Riverbend School for Girls - Vox Fluminis Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 21 text:

Page Nineteen VOX FLUMINIS to them of writing jointly a volume of poetry. Coleridge's endeavours were to be directed to persons and characters supernatural. Mr. Words- worth, oin the other hand, was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of everyday . . . and to awaken the mind's attention to the lethargy of custom and direct it to the loveli-ness and won- ders of the world before usf' Qnly three or four of the poems in the volume are Coleridge's. The Lyrical Ballads were received by many critics with a storm of opposition. They were charged with being prosaic, childish, unpoetic, and even stupiidg and merciless imitations were made of them. But that they were not' merely childish a-nd stupid, as some thought, was proved when they were still causing controversy twenty years afterwards, and when more and more people were reading and appreciating them. Coleridge said that the omission of less than a hundred lines would have precluded nine-tenths of the criticism. However this may be, Wordsworth has steadily risen in favour and has even been ranked as our third greatest poet. In submitting to print the second volume of Lyrical Ballads in 1800, W'ordsworth, partly on the advice of friends, decided to state some of his poetical views and his reasons for writing in the manner and on the subjects as he did. To this end he wrote a long Preface, which ex- pressed his philosophy of poetry. The.principal objectf' he says, which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or descri-be them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of language really used 'by meng and at the same time to throw over them a certain colouring of the imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind iin an unusual way. He chose to write about common people and nature, because it is here that the elemental passions are at their simplest, and no artificiality. He used simple langu- age because if the Poet thinks and feels in the spirit of the passions of men, how ca-n his language differ in any material degree from that of all other men who feel vividly and see clearly? In his imaginative faculty he so far succeeded, that Coleridge says concerning it, he stands nearest to Shakespeare and Milton, and yet in a kind perfectly un-borrowed and his own. The gist of his poetic creed was that what sounds bombastic and affected in prose does so no less in poetry. VV hen we turn to the 'ballads themselves we F1-nd his views carefully and thoughtfully embodied. The poems all concern rustic happenings or scenes. They are all written with an austere purity of language. VVordsworth's minute and faithful description aind simple language give his work much both of its strength and its weakness. Oftentimes it becomes prosy. Coleridge cites lines in the Brothers which are the baldest prose, merely set down in metrical form. It is this same fault which makes for inconstancy in his style. and sudden descendings from the sublime to the everyday. This fault shows itself in still another form. where he uses thoughts and images too great for the subject. j

Page 20 text:

VOX FLUZWINIS Page Eighteen A POEM COME TRUE I read a poem the other day That said things in a funny way. It told of suns that never set And birds and fairies that always met. It told of beautiful running streams And great big fluffy, silvery dreams, Of elves that danced and sang all day. Skipping and jumping so merry and gay. I thought this silly, and well I might, Till I saw it all, the other night. -June Edmison, Grade X., York Hall. TO A BOOK WORM Of all the insects I've ever met, I like the book worm the best. as yet. Heis very quiet, but knows a lot. For he winds thru' the leaves getting all they've got. He's very powerful, so they say, 'Cause he grew to a person the other day. -June Edmison. Grade X., York Hall. THE LYRICAL BALLADS NE of the most curious a-nd interesting friendships in literature was that between Vtfilliam Wordswortli and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. VVordsworth invited Coleridge to Racedown, and in the spring of 1797 he came. It was a momentous visit. Nearly half a century later William and his sister Dorothy recalled his first arrival, how he did not keep to the high road, but leapt over a gate and bounded down the pathless field by which he cut off an angle. to meet them. And in this manner were the Lyrical Ballads made possible. V After this first visit. the XVorclsworth's moved to Alfoxden to be near Coleridge. and f-or a year they were in almost daily intercourse. The ideas of the two poets concerning poetry coinoided remarkably. Each was a stimulus to the other fbut particularly was Coleridge a stimulus to WO1'dSWOfthJ and Dorothy was an inspiration to them both-some of the descriptions in her Journal 'being almlost identical with passages from one or other of the poets. They often discussed the relative value of super-natural incidents and common life as themes for imaginative poetry. Gradually the idea came

Page 22 text:

VOX F L U MI NI S Page Twenty But the very fact that his descriptions are so accurate makes for remarkable and sometimes unexpectedly beautiful passages. He repro- duces what he sees or feels with unerring fidelity. Certain lines in particu- lar arrest one. s T he sun. above the mountain's head, A freshening lustre mellow Through all the long green fields has spread, His first sweet evening yellow. And from the Idiot Boy. By this the stars were almost gone. The moon was setting on the hill. So pale you scarcely looked at her: The little birds began to stir, Though yet their tongues were still. Through all, moreover, there is deep. sincere, a-nd original thought, per- haps best instanced in the Lines written above Tinter-n Abbey. . The poems on the Naming of Places are delightful. Michael and Ruth', are among the best narrative poems. VVith Wordsworth, everyone has his preference. I have heard at different times. and from different individuals, every single poem extolled and reprobated, with the exception of those of a loftier kind. which seem to have won universal praise. CColeridgej. The Lyrical Ballads contain Vlfordsworth at his best and at his worst. He does not thrill us. but he is quiet and truthful and sure of his message. VVe should be indebted to him if he had never written anything besides these lines from Tintern Abbey. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughtsg a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused. XVhose dwelling is the light of setting suns And the round ocean and the living air. And the blue sky, and in the mind of man A motion and a spirit that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. -Aline Harvey, Grade XII., Garry I-Iall. 1-