﻿II 



The Wordsworthian Note in Eighteenth 

 Century Vqtsq 



If this account of AYordswortli "s change from theoretical real- 

 ism to actnal romanticism has been of any service in showing his 

 poetic temper, we may, before discussing his romanticism specific- 

 ally, find it advantageous to see from what kind of sources in the 

 past age he drew ideas and inspiration, and from that point of 

 view note the development of his thought. For Wordsworth, like 

 every original man of power who sets currents of thought into new 

 channels, must have relations with the upper stream which are not 

 wholly reactionary. If it is in his relation and divergence that we 

 see most apparently what is new in a man's temper, if it is there he 

 is most sharply defined for us. it is also there that we shall discover 

 the element that links him with the past. If this sounds contra- 

 dictory, it may be noted that it is Imt another v\^ay of stating the 

 theory of the sur^uval of the fittest, tlie only part of evolutionary 

 principle which can ])e safely applied to the study of literature. 

 Wordsworth is a reactionary. He also, like every great poet, may 

 be said to represent, to give shape to. those ideas of the former age 

 in his field of discotirse, that were fit to surA'ive. We should be able 

 to define. ]iy its typical difference from the old, what is the dis- 

 tinctive ijuality in his new note, and then perceive how faintly or 

 clearly this Wordsworthian note may be heard here and there in 

 pre-Wordsworthian verse. 



Characteristic eighteenth century description of nature is ex- 

 ternal, casual, and purposeless as compared with the motive of 

 ATordsworthian poetry. 



O Eeacler ! had you in your miucl 

 Such .stores as sileut thought can bring. 

 O gentle Reader I you would find 

 A tale in everything. 



The eighteenth century found only an obvious moral tag where 

 Wordsworth, who bedieved that nothing is obvious in heaven or 

 earth, endeavored to discover an inner thought in things. The 

 eighteenth century stuck to objective, common-sense views. It 

 looked at flowers and birds and shady groves, and admired them. 



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