lines written in early spring - COMPLETE

william worrdsworth

Personal context - childhood

• disillusionment of people came from his childhood

• treated badly by uncle

• parents dead by mid-teens

• separated from sister for 9 years

poem context - historical (overview)

• pantheism

• french revolution

• industrialisation

• set in somerset

historical context (indepth)

• Lyrical Ballads (1798) represented common situations in everyday language, making poetry accessible for all.

• French Revolution - was initially viewed as a sign of freedom, but due to the reign of Terror (1793 - 1794), many people (including Wordsworth) began to criticise it, due to mass beheadings.

• Slave trade - Liverpool controlled of the European slave trade, and 80% of the British slave trade

Personal context - adulthood

• Gradualism - pantheism to theism to Christianity

• Had a daughter named Caroline who lived in France during the French Revolution - unable to see her as result of this. illegitimate as well

‘thousand blended notes’

• nature in harmony + union

• nature and music = both were driven by emotion, as opposed to the scientific enlightenment

enlightmenment

‘pleasant thoughts ‘sad thoughts’

romantics prioritised emotion over scientific discovery

‘sate reclined’

flaneur. links to emotion over reasoning.

‘what man has made of man’

• repeated at beginning and end - cyclical structure

• industrilisation

• supported french revolution at first, turned away from it due to the violent nature.

‘primrose’

first sign of spring

hope, innocence

‘periwinkle’

sentimentality, serenity

everlasting love - desire for relationship.

serenity - peace - French?

‘their thoughts I cannot measure’

• negative capability, coined by John Keats

• Don’t need to understand everything to appreciate it

‘every flower.. enjoys the air it breathes’

personalisation, giving the flowers emotion. everything is affected by emotion, even things that don’t.

‘to her fair works did Nature link.. the human soul’

nature and man, Nsture is in man.

Nature is capitalised, similar to how God was often capitalised - Pantheism

Nature as ‘her’ = feminine, gentle, caring. God as humanity’s caretaker

‘pleasant thoughts’ elicited by nature, link to ‘sad thoughts’ ‘whhat man has made of man’

nature versus man. Humanity’s impact on nature/disconnect.

• It could be about slavery, but his core values changed.

• It could also be referencing societal restraints, due to him having an illegitimate daughter.

‘if such be Nature’s holy plan’

• Leading to criticism of the Industrialisation and the French Revolution.

• Could be a way of telling the audience that God disagrees with it