william wordsworth and idealism - Bangladesh Research Publications

BANGLADESH RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS JOURNALISSN: 1998-2003, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Page: 49-55, January - February, 2013WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND IDEALISMMd. Faisal Haque* 1 *Md. Faisal Haque (2013). William Wordsworth and Idealism. Bangladesh Res. Pub. J. 8(1): 49-55. Retrievefrom http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/admin/journal/upload/1308106/1308106.pdfAbstractA close study of William Wordswoth reveals him as not merely a poet of natureportraying it physically. Rather, it proves him as a prophet who seeks to assemblethe real ideas behind the nature. Unlike his contemporary critics and philosophers,he believed that imagination is not a ‘decaying sense’ and the mind is not a ‘whitepaper void of all characters’ or a ‘tabula rasa’. Contrarily he attributed a power ofcreativity upon imagination affirming it as the only way to walk through the mindand ultimately to unearth the ‘life force’ of the nature. And at the same time, heargued of the mind to be far from the domination of objective sensation. Thispaper attempts to explain how William Wordsworth, as a romantic poet, hasexposed the abstract reality in his poetry. His most prominent poems_ ‘The Prelude’,‘Tintern Abbey’ and ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ will be discussed to do thetask. And ultimately Wordsworth will be revealed as an idealist romantic poet.A Brief of Idealisms’Those passages of life in whichWe have had deepest feeling that the mindIs lord and master, and that outward senseIs but the obedient servant of her will.The extract from Wordsworth’s poem ‘The Prelude’ somehow alludes, the pioneerof idealism, Plato’s doctrine who believed that ‘full reality’ is achieved only throughthought.Another neo-Platonist philosopher Plotinus who, in his Enneads, has strived to affirmthat “the only space or place of the world is the soul” and that “time must not beassumed to exist outside the soul” furthermore comes to be reviewed in theWordsworthian lines mentioned above. Like these two philosophers, Wordsworthemphasizes on the vitality of mind to reach the reality that shapes the nature andultimately the whole world. But unlike them, he does not deny the existence of theexternal world or the nature. Additionally, he introduces an invisible life force that existsbeyond the forms of nature and for this, as he thinks, imagination is inevitable whichremains innate in the human mind. He describes the mind as “creator and receiver both”and it becomes so by “working but in alliance with the works, which it beholds”. Thismanifests that his concept is akin to the doctrine of objective idealism_ postulating thatthere is only one perceiver which is mind and it is one with that which is perceived, and atthe same time it becomes opposite to the subjective idealism. More broadly to say, itaccepts common sense but rejects naturalism_ the view that mind and spiritual valuesemerge from material things. Wordsworth being innate to the nature, brings out in hispoetry its true concepts or ideas what it represents every moment. And he has done so byimposing a creative power to his imagination. That is why, what he thinks, imagination isthe ladder to culminate the real world of ideas beyond this pictorial nature or the externalworld.Plato, the pioneer of Idealism and the romantic poet Wordsworth come to ananalogical relation in consideration of some points, but they seem to diverge from each*Lecturer, Department of Social science and Language, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and TechnologyUniversity, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh.

Haqueother in a certain view. Wordsworth tells, while talking in the context of ‘Ode: Intimations ofImmortality’, that when he was a child, the world around him seemed dreamlike andvivid, something more than real; and he felt himself to belong to another world. He startshis poem ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ with the lamentation over the loss of hischildhood memory of heavenly sights. And from the starting point, the poem considers thewhole life of a human being as an exile from an earlier and more perfect state. It refersthat man lives in the world of senses, and in space and time, with a recurrent feeling thathe has known or capable of knowing a more perfect state. Many myths like the Gardenof Eden and the Golden Age have defined the living sense of the human beings astransient and imperfect. The concept, given by Plato, of man’s exile from the world of lightand perfect forms has influenced the literary myths to a great extent which express thegeneral feeling of separation from heaven. This is why; it will not look incongruous ifWordsworth makes use of this myth. The first four stanzas of the poem look like an elegylamenting over the loss of childhood sights. The poet says:50Wither is fled the visionary gleam?Where is it now, the glory and the dream?But the next four stanzas (v-viii), in addition to lamenting over the lost visionarypower, make the use of the myth of ‘pre-existence’ to show the business of living andinteraction with the world of senses which is a burden to the soul. In these stanzas,Wordsworth directly uses the Platonic myth of cave. Here Wordsworth’s ‘prison-house’ isequivalent to Plato’s ‘dark cave’. To Wordsworth, the nature is a ‘foster-mother’ but not atrue mother of the soul. It gradually gets the child adapted to by separating him from hisheavenly world and it happens when the child is weaned from his recollections of thecelestial world. Though an analogy between the poet and Plato stands through the use ofthis myth in this poem, Wordsworth has distinguished between the use of a myth andbelieving it as a doctrine. More plainly to say , he rejected the view that he was in favor ofbelief in a ‘prior state of existence’ what he referred as an ingredient in the Platonicphilosophy. ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ superficially brings out a picture of belief in apre-existent state of greater perfection and happiness but Wordsworth claims that this isnot meant by the poem. And he says that he does not versify the Platonic myth in thepoem. Maurice Bowra in “The Romantic Imagination” says:The theory of recollection goes back to Plato, but Wordsworth did nottake it from him, nor is his application of it Plato’s. His sources areColeridge and Henry Vaughn. Coleridge had played with the idea ofpre-existence as an explanation of a feeling that we have in a previousexistence done something or been somewhere.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/Page: 97Anyway, Wordsworth is talking of another world that is heavenly but he does notconsider this world, in which the child has ascended, as shadowy what is claimed byPlato. He confers prophecy on a child introducing him as a ‘best philosopher’ and readerof ‘the eternal world’. Wordsworth further urges that the child is a prophet or philosopherand knows the truths, what the adult people are searching, because it is close to theheavenly ideas. What subtle concept of the poet about the child is, he is paradoxically atonce the bearer of the heavenly messages and the same time he is willing and eager toadapt in the world of senses. This concept of the child philosophy distinguishesWordsworth from Plato as he does not deny this world of senses.Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!And let the young Lambs boundAs to the tabor’s sound!We in thought will join your throng,Ye that pipe and ye that playYe that through your hearts todayFeel the gladness of May!

William Wordsworth and IdealismThe above extract from the poem ‘Immortality Ode’ expressing the poet’syearning to reach world of the true ideas. He wants to be united with that world but hewants to do so through the events of nature_ he will join the ecstasy of the ‘bird’s song’and feel the ‘gladness of May’ via his thought. Thus, he will not allow himself to beseparated from the heavenly joy. He refuses to be exiled neither from the world of ideanor from the natural world. So here is the comparison between Wordsworth and Plato thatboth of them are idealist but the former of them does not agree with the denial of thisnatural world what is claimed by the latter one.The difference between Plato and Wordsworth exposes the poet’s acceptance ofthe existence of the natural objects which are merely not some shadows. Instead, heinfuses a ‘life force’ on them. And a close study of ‘The Prelude’ confirms it. In ‘ThePrelude’ Wordsworth says, immediate after the birth, the baby desires to be close to afellow human what happens to him by intuition. Consequently, he becomes close to hismother and responds eagerly to the physical and emotional expressions of his mother’slove. His mother’s love stimulates his spiritual growth which passes into the ‘torpid life’. Hisperception of his mother as being, who is now a separate one from himself, leads him to asimilar perception of the external objects. The child develops his ability to organize hisvisual impressions arranging the elements of the material world into a unified andcoherent whole:eger to combineIn one appearance, all the elementsAnd parts of the same object, else detach’dAnd loth to coalesce.51This is clear that the child is gradually ascending to the world of senses or objectsbut he does not look at them as separated from him. Rather, the objects are unified withhis soul and mind. In ‘Tintern Abbey’ he further goes on to say:A motion and a spirit, that impelsAll thinking things, all objects of all thought.And rolls through all thingsThis is the truth, what the poet says, that similar to the child who begins to sense theoutward objects through his mother’s love, which is an awakening breeze to him, the poetconnects himself to the external world through his soul and mind. Wordsworth neversecludes the forms of objects from the soul and mind. On the contrary, he makes theobjects live. He strives to unearth the hidden ‘life force’ that lingers among thesurrounding objects. He can do it because he feels the existence of these objectsroaming in his mind and dream. However, the poet says that ‘the vital soul’ is ‘the firstcreative gift’. In reverse, the objective philosophical truths are merely the subordinateoutput of the living mind. So mind is prior to philosophy. And to discover the ‘life force’laden in the objects is to bring out philosophy from them. In the first two books of ‘ThePrelude’ Wordsworth narrates how his simple physical perception of nature in hischildhood got replaced by a response to the natural world that was more spiritual andmore conscious. He began to be aware of the hidden force at work within nature, in thecomplex ways in which humanity is related to the non-human universe. The three episodesthat recur in ‘The Prelude’ have a pattern. At first, Wordsworth describes an incident thathappened to him in his boyhood, and then recollects the insights that it held. The firstepisode describes that the poet, as a boy, robbed other boys’ woodcock trappingsnares. By this time, the boy’s relationship with nature has been more self-conscious andconsequently more troubled. Now he feels uneasy to have the sense of guilt of theft.Besides, he thinks that the trapping of woodcock is destructive to nature. When he feelshis independent existence, it seems to him a further violation of nature’s peace:moon and starsWere shining over my head; I was aloneAnd seemed to be a trouble to the peaceThat was among them.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/

William Wordsworth and Idealismremains in a state of ‘becoming’ or process. Here it is clear that, for perception, spirit is anecessary being that shapes the matters or objects. However, Wordsworth does not thinkthat he is separate from the natural world. He feels neither his own nor nature’sindependent physical existence. More clarification affirms that his oneness with nature isthe oneness between his spirit and the objects of nature. Wordsworth was quoted inIsabella Fenwick note:I was often unable to think of external things as having externalexistence, and I communed with all that I saw as something not apartfrom, but inherent in, my own immaterial nature. Many times while goingto school have I grasped at a wall or tree to recall myself from this abyssof idealism to reality. At that time I was afraid of such process. In laterperiods of life I have deplored, as we have all reason to do, asubjugation of an opposite character, and have rejoiced over theremembrances.53In other way to say, that he cannot think himself separate from nature reveals aspiritual relation between him and nature where spirit or mind is the bridge to make thisoneness. In ‘Tintern Abbey’ the ‘groves and copses’ the ‘pastoral farms’ and the‘houseless woods’ within the deep seclusion of the valley of the Wye are connected witha sight of ultimate unity of being. After being absent for several years and havingwandered many places, Wordsworth now finds in the valley of the Wye the same support.The sight of the valley of the Wye provides the same support because of his spirit’sinnateness to it. Geoffrey Durant says:The study of this passage resembles Newton’s statement of the etherealspirit which, in his account of the universe, interpenetrates both thematerial world and the human mind.William Wordsworth. Page:41Newton talks of a subtle spirit that pervades and lies in all gross bodies. Hehypothesizes that by the force or attraction of this spirit; the particles of bodies attract oneanother at near distance and cohere. However, the ethereal sprit of Newton that is themedium of bond among the earthly objects is not exactly similar to the Wordsworthianview of spirit. To Wordsworth, spirit is something that paves him to the heavenly world orthe world of reality whatever it may be termed. In ‘Tintern Abbey’ he expresses that hefinds the rhythms dwelling on this ‘green earth’. He affirms that the stars and the heavensinclude to ‘All that we behold’ from this earth. He affirms a world that is created by anintermarriage of the mind and the senses instead of any unseen world. What he isassumed that he needs this world for his moral and spiritual nurture. The poet says:Well pleased to recognizeIn nature and the language of the senseThe anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soulOf all my moral being.Wordsworth here shows that the order and significance is given to the world ofsenses at such an extent what is provided by the perceiving mind. The perceiving mind isthe founder of the objects but it needs them for its use. The poet calls the natural objects‘the anchor of his purest thoughts’. It is to ‘nurse’ his mind and to ‘guide’ him to hisdestination from where he has ascended as a child. But we must mark that the poet isultimately putting his faith in his own power of imagination to take the nature in thepreviously mentioned ways. Wordsworth thinks, what is found in ‘The Prelude’, that thechild’s mind interacts with the external objects and the imaginative power acts as via tolead him to the conception of reality. What he versifies:The light of sensesGoes out in flashes that have shown to usThe invisible world.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/

HaqueThe poet, here again, responds to the external world as a medium of properperception. The idea, he seeks, is initially dependent on the senses of the external objectsbut later it becomes something that transcends the sensory. It means that the idea of thewhole world is apprehended by the sights and senses but the supreme vision of the purereality comes when the sights turn to be insights. And ultimately the invisible world comesto be visible, as if through a flash of light where the flash maker is the spirit or imaginativepower. So it is clear that Wordsworth holds a firm belief about the true perception ofreality which, as he affirms, is possible through the amalgamation of the external objectsand imaginative power or spirit where the latter on is the master.To Wordsworth, while spirit is the master for proper perception of nature,imagination is something more powerful to make the master which remains innate in it.Imagination, as the poet thinks, leads his mind to discover the life force among theinanimate objects. This is why; he attributes a creative power to imagination. Nonetheless,Wordsworth differs from Coleridge, who denies any existence of the external world, toevaluate imagination, both of them have agreed in a certain point. Maurice Bowra says:54Wordsworth certainly agreed with Coleridge in much that he said aboutthe imagination, especially in the distinction between it and fancy. Forhim the imagination was the most important gift that a poet can have,and his arrangement of his own poems shows what he meant by it. Thesection which he calls “Poems of the Imagination” contains poems inwhich he united creative power and a special, visionary insight.The Romantic Imagination. Page: 18Wordsworth turns to define imagination as ‘insight’ which is rational. To him, theexternal world is not something that is shadowy; rather it is a source of thoughts to him. Buthe says that the task of imagination is to make communication between his own soul andthat of natural objects. Thus, through imagination, he can understand nature’s language,its life force and ultimately comes in a close communion with it. This is how, he forms ideasabout nature through imagination and eventually transcends to the real world that existsin the soul of nature. The poet versifies of imagination:Is but another name for absolute powerAnd clearest insight, amplitude of mind,And Reason in her most exalted mood.The poet explained the word ‘imagination’ as higher import that operates in themind to view upon the external objects that exist, as some merely faithful copies, in themind. He further believes that only through the exercise of imaginative power, the externalworld will be treated as alive with life force and energy in it. To quote Alan Gardiner:For Wordsworth, the imagination is also the faculty that enables us topenetrate beyond the surface of the material world, to ‘see into the lifeof things’. It is through the exercise of the imagination that we perceivethe invisible connections of the universe and so become aware of itsultimate unity. This inner harmony is revealed to us through the mediumof nature, and before we reach the stage of greatest perception werespond to the external forms of nature with our senses. But if we progressfrom this to a genuine insight into the hidden reality of the natural world,we reach a state which transcends the sensory and in which theoperation of the senses is therefore inactive.In ‘Tintern Abbey’ Wordsworth says:the heavy and the weary weightOf all this unintelligible worldIs lightened.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/The Poetry of William Wordsworth. Page:109

William Wordsworth and IdealismThe world around him is ‘unintelligible’ when it is too much complicated with thedaily affairs. But according to the poet, the power of human mind can reorder it assomething rational. When it comes to be reordered by mind, it does not seemunintelligible to the poet; his imagination shapes it in rational way, and gives the true formsof its reality reaching beyond it. Consequently the mountains and the stars in the poemcome to be seen in a pattern which responds to the poet’s mind. This is the way;Wordsworth treats his surrounding world through his own imagination and unearths thereal world beyond it.55Whenever Wordsworth is at his best the natural scene he stands before isassimilated to something other. It ceases to be something merelyexternal and becomes what may be called a mental landscape; a stateof being the mind partakes of with the object and the object with themind.Danby, John F.,The simple Wordsworth, p.109With the above citation from the great critic Danby, we may come to theconclusion that Wordsworth’s treatment of nature is something through which hetranscends beyond the sensory of its external beauty to somewhere else where hediscovers the truth when, with the implication of imagination as a via, the onenessbetween mind and objects begins to stand. This confirms the poet as a passive idealistrather than a sensationalist.ReferenceBloom, Harold. (1961). The Visionary Company. New York: Cornell University PressBowra,Maurice. (1950). The Romantic Imagination. U.S.A. and Great Britain: OxfordUniversityDanby, John F. (1960). The Simple Wordsworth. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.Durrant, Geoffrey. (1969). William Wordsworth. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press.Ferguson, Salter, and Stallworthy. (1996). The Norton Anthology of Poetry. United States ofAmerica: W.W. Norton & CompanyGardiner, Alan. (1987). The Poetry of William Wordsworth. London: Penguin Books Ltd.Hossain, Md. Shaokat. (2006). History of Western Philosophy. (In Bangla Version). Dhaka:Thithi Publication.Hough, Graham. (1957). The Romantic Poets. London: Hutchinson & Co (Publishers) LTDJones, Alun R. and Tydeman, William. (1972). Casebook Series,Wordsworth: Lyrical Ballads.London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.Roark, Dllas M. “Introduction to Philosophy.” 1 December 2012http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/roark-textbook/ Chapter-10.htmWilliams, John. (1993). New Casebook, Wordsworth. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/