Lecture on Wordsworth's "Ode on Intimations of Immortality"

Overview

Presenter: Monami Mukherjee
Poet: William Wordsworth
Poem Examined: "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"
Main Concepts: Linking nature with divinity, loss of childhood innocence, role of nature in regaining divine connection
Context: Part of Romantic Literature; Wordsworth was pivotal in transitioning from Neoclassicism to Romanticism

William Wordsworth: Considered a pioneer of the Romantic period in England
- Collaborations: Published "Lyrical Ballads" with S.T. Coleridge in 1798
- Popular Poems: "Daffodils," "The Solitary Reaper," and "Tintern Abbey"
Romanticism: A movement valuing emotion, nature, and individualism over the rationalism and order of Neoclassicism

Title: "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"
Themes: Interaction between nature and human life, loss of childhood wonder, and the inevitable aging process
Structure: Mix of regular and irregular rhyme schemes; alternating rhyme scheme (ABAB) breaks when discussing change (CDDC)

Opening Lines: "The child is father of the man" from "My Heart Leaps Up" by Wordsworth
- Paradox: Suggests wisdom and purity in childhood surpass adult understanding
- Goal: Maintain goodness and piety throughout life
Childhood Wonder: Previous celestial-like view of nature lost in adulthood
- Quote: "...the earth, and every common sight, to me did seem appareled in celestial light."
Reality of Adulthood: Sense of loss; inability to see the magical nature of the world as in childhood

Rhetorical Questions: Reflects Wordsworth’s longing for lost childhood vision
Image of Loss: Seen through the metaphor of nature losing its glory
- Quote: "A glory has passed away from the earth."
Descriptive Imagery: Nature still beautiful but missing a divine quality from childhood perception

Life and Memory: Birth as a forgetting of pre-birth divine existence
- Quote: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting..."
- Paradox: Suggests birth as the beginning of forgetting divine understanding
Divine Childhood: Children closer to divine nature, heaven surrounds them
- Nature's Role: Nature as nurturing but also making us forget divine origins for humility
Connection with Nature: Adults can regain glimpses of divine through nature

Comparison: Holds child's innocence and connection to divine above adult logic and reason
- Quote: "Thou best philosopher... thou eye among the blind."
Children at Play: Reflects the simplicity and joy of childhood
- Quote: "See... some little plan or chart some fragment from his dream of human life."

Continuous Connection: Life as a transition; retaining some connection to divinity through memory and nature
- Quote: "The glory and the dream."
Imagery: Youth to adulthood, loss, and the steady relationship with nature
- Quote: "...fresh flowers while the sun shines warm, and the babe leaps up..."
Ending Optimism: Despite loss, a steady optimism that connective memories can be rekindled through nature

Written between 1802-1804, published in 1807
Described as poetic essays with philosophical reflections
Shows Wordsworth's continual emphasis on nature as a pathway to divine understanding, similar to themes in "Tintern Abbey"

Nature: Acts as both a nurturer and a medium to recall divine states
Childhood: Seen as a pure, divine state that gets clouded over time
Divinity: Accessible via nature, hinting at the Romantic belief in transcendental experiences

Monami Mukherjee ends with the importance of maintaining good spirits and staying connected to nature.