A Defence of the People Part 1: ‘And of the Poor’

Abstract

Whether or not ‘love of nature’ led to ‘love of man’ in Wordsworth’s affections, as The Prelude claims, he found a style that convincingly renders an acute observation of natural appearances while taking his first steps towards an adequate poetry of human suffering. Both accomplishments progress notably in the 1794 revisions of An Evening Walk.2 At line 191 of the 1794 text Wordsworth develops an analogy between human and watery sensitivity, in his first tentative use of the symbolism of waters for the mind’s activities: Blest are those spirits tremblingly awake To Nature’s impulse like this living lake, Whose mirrour makes the landscape’s charms its own With touches soft as those to memory known; While exquisite of sense, the mighty mass All vibrates to the lightest gales that pass. [ll. 191–6] KeywordsHuman SufferingComposition ofAnYoung Apple TreeOpportunistic PurchaseAcute ObservationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.