Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 53:209 (Jan 1896)
Article: William Wordsworth
Author: Theodore W. Hunt

BSac 53:209 (Jan 1896) p. 28

William Wordsworth

Prof. Theodore W. Hunt

It is not our purpose to present, in this discussion, the biographical details of the life of Wordsworth, save in so far as they are inseparably connected with his literary work. In a true sense, his poetry is his best biography. Not only is “The Prelude” autobiographical, but “The Excursion” and many of the shorter poems are substantially so.

We may thus proceed at once, to the subject in hand as embraced in three distinct topics of interest.

I. His Theory of Poetry

This was peculiary his own, called for, in part, by the special character of the time and, mainly, by the instincts and demands of his own nature. He alludes, once and again, to the urgent necessity that existed in English poetry for new canons of criticism and new methods of expression. He thus takes special pains to review the history of English verse, and calls attention to the false taste which had prevailed among the ablest writers of the day.

He dwells upon the fact that by such erroneous standards Spenser and Shakespeare and Milton had largely lost their hold upon the public mind, while such inferior names as those of Halifax, Browne, Sheffield, and Philipps had found a place of honor in Johnson’s “Lives of the English Poets.” Not even in the opening of the romantic era, in the days of Cowper, did he succeed in discovering what he regarded as the essentials of poetry. It was in place, therefore, for him

BSac 53:209 (Jan 1896) p. 29

to develop a theory of his own, and in the second edition of his poems he gives us by way of preface its clear exposition. “Poetry,” he says, “is the image of man and nature, its object being to disclose their unity, and poems to which any value can be attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who being possessed of more than usual sensibility had, also, thought long and deeply.” We discover here the important truth which lies at the basis of the author’s theory, that all true poetic emotion is under the guidance and government of thought. It is a contemplative emotion. Proceeding, then, from the abstract to the concrete, he defines the poet to be “a man speaking to men, a man who has a greater knowledge of human nature and a more comprehensive soul than most men, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him.” He enumerates six distinct qualifications of the poet—Observation or Description, Sensibility, Reflection, Imagination, Invention, and Judgment; in fine, all the elements that enter into the best English verse. From these and kindred statements his theory may be reached. We may speak of it, as the interpretation of God and man through nature, as the re...