The Lakists

The private atmosphere of Burns's poetry was typical i»l I he day. The interconnection of Man and Nature was icvealed by all the Romantics of the Age.

Windermere

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was the bright representative of the second period of English Roman­ticism called the Lake Period. In his poem "Л Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" the author suffers over the death of a young girl. In the first stanza the poet is full of hopes that the girl won't die:

— A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:

She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.

But in the second stanza it is clear that the girl is already dead:

— No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees,

The author is calm because the girl is now safe, sh is melted in the world of nature:

— Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, With rocks, and stones and trees...

And again the main idea is based on the interdepend| ence of Man and Nature.

William Wordsworth's friend and contemporary was another Lake poet Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834).! He was more than a poet. He was a thinker and a literary! critic. William Hazlitt (1778-1830), a famous philoso­pher of the day, wrote about Coleridge and Wordsworth: i "Coleridge's manner is more full and varied; Words-i worth's more sustained and internal. The one might be^! termed more dramatic, the other more lyrical." ("Firsts Acquaintance with Poets"). But both were Conserva-j tive Romantics and defended the hopes and wishes of the feudal class.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

William Wordsworth was born ^; in Cumberland in 1770 and educated at Cambridge. Like Coleridge, he graduated from the University with­out taking a degree. Like Coleridge, he was fond of the French Revolution, ' and his creative work started under its influence. Like Coleridge, he was dis­appointed in it some time later. Like Coleridge, he escaped from the urban way of life and sought for inspiration in nature. Thus he met with Coleridge in the 102

Like District in the North of England. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth was a romantic poet and philosopher. The term "Lake School" ("Lake poets", "Lakists") was applied to them by their contemporaries and is still used by the critics, though the difference between them is no less important.

Wordsworth is at his best in descriptions of natural scenery:

The birds around me hopped and played, Their thoughts I cannot measure: — But the least motion which they made It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan, To catch the breezy air; And I must think, do all I can, That there was pleasure there.

(from "Lines Written in Early Spring")

I travelled among unknown men, In lands beyond the sea; Nor, England! did I know till then What love I bore to thee. (from "/ Travelled Among Unknown Men")

She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the spring of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love. A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky.

(from "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways")

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Samuel Coleridge was born Ж Devonshire in 1772. His father was al priest and wanted his son to follow his deed. Coleridge was educated at Cam-j bridge, but he graduated from the; University without taking a degree Nevertheless, Coleridge was one of. the most educated men of his time,] because he was a voracious reader. Inspired by the' French Revolution, he began writing both political and^; lyrical poetry:

All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame.

(from "Love")

And there upon the moss she sits,

The Dark Ladie in silent pain;

The heavy tear is in her eye,

And drops and swells again.

Three times he sends her little page

Up the castled mountain's breast,

If he might find the knight that wears

The Griffin for his crest.

(from "The Ballad of the Dark Ladie")

The lovely lady Christabel, Whom her father loves so well, What makes her in the wood so late, A furlong from the castle gate?

She had dreams all yesternights

Of her own betrothed knight;

And she in the midnight wood will pray

For the weal of her lover that's far away.

(from "Christabel")

Coleridge spent a long time in the beautiful Lake country in the North of England. In 1799 he lived in Germany, studying German literature and philosophy. He became not only a romantic poet but also a philos­opher and literary critic.

On return Coleridge lost his faith in Revolution and started contributions to conservative press. His mar­riage was unfortunate and he became an opium addict. Most Coleridge's poetry and his literary criticism {"Lectures on Shakespeare and Other Poets") greatly influenced the English literature of the beginning of the 19th century.

Wordsworth and Coleridge together composed and published a small volume of poems under the title "Lyrical Ballads". The bulk of the volume was com­posed by Wordsworth. Coleridge contributed the poem of "The Ancient Mariner" and four short lyrics to the "Ballads" that were published in 1798. They called their ballads Lyrical, because of the importance of their mood and their imaginative treatment.

Wordsworth borrowed his subjects from "humble and rustic life... because, in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity... and speak a plainer and more emphatic language" (Preface to "Lyrical Ballads").

It's interesting to mention that other Lakists, Rob-¹ ert Southey (1774-1843) and Thomas De Quincey

(1785-1859), both were educated at Oxford. Thomas De Quincey, like Coleridge, became an opium addict. Like Coleridge and Wordsworth, he left the University | without a degree. Both Southey and Quincey spent | most of their life in the company of the Lake poets.

Southey was good at ballads ("Bishop Hatto",1 1799) and romantic epics ("Roderick, the Last of the Goths", 1814). Quincey sympathized with all miser-| able creatures ("Confessions of an English Opium-Eater', 1821).

"The Lakists" were conservative in their world out-1 look. Even though they had welcomed the French Revolution and its appeal to freedom and equality for all at the beginning, later they turned away from rev­olutionary ideas. They tried to avoid the contradictions and wrote about the life of the countryside in a popular form of verse, known and understandable by all.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07