William Wordsworth's works change dramatically between 1793 and 1797. This period marks a critical turning point in Wordsworth's poetic career having become disenchanted with the French Revolution and Godwin's philosophy. Getting over the crisis of th...
William Wordsworth's works change dramatically between 1793 and 1797. This period marks a critical turning point in Wordsworth's poetic career having become disenchanted with the French Revolution and Godwin's philosophy. Getting over the crisis of this period, he becomes virtually a new poet. This thesis argues, first, that his critique of "the despotism of the eye" has made this successful transition possible; second, that the dramatic change consists of the restoration of his imagination based on his meditative experience of childhood after realizing how his imagination got impaired; and finally, that we can best define the nature of this transformation through reference to Martin Heidegger's philosophy. Chapter 1 surveys the achievements and limits of Wordsworth criticism, while relating the despotism of the eye to Heidegger's discourse on representational thinking (das vorstellende Denken).
Chapter 2 compares Heidegger's aesthetics and Wordsworth's poetics. Section 1 explicates the meaning of 'Being' (Sein), 'the Earth' (die Erde), 'meditative thinking' (besinnliches Denken), and 'the Word as Being' (Logos). Being is the living what-is which can't be grasped conceptually, so 'the Words as Being' is the experiencing of the living what-is. The Earth means such aspects of Being that can't be grasped by any concept or image. Wordsworth uses "real" repeatedly in the "Preface" to Lyrical Ballads to describe a state "in tune with Being," and that "the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation" are "the words spoken by one who is listening for the Word as Being". Wordsworth says several times that "Nature" spoke to him. That speech of Nature is neither "a clothing for the thought" nor language as sign, but words that are prior to language as sign. These "words" are those of "all this mighty sum / Of things for ever speaking"("Expostulation and Reply"), which correspond to "the Word as Being" or "the Word as occurrence or event" in Heidegger. Section 2, centering around The Prelude, shows that Wordsworth's reconstruction of the Earth in his works corresponds to Heidegger's concept of 'the origin of works of art' as building the world and reconstructing the Earth.
Chapter 3 deals with "The Idiot Boy," "We are Seven" and Immortality Ode, to show meditative cognition or experience of childhood that has played a decisive role in Wordsworth's getting over the despotism of the eye. In their description of childhood, these poems embody the meditative experience which accepts the Earth and listens for the Word as Being. This chapter focuses on the experience of the light of childhood in Immortality Ode in addition to the descriptions of childhood in The Prelude, and explores the dynamics of Wordsworth's two ways of thinking by showing the alternation between representational thinking and meditative thinking.
Chapter 4 explores the despotism of the eye, which is the loss of the light of childhood. Being, or presence, of Nature in childhood, appears as the Earth or mystery which is beyond conceptualization. As one's mind builds concepts and gets attached to this conceptual map, s/he becomes estranged from the light of Being and the meditative experience of childhood which hears the Word as Being in standing on the Earth. In short, as one acquires language, the danger of becoming alienated from the living what-is (which is the basis of Wordsworth's creativity) grows.
In Books 11 and 12 of The Prelude, Wordsworth writes that "the eye was the master of the heart" showing that such crisis of imagination has come through the despotism of visual image, and reveals how the despotism of the eye overcame him and then, was subsequently overcome. This is the crisis of imagination, or the loss of meditative experience / cognition of childhood. This chapter also reveals the characteristics of the horizon of concepts, which is another name for the despotism of the eye. This horizon is the state in which one can't hear the Word because visual image and conceptual judgment dominate one's mind.
Seeing through the despotism of the eye, Wordsworth is restored to his childhood. In The Prelude, Wordsworth describes that he had restored his wise passiveness from his childhood and returned to the ocean of meditative experience. The third section of this chapter explicates what "a wise passiveness" or conversing with the Word as Being prior to sign is, with reference to "Expostulation and Reply," "The Tables Turned," and the "Simplon Pass" and "Meeting with a Blind Beggar" passages in The Prelude. Finally, by comparing "Tintern Abbey" with Descriptive Sketches, I will briefly review the dramatic changes wrought after his overcoming the crisis.
Chapter 5 clarifies Wordsworth's theory and practice of composition. Such composition is divided into two stages, that is, that of tranqility or "a wise passiveness" where he empties his head of all concepts and listens for "things for ever speaking," and that of expressing "emotion recollected in tranquility". His poems come into being by realizing "an incarnation of the thought" through presenting words relating to the emotion. This recollected emotion has its origin either in the shock delivered into the conceptual map from the Earth, or in an insight into representational thinking. It is the core of "spots of time" which is the experience of listening to the Word as Being because such shock deconstucts the conceptual map. What Wordsworth calls poetry is the expression, in language, of emotion recollected in "tranquility" or "a wise passiveness" from his childhood, which is another name for meditative cognition or experience.