Student Question
What impact did the French Revolution have on Wordsworth's poems, excluding Prelude?
Quick answer:
The French Revolution significantly influenced Wordsworth's poetry by aligning with his Romantic ideals, emphasizing a return to nature and individual essence, as seen in poems like "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." Wordsworth's works like "The Solitary Reaper" and "The Tables Turned" reflect themes of natural beauty, egalitarianism, and human freedom, echoing the revolutionary spirit of challenging societal norms and advocating for personal and political transformation.
Wordsworth's advocacy of Romantic ideas throughout his poetry seemed to find a political home in the Pre- Reign of Terror French Revolution. Wordsworth had always written poetry with strong sentiments that had been represented as the animating spirit of the overthrow of the French Aristocracy. Emphasizing a very passionate of a return to natural life and nature as being a guiding force was a theme found in poems such as "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." A central idea in this poem is that if individuals can identify with nature as an extension of themselves, they will begin to understand their true essence or nature. Such a call to remove false and socially dictated trappings of wealth and power were critical elements instigating the French Revolution. In a poem like "The Solitary Reaper," Wordsworth seeks to bring us a pure vision of beauty. His depiction of the girl in the field is naturally beautiful and one that lingers. There is little in the way of "invented" notions of beauty or other social trappings which define what is beautiful. Again, this drive to return to a natural and egalitarian state is critical in the genesis of the French Revolution. Finally, the idea of human freedom and taking action in the name of what resides in the soul can be found in "The Tables Turned," where Wordsworth demands that individuals throw off the shackles of conformity and embrace a higher notion of truth and justice. Again, such inspiration and zeal was evident in the French Revolution, where individuals felt that it was time to usher in a new era of change where conformed standards of what defined control and authority would be transformed.
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