A Revaluation of Wordsworth's Sonnets

Abstract

It was Longinus who wrote to his friend, Terentianus, “The judgment of literature is the final after growth of much endeavor.” Any literary anniversary presents for literary criticism, the challenge to ascertain new judgments arrived at through careful research and persistent endeavor. Such an anniversary was celebrated in the year 1950, which marked the centenary of William Wordsworth's death. Literary criticism has already in this decade presented justifications for the poet and revaluations of his poetry. In 1950 was published Helen Darbishire's The Poet Wordsworth. The author's concern is with the poet and his poetry. In 1951, Gilbert T. Dunklin edited Wordsworth, Centenary Studies Presented at Cornell and Princeton. The volume contains six lectures which present to the modern world recollections and appraisals of the poet , Wordsworth. All studies are presented by men of literary distinction, and include Douglas Bush, Frederick A. Pottle, Earl Leslie Griggs, John Crowe Ransom, B. Ifor Evans, Lionel Trilling, and Willard L. Sperry. In this present year, 1953, there has come from the press, Wordsworth and the Literature of Travel, by Charles Norton Coe. There is little said about the growing popularity of Wordsworth, yet it is hoped for. The old assumption that Wordsworth’s best poetry was written before he was thirty years old, has been too generally accepted and has therefore been the cause of much pure poetry resting unexplored. To delve into all the forms of poetry used by Wordsworth would be too profound a task and would, no doubt, result in confusion. Yet, to pass over that one form wherein he did achieve a high standard of poetic worth in the two decades that followed his so-called decline, would be to neglect to pass favorable judgment where it is due. Wordsworth achieved the perfection of his early years in several of the sonnets written in later life. In view of the fact that these sonnets until recent years have been seldom analyzed or rarely explicated, it seemed justifiable and worth-while to attempt to present to the reader, recent criticisms which have proved to be the "final aftergrowth of much endeavor." Among the critics who have within the last decade made intensive study of the sonnets of Wordsworth are Cleanth Brooks, Neal Frank Doubleday , Florence Marsh, W. Macneile Dixon, Charles W. Cooper, Lascelles Abercrombie, and David Daiches. The criticisms of the se men will be considered in chapter IV of this thesis. To present a well-rounded portrayal of this subject, the first chapter is a consideration of t he life of William Wordsworth and the influence pertinent to the writing of the sonnets. These influences, it will be noted, are not only those which have reference to external factors --persons and events --but also, those internal experiences and inspirations which were so much a part of the "growth of the poet's mind." The second chapter presents the history of the sonnet and stresses in particular the gradual changes from the original Italian to the innovations adopted by Wordsworth, innovations which have proved to be of historical importance to the sonnet. In the third chapter is given the early criticisms of Wordsworth's sonnets, thus making it clear that during his lifetime Wordsworth received little recognition for his contributions in the sonnet form. These early criticisms, the reader will observe, are, for the most part, controversial issues which appeared in the periodicals of Wordsworth's day . The fourth chapter includes modern criticism of the poet's sonnets and attempt to prove that there is today a tendency, particularly in the universities, to uncover the hidden treasures contained in these sonnets, and thus give to the modern world a true picture of Wordsworth, the sonneteer.