William Wordsworth

Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a British poet, known as the "Lakeside School" poets together with Coleridge and Southey. Wordsworth was born in a lawyer's family. He studied at Cambridge University and went to France twice in 1790 and 1791. It was the time of the French Revolution, and the young Wordsworth expressed deep sympathy and yearning for the revolution. Shortly after returning home, the situation changed drastically, and Wordsworth's attitude towards the French Revolution gradually became more conservative. Finally, he finally became a pre-romantic poet who enjoys the title of "Poet Laureate".

Wordsworth's poems are famous for their descriptions of natural scenery, pastoral scenery, village girls, boys and girls. The writing style is simple, fresh, natural and smooth, contrary to the flat and elegant style of neoclassicism, and creates a fresh and lively romantic poetry style. In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge published "Lyric Ballads" together, announcing the birth of new romantic poetry. In the preface to the second edition of "Lyric Ballads" in 1800, Wordsworth elaborated on the theory of romantic new poetry, advocating the use of common people's language to express common people's things, thoughts and feelings, which is known as the manifesto of romantic poetry. Since then, Wordsworth's poetry has further developed in depth and breadth. It contains profound meanings in the description of natural scenery and civilian things, and embodies the philosophical thinking of self-reflection and life exploration. The long poem "Prelude", completed in 1805 and published in 1850, is his most representative work.

The most prosperous period of Wordsworth's poetic talent was the 10 years from 1797 to 1807. There were not many excellent works after that, and by the time he was appointed "Poet Laureate" in 1843, there were no works left. However, throughout his life, his poetic achievements are outstanding, and he is worthy of being a great poet of the generation after Shakespeare and Milton. The Artistic Achievements of Wordsworth's Poetry He not only created theories, but also practiced them himself. The small book "Lyric Ballads" he collaborated with Coleridge started not only the literary careers of the two of them, but also the entire British Romantic poetry movement. For Chinese readers, Wordsworth is not a very familiar name. People who can read English have certainly read some of his short poems, such as "The Lonely Wheat Cutting Girl", but people who don't understand English have little impression of his poems. One of the reasons is that his poems are difficult to translate - - Philosophical poetry is more difficult to translate than narrative poetry, and Wordsworth's writing is simple and fresh, which makes it even more difficult to translate. The second reason is that he was once regarded as a representative of "reactionary romanticism", so many people were already disgusted with him without reading his works. Another reason may be that his kind of poems about nature are not uncommon in our country, and his thoughts are similar to those of Lao and Zhuang, so people have no novelty about him. But he is worth reading. In addition to his historical importance, he has many advantages, such as writing clearly and concisely, but the content is not plain, but often has a touch of inspiration. Seemingly ordinary truths are combined with a high degree of passion. The French Revolution deeply moved him, and he later wrote this famous sentence: "Happy, living in that dawn, young people feel like they are in heaven!" ——"Prelude" Chapter 11 His landscape poems are extremely clever, with famous lines such as: I am like a lonely flowing cloud. His love poems, such as the ones related to a girl named Lucy, are also extremely sincere and touching, without a single line of vulgar writing, and they use fresh words to express lofty artistic conceptions. He was able to express complex and profound thoughts accurately and clearly, and he wrote folk-style poems exquisitely. His use of white blank verse reached a new peak in his hands, and he created long and thoughtful poems that conveyed reasoning. Verse. Using such verses, he wrote a long poem "Beside Tintern Abbey", expressing the comfort and inspiration that nature gave him. Then he continued to work for many years and wrote an entire poetic autobiography titled "Prelude - A Prelude". "The Growth of the Poet's Soul" created a new form of autobiographical poetry.

In terms of sonnets, he carried forward Milton's bold poetic style and wrote high passions in a majestic style, such as this call: "Ah, come back, help us up quickly, give us good wind, Virtue, strength, freedom! Your soul is an independent star, your voice is like the waves of the sea, you are as pure as the sky, unrestrained and sublime... This is a rare pen in the sonnets that mainly wrote about love in the past, and it also shows that two people love freedom. How the two great poets are so in tune with each other! In short, Wordsworth's poetry has a wide range, high artistic conception, incisive, profound, contemplative, and upward, and all comes from fresh words. He is indeed one of the three or four greatest poets in English poetry. . It was only in his later period that his poetry gradually dried up, and his works became lengthy and dull, which made people infinitely regretful.