
cons idered what i s not too Expl i c i t as the f i ttes t for
I n s truction because i t rouzes the facu l t i es to act "
( 253 ) .
I n Modern Pa i n ters , John Rusk i n argues that an
" i dea " an a rt i s t presents i s "g reat " i n "propor t i on as
i t is rec e i ved by a h i gher faculty of the m i nd , and as
i t more fully occup i es , and in occupying , exerc i ses and
exal ts , the f aculty by wh i ch it is received " ( 3 : 9 2 ) .
Like Blake and Wordsworth and other g reat a rt i s t s ,
Rusk i n recogn i z es that true art i s t ic express ion cannot
be eas i ly expl i c it .
I t must exerc i s e and exalt the
imag i nat ion , rouse it i n to the process of act i ng .
by ind i s t i nctnes s , s o va lued by great poets and
It is
218
prophets , that Wordsworth rous es h i s reader s i n to the
p rocess of di scovery .
I n h i s e s say " Imag inat ion as Va lue , " Wa llace
Steven s s ugges ts that " the imagi nation i s the power that
enables us to perceive the norma l in the abnormal , the
oppos i te of chaos in chaos " ( 1 5 3 ) .
Stevens further
exp la i n s : " I t may be that the imag i nat ion i s a mi rac l e
o f log i c a n d th at i ts exquis ite divi nations are
calculations beyond analysi s , as the conc lusions of the
reason are ca lcu lat ions wholly with i n analys i s " ( 1 5 4 ) .
I n other words , S tevens proposes that the imag i nat ion i s
capable o f a h i ghe r form of logic than i s reason , that
what i s actual ly normal is beyond the limits of reason
and so is perce ived as abnorma l by thi nke rs relying on
f i n i te reason .
The imag i nat ion thus focuses on the
abnormal , and in so doi ng , achieves a percep t i on of
truth beyond ana lysi s .
I n book 1 2 of The Prelude
( 1 8 0 5 ) , Word sworth def ines " the bes t of those who l ive "
as men of " higher " mo ld who do not speak wi th
accompl i shed , log i c a l rhetor ic , but rather ,
The i r s i s the l anguage of the heaven s , the power ,
The thought , the imag e , and the s i len t j oy ;
Words are but under-agents i n the i r sou l s -When they are grasp i ng wi th the g reate s t s trength
They do not breathe among them . ( 2 7 0 - 7 4 )
Later , in book 1 3 , Wordsworth refers to the imag i nat ion
as " the g l or i ous faculty I Wh ich higher mi nds bear with
219
them as the i r own " ( 8 9 - 9 0 ) .
The se "h igher mi nd s "
observe the ob j ects of the external wor ld and by a
c reative , i n s t inc tual percept ion they recreate
expe ri ence i nto true ins ight :
Thi s i s the very spi r i t i n wh i ch they deal
Wi th all the objec ts of the u n i verse :
They from the i r nat ive se lves can send abr oad
Like tran s f ormat ion , for themselve s create
A l i ke ex i s tence , and , when ' er it i s
Created for them , catch i t by an i ns t inc t .
Them the endu r i ng and trans i ent both
Serve to exa l t . ( 9 1- 9 8 )
The passages of Wordsworth ' s poems wh ich look at t he
" abnormal " of exper i ence , the g rotesque , w i th the
imag i nat ion and thus unfold the appropri ate proces s for
di scove r i n g in expli cable truth , revea l that Wordsworth
real i z ed over a cen tury ago what Stevens and other later
poet-prophets have come to know .
I n a letter wr i tten to
Lady Beaumon t ( 2 1 May 1 8 0 7 ) , Word sworth dec lares , " n ever
f orget what I bel ieve was observed to you by Coler i dge ,
that every g reat and original wri ter , in propo r t ion as
he is g reat or or i g i na l , mus t h imself create the tas te
by wh i ch he i s to be rel i shed; he mus t teach the art by
wh ich he i s to be seen
•
•
•
( Letters Mi ddle Years
15 0 ) .
Wordsworth ' s poetry of the Great Decade ,
par t i cularly such poems as "Nutt ing , " "To Joanna , " and
The Prelude ( 1 8 0 5 ) , wh i c h Wordsworth h ims elf valued as
mos t i nd i cat i ve of h i s g e n i u s ,
demon s t r a t e s t h a t
220
Word sworth came to real i z e that for a poet-prophet the
grotesque image , wh i ch is by i t s very nature i nd i s t i nc t ,
i s an approp r i ate mode of express ion and an approp r i a te
ref lec tion of i nexpli cable rea l i ty .
H i s gen ius
recogn i z ed that as a serious teacher of higher rea l i ty ,
a teacher who had been f os tered by beauty and fear , he
mus t unve i l the process of d i s covery .
He cou ld not
employ orthodox images that fail to "people the mind " or
rouse the imag i nat ion to act .
He turned to g rotesque
image patterns as one way to unve i l the process by wh i ch
he and other men cou ld ga i n divine i n s i g h t .
I t i s not
s urpri s i n g that in h i s famous " Ode : Int imat i ons of
Immorta l i ty f rom Recol lec tions of Early Chi ldhood "
( publ i s hed 1 8 0 7 ) Wordsworth professes that i n look i n g
back at t h e pas t i t i s not f o r deligh t , l i berty , the
s imp l i c i ty of c h i l dhood , nor new-fledged hope that he
l i f t s h i s vo i ce i n pra i se :
Not for these I ra i se
The song of thanks and pra i se 1
But for those obs tin ate que s t ion i ng s
O f s e n s e and outward thi ngs ,
Fail i ngs from us , van i shings 1
Blank mi sg i vings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not real i sed ,
High i n s t i nc ts be fore wh ich our mortal
221
Nature
Did tremble l i ke a gui lty Th i ng surpr i sed :
But for those f i rst affec t ions ,
Those shadowy recol lec t ions ,
Wh ich , be they what they may ,
Are yet the f ounta i n - l ight of a l l our day ,
Are yet a mas ter-light of a l l our see i ng ;
Uphold us , che r i sh , and have power
to make
Our n o i sy yea rs seem moments i n the
be i ng
Of the eternal S i lence
.
.
.
( Poet ical Works 1 4 3 -1 5 9 )
LI ST OF REFERENCES .
223
Abrams , M . H . " The Des ign of The Pre lude : Wordsworth ' s
Long Journey Home . " The Prelude : 1 7 9 9 , 1 8 0 S , 18 5 0 .
Ed . Jonathan Wordsw.or th , M . H . Abrams , and Stephen
G i l l . New York : W. �· Norton , 1 9 7 9 .
" Eng l i sh Roman tic i sm : The Spi r i t of the Age . "
Frye 2 6 - 7 2 .
_____ •
_____ •
Natural Supernatural i sm . ·New York : W . w .: Norton ,
1971 .
Aubi n , Robert Arnold . Topograph i ca l Poetry i n
XVI I I -Century England . New York : MLA , 1 9 3 6 .
Ave r i l l , James . Wordsworth and the Poetry of Human
I thaca , N . Y . : Corne l l UP , 19 8 0 .
Suf fe r i ng .
Bara sch , Frances K . The Grotesgue : A Study in Meanings .
The Hague : Mouton , 1 9 7 1
•
"Def i n i t ions : Rena i s sance and Baroque , Grotesque
Cons truc tion and Decons truc t io n . " Modern Language
Stud i e s 13 ( 1 9 8 3 > : 6 0 - 67 .
----
•
•
Bloom , Haro ld . The Vi s i onary Company. New York :
Double day , 1 9 6 1 •
.. · · Bos ton , Rosemary . " Some Forms of the Grotesque in
Wordsworth . " The Erasmus Rev i ew 1 ( 1 9 7 1 ) : 3 5 - 4 5 .
Bradley , A . c . Oxford Lectures � Poetry . London :
Macmi llan , 1 9 0 9 .
Brennan , Matthew . " The Ligh t of Wordsworth ' s Des i re for
Darkness in The Prelude . " Romant i c i sm Past and
Present 7 ( 19 8 3 ) : 2 7 - 4 0 .
--
--
Brett , R . L . , and A. R . Jones , Forward and Notes ,
Lyr i cal Ballads . By Wordsworth and Coleridge . ,
London : Methuen , 19 6 5 .
Bya t t , A. s . Wordsworth and Coler i dge in The i r Time .
New York : Cran e , 1973 .
·
can f i e ld , Mary cas s . Grotesgues and Other Ref lecti on s
� Art and t h e Theatre . Port Wash ington : Ken n i kat ,
1927 .
C larke , C . C . Roman t i c Paradox . London : Routledge & .
Kegan Pau l , 1 9 6 2 .
I
f
224
C layborough , Arthur . The Grote sque in Engl i s h
Li terature . Oxford : Clarendon , 1965 .
Col e r i dg e , S amue l Taylor . B i ograph i a Li terar i a . Ed .
J . Shawcros s . 3 vo ls . Oxf ord : Cla rendon , 1907 .
D anby , John F . The S imple Wordswor th .
and Kegan Pau l , 1 9 6 0 .
London :
Rout l edge
Fer ry , Dav i d . The Lim i t s of Mor ta l i ty : An E s s ay on
Wordsworth ' s Maj or Poems . Middleton : Wes leyan
UP , 1 9 5 9 .
�-Frye , Nor throp , ed . Roman t i c i sm Recon s i dered .
Columbia UP , 1 9 6 3 .
-sa
G erard , Albert s . Engl i s h Roman t ic Poe try .
C a l i forn i a P , 1 9 6 8 .
� H arpham , Geo f f rey Galt . On the Grotesque :
Con trad i c t ion in Art and Literature .
P r i n ce ton UP , 1 9 8� ---
New York :
Berkeley : u of
Strategi es of
P r in ceton :
� artman , Geoff rey B . n A Poet ' s Progre s s : Wordsworth and
the V i a Natura l i ter Negat i va . n Modern Ph i lology
5 9 ( 19 6 2 ) : 2 1 4 - 2 4 .
Wordsworth ' s Poe try ,
UP , 1 9 6 4 .
_____ •
1 7 8 7 -1 8 1 4 . N ew Haven :
Yale
H aven s , Raymond Dexter , The Mind of a Poet : A Study of
Wordsworth ' s Though�2 vo ls. -B a l t imore: John
Hopk i n s 1 9 4 1 . Vol . 1 .
___a az l i t t , Wi l l i am . On the L i v i ng Poets . Vol .
Complete Works of Wi l l i am Baz l i t t . Ed .
2 1 vols . London : J . M . Den t , 19 3 0 .
,�
5 of The
P . P . Howe .
H en n i ng , Sylvie Debevec . n La Forme I n-Formante : A
Recons idera t i on of the Grotesque . n Mos a 1 c 1 4
( 1981 ) , 107-119 .
B ol land , P a t r i ck . •wordsworth and the Subl ime : Some
Further Con s i derat ions . • The Wordsworth C i r c l e 5
( 19 7 4 ) , 17-2 3 .
Hutc h i nson , Thoma s . Notes to the App e n d i x . Lyr i c a l
B a l l a d s by Wordswo r t h and C o l e r idge . London ,
1898 .
225
Jackson , Wal lace . The Probable and the Marvelous :
B lake , Wordsworth , and the�ghteenth-Century
C r i t ical Trad i tion . Athens : U of Georg i a P , 1 9 7 8 .
Jacobus , Mary . Trad i t i on and Exper iment in Wordswor th ' s
Lyr i cal Ballads ( 1 7 9 8 ) . Oxford : C larendon , 1976 .
Jen n i ngs , Lee Byron . "The Ludi crous Demon : Aspects of
the G rotesque i n Pos t-Romant ic German P rose . "
Modern P h i lology 7 1 ( 1 9 6 3 ) : 1 0 - 1 6 .
Jon es , John . The Egot i s t i cal Subl ime : � H i s tory of
Wordsworth ' s Imaginat ion . London : Chatto & Windus ,
196 4 .
Jordan , John E .
8 1- 9 3 .
"Wordsworth ' s Humor . " PMLA 7 3 ( 1 9 5 8 ) :
--
K ayser , Wol fgang . The Grotesque in Art and Li terature .
Tran s . Ulrich Wei s s tein . B loomington : Indi ana
UP ,
1963 .
Keats , Joh n . The Letters of
- John Keats : 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 2 1 . Ed .
Hyder Edward Rol l i n s . 2 vols . C ambr idge : Harvard
UP , 1 9 5 8 .
Ker , Wi l l i am Paton . Form and Style in Poetry . London :
---Macm i l lan , 1 9 2 8 .
---
King , E . H . " James Beatt ie ' s The Mi nstrel ( 1 7 7 1 , 1 7 7 4 ) :
" I ts Inf l uence on Wordsworth . " Stud i es -i n Scot t i sh
Li terature 8 ( 19 7 0 ) : 3 - 2 9 .
Leav i s , F . R . Reva luation : Tradi t i on and Developmen t i n
Engl i sh Poetry . London : Chatto & Wi ndus , 1 9 3 6 .
Legoui s ,
Emi le . The Early Li fe of Wi l l i am Wordswo r th ,
A Study of the Prelude . Trans . J . w .
Matthews . New York : Rus sell & Rus se l l , 1 9 6 5 .
1770-179 8 :
Mayo , Robert . "The Con temporan e i ty o f the Lyri ca l
Ball ad s . " PMLA 6 9 ( 1 9 5 4 ) : 4 8 6 - 52 2 .
Mead , Mar ian . Four Stud ies in Wordsworth . N ew York :
Haskel l House , 1 9 6 4 . -Meyer , George w . Wordswor th ' s Format ive Years . An n
Arbor : U of Mi c h i g a n P , 1 9 4 3 .
226
�oorman ,
Mary . Wi l l i am Wordsworth : The Ear ly Year s ,
Oxford UP , 1 9 5 7 .
1 7 7 0 - 1 8 0 3 . Oxford :
Morgan , Edward . " Proven ance and P roblema t i c s of
' Subl ime and Alarming Images ' in Poetry . "
P roceed i ng s o f the Br i t i sh Academy 6 3 ( 1 9 7 7 ) :
293-313 .
Morgan , Ron ald Earl . " The Relat ion of Romantic Grotesque
Imagery to the Roman t i c Theory of Imag i nat ion . "
Di s s . Drew u , 1 9 7 4 .
McFarland , Thomas . " Wordsworth : P rophet of the Pas t . "
The Wordswor th C i rc le 14 ( 19 8 3 ) : 2 5 1 - 2 5 5 .
N icho l s , John . " Towa rd ' Spo ts of T ime ' : ' Vi s ionary
Drear i n es s ' in An Even ing Walk . " The Wordsworth
C i rc le 1 4 ( 19 8 3 ) , 2 3 3 - 2 3 6 .
Otto , Rudolf . The Idea of the Holy : An I nqu i ry i n to the
Non-rat i onal Factor in the Idea of the Divine and
i t s Rel at i on to the RatiOn al . Trans:-John w .
Harvey . New York : Oxford UP , 1 9 5 8 .
--­
Owen , w. J . B . " The Subl ime and the Beaut i f u l i n The
P relude . " The Wordsworth C i rcle 4 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 6 7 - 8 6 .
---
.
,; ow�, wJ "Word sworth I s Imag i nat ion s . " The Wordsworth
C i rc l e
14
( 19 8 3 ) :
2 13-224 .
P ar r i sh , Stephen Maxf ield . The Art of the Lyr i cal
Ba llads . C ambr idge : Harvard UP , 1 9 7 3 .
P eckham , Morse . Romant i c i sm . New York : George
Braz i l ler , 1 9 6 5 .
P i r i e , Dav i d B . Wi l l i am Wordsworth : The Poetry of
Grandeur and of Tenderness . N ew York : Methuen ,
198 2 .
--
P ot t le , Frede r i c . The Id iom of Poetry . Rev . ed .
Bloomington : Indiana UP , 1 9 6 3 .
"The Eye and the Obj ec t i n the Poetry of Wi l l iam
Word sworth . " The Yale Review . 4 0 ( 19 7 0/ 7 1 ) :
----� ·
2 7 -4 2 .
-
--
P ot ts : Abbie Find lay . Wordsworth ' s Prelude : A Study
of Its Li terary Form . N ew York : Oc tagon � 1 9 6 6 .
227
P raz , Mar i o . The Romant i c Agony . Tran s . Angus Davidson .
2 nd ed . London : Oxford UP , 1 9 7 0 .
Read , Her bert . Wordswo r th . London : Faber and Faber ,
1930 .
Rusk i n , Joh n . The Complete Works of John Rusk i n . Ed .
E . T . Cook and Alexander Wedderburn . 39 vo ls .
London : George Allen , 19 0 4 .
S heats , Paul . The Mak i ng of Wordsworth ' s Poetry , 1 7 8 5 1 7 9 8 . C ambr i dge : Harvard UP , 19 7 3 .
S is ki n , C l i fford . "Wordsworth ' s Gothic Endeavor : From
Es thwa i te to the Great Decade . " The Wordsworth
C i rcle 10 ( 19 7 9 ) : 1 6 1-73 .
S krade , Car l . God and the Grotesgue . P h i ladelph i a :
Wes tminster, 1974 .
Spacks , P at r i c i a Meyer . The Ins i s tence of Horror :
Aspects of the Supernatural in Eighteenth-Century
Poetry . C ambr idge : Harvard UP , 1 9 6 2 .
S te ig , Michael . " Def i n i ng the Grotesque : An Attempt at
Syn the s i s . " The Journal of Ae s the t i c s and Art
C r i t i c i sm 2 9 ( 19 7 0 ) : 2 5 3 -6 0 .
S teven s , Wal lace . The Neces sary Ange l : Essays �
Real i ty and the Imaginati on . London : Faber and
Faber , 1 9 5 1 .
Twi tche l l , Jame s B . Romant i c Hor i z on s : Aspects of the
Subl ime in Engl i s h Poetry and Pai nt i ng , 1 7 7 0 -1 8 5 0 .
Columbia : U of Mis sour i P , 19 8 3 .
Wats on , J . R . Wordsworth ' s Vital Soul : The Sacred and
P rofane in Wordsworth ' s Poetry . Atlan t i c High lands :
Human i t ies , 1982 .
Wel lek , Ren , . " Roman t i c i sm Re-exami ned . " F rye 1 0 7- 3 3 .
wordsworth , Dorothy . Vol 1 of Journals of Dorothy
Wordsworth . Ed . E . de Seli ncour t . 2 vols . London :
Macmi llan , 19 5 2 .
Wordsworth , Wi l l i am . An
- Even ing Walk . Ed . Jame s Averi ll .
Cornell UP , 1 9 8 4 .
228
The Letters of Wi l l i am and Dorothy Wordsworth .
Ed . Ernest de Sel i ncourt . The Ear ly Years ,
1 7 9 7 - 1 8 0 5 . Rev . Chester L . Shave r . 2 nd ed . Oxford :
Oxford UP , 1 9 6 7 .
_____
•
The Let ters of Wi l l iam and Dorothy Wordsworth .
Ed .
Ernest de Selincourt . The Mi ddle Year s ,
1 8 0 6 - 1 8 1 1 . Rev . Mary Moorman:- 2nd ed . Oxford :
Oxf ord UP , 1 9 6 9
_____
•
•
Lyr i c a l Ballads . Ed . R . L . Brett and A. R . Jones
...-�--London : Methuen , 19 6 5
•
..
•
Poet ical Works . Ed . Ernest de Sel i ncou r t and
Helen Dar bi s h i re . 5 vo l s . Oxford : Oxford UP ,
-----
•
19 40-49
•
The Prelude : 1 7 9 9 , 1 8 0 5 , 1 8 5 0 . Ed . Jonath an
Wordsworth , M . H . Abrams , and Stephen Gi l l . New
York : W . W. Norton , 1 9 7 9
•
-----
•
The Prose Works of Wi l l i am Wordsworth . Ed . w . J .
----B . Owen and Jane Worthi ngton Smyser . 3 vo l s .
Oxf ord : Oxford UP , 1 9 7 4 .
•
•
229
VITA
Erne s t Derwood Lee , Jr . , wa s born in Greenvi l le ,
South Carol i na , on Augus t 23 , 1 9 5 1 .
He later moved to
Mon roe , North Carol i na , where he at tended Un ionvi lle
Elementary School and graduated f rom P i edmont High
School in Jun e 1 9 6 9 .
The fol lowi ng Septembe r he en tered
Wes tern Carolina Un iver s i ty , and in June 1 9 7 3 he
rece ived a Bachelor of Science degree in p sychology .
Unt i l June 1 9 7 5 he was employed as a per s onnel d i rec tor
by Rowe Corporat ion i n Charlotte , Nor th Carol ina .
In Jun e 1 9 7 5 he began graduate s tudy at Wes tern
Carol ina Un i vers i ty and in June 1 9 7 7 he received a
Mas te r of Ar ts in Education degree with a ma j or i n
Eng l i sh and two-year col lege teach ing .
From the fall of
1 9 7 7 unt i l the summer of 1 9 7 9 he was employed a s an
E ngl i sh i n s tructor by Western Carolina Univers i ty .
In the fall of 1 9 7 9 he accep ted a teaching
ass i s tants h i p and entered The Graduate School at The
Un ivers ity of Tennes see , Knoxvi l l e .
He received the
Doc tor of Phi losophy degree with a ma jor i n Engl i s h i n
June 1 9 8 6 .
S i nce Augus t 1 9 8 2 he has been employed by Wingate
College as a professor of Eng l i sh and di rector of the
col lege theatre program .