William Wordsworth

Afton Wafer

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise;

My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

Thou stock-dove whose echo resounds through the glen.

Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,

Thou green-crested lapwing thy screaming forbear,

I charge you disturb not my slumbering fair.

How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighbouring hills,

Far marked with the courses of clear, winding rills;

There daily I wander as noon rises high,

My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye.

How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below,

Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow;

There oft as mild evening weeps over the lea,

The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.

Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,

And winds by the cot where my Mary resides;

How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,

As gathering sweet flowerets she stems thy clear wave.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays;

My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

William Wordsworth was the key figure in the English Romantic revolution. His contribution could be briefly summarised by three aspects: firstly, he raised poetic art, "the first and last of all knowledge," to the forefront of human life, creating the finest poetry of his age; secondly, he penetrated deeply into the "growth of a poet's mind," i.e. his own mind, which he considered a reflection of human nature and stressed the value of artistic subjectivity; thirdly, he showed a new approach towards nature, after which it was not just an appropriate background for the plot, but was incorporated into the poem's texture as an organic unity.

William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland — April 23, 1850, Rydal Mount, Westmorland) was born on the northern border of the English Lake District. After the death of his mother, little William was sent by his guardian uncles to a school located in the centre of the Lake District, which he and Coleridge were destined to remould into the English poetic centre. Meanwhile, William, along with his three brothers, felt free to explore the countryside whenever they were not engaged in school work. Thus he came to know cottagers, shepherds, occasional wanderers, and most importantly, he learned to absorb Nature's sights and sounds, which would later revive in his poetry. Reading books was another pleasant pastime for William.

Hard days came when his father died in 1783, leaving the family at mercy of a lord who owed the Wordsworths a considerable sum. Even so, William managed to go to Cambridge and take his degree in 1791. Back in his third year, he, along with a friend, undertook a foot journey through France and the Alps. Afterwards, he made a similar trip to Wales, then he went again to France to learn the language with a prospect of becoming a travelling tutor.

At that time Wordsworth's close friend died and left him some money, enough to live on and write poetry. So he moved to a cottage in Dorsetshire with his sister Dorothy, who soon became his right hand. He also met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, living nearby. They met almost each day, discussed poetical issues, and wrote a great deal. Their collaboration was so close that they shared the same ideas and even phrased them similarly. Coleridge discouraged Wordsworth from longer narrative writings and undertook to finish some of Wordsworth's earlier abandoned poetic attempts.

The fruit of their mutual dedication was a small anonymous volume of Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798). It opened with Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and had three other poems by Coleridge, some of Wordsworth's humorous verse and psychological sketches of simple people. It also included Wordsworth's descriptive lyrics, and ended with Wordsworth's great meditative poem in blank verse Tintern Abbey. That such a thin volume could cause so far-reaching literary reorientation, was unheard of. Friends were over-enthusiastic, professional critics less so; yet a new edition was being prepared. Now in 1800, it was published under Wordsworth's name, and enlarged with new poems written during his long and bitter winter in Germany in 1798-1799. In the famous Preface, together with Coleridge, he laid down his new poetical guidelines, which would serve as a textbook for many future poets.

Meantime, Wordsworths and Dorothy returned to the Lake District for good, and Coleridge followed them soon. At last, in 1802, Wordsworth inherited his father's funds, and after settling things with his former French love, he married Mary Hutchinson, whom he knew from childhood. However this seemingly peaceful arrangement was disrupted by various misfortunes. In 1805, his favourite brother John drowned in a sea wreck, two of his five children died in 1812, he bitterly quarrelled with Coleridge in 1810 not to make up for two decades, and finally came the physical and mental collapse of his sister Dorothy. Through all his years Wordsworth was overwhelmed by constant cruel attacks of disapproving reviewers of his works. At last, with the publication of The River Duddon in 1820, this wave began to diminish, and by the mid-1830s his reputation was secured with both critics and the public.

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