PL9fwy3NUQKwYGN66V9CL-c7DFnG0_Swb2/YEtB7zfI8I8.srt

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Assalamualaikum and good morning everyone. Welcome

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back to English poetry at the Islamic University

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of Gaza. Today we move to a very interesting poet,

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critic, and a modernist. When we started this

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course, I asked you for your favorite definition

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of poetry, and most of you opted for the

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Wordsworthian definition, defining poetry as a

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spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. And I

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think that many people would stop here, giving this

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definition, and this actually falls short because

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there is a second part; there's a significant

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part, actually 50% of what the definition is,

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which is "recollected in tranquility." This

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recollection, act of remembering and recalling

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memories, is significant. We're going to see this

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in a bit. Before we talk about the features which

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we, in a way or another, mentioned in the lectures

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on William Blake. Let's see this canonical text.

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I'm sure you're already familiar with this. Some

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of you must have studied this before, but it's

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always, always good to see how different people do

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different things. In my way of studying poetry and

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literature in general, I like to focus on the

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structure, on the form, on how the poets say what

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they say, rather than what they actually say. Some

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critics would suggest that there are actually a

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handful of themes out there. All poetry, all

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literature, all writings can be summarized into a

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handful of issues. I'm happy, I'm sad, she likes

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me, she doesn't like me, life's good, life's bad.

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And that's why we have poets, Arab poets, who

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suggested almost 2,000 years ago that whatever

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they were doing was just repeating themselves and

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intertexting or borrowing or quoting other poets.

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And this is 2,000 years ago. ما رأينا نقول إلاّ 

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معروفا أو معروفا من لفظه مكرورا. And Antara

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says, هل غدر الشُعراءُ و من مُتْرَدِّمِي.

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Opening his mu'allaqa, his long poem, saying that,

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what should I write about? Everything I want to

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speak about has already been spoken about by other

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poets. But he doesn't just stop there and give us

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that one line, the opening, because he knows he is

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not, in a way, the idea is being repeated, but how

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he is doing his poetry is totally different.

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That's why every poem, every poet is a different

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experience. Even by the same poet, you'll

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experience different things. I have, like,

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when you study Tamim al-Barghouti, you'll find

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that there are common features for his poetry,

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right? But once you get into each poem, it's a

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microcosm of its own world. One guy said to a

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critic, "I want to write poetry. I have so many

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ideas." I want to write poetry; we do this

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sometimes.  "I want to write poetry, I have so many

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ideas." And the critic, being a critic, said, "Poetry

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my friend, is not made with ideas, but with words."

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What words to choose, how to use the words, how to

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word the words, how to order the words, how to

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play with the words, how to use and recruit

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literary devices and metaphorical language,

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figures of speech. And that's why, again, I like

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge's definition probably more. He

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says, in a way, it sounds a stupid definition, but

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it's really deep. Poetry is the best words in the

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best order. Poetry is the best words in the best

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order, where he is focusing more on how the form

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and the language should say what they should say.

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Now, when we talk about William Wordsworth, we

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talk about one of the most, again, important poets

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of all time. We talk about the father or the

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founder or the co-founder of Romanticism. Along

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with Coleridge, they published what is known as

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*Lyrical Ballads* around 1798. And the book, in a

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short time, sold out. There were no more copies

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because, remember, we said neoclassicism was

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already in decline, and people were looking for

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something different, something new. Coleridge

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published only his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and

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Wordsworth published, like, I'm not sure how many

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poems, but a bunch of them. Now, after two years,

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they said, "Okay, let's

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let's tell people what we're doing. Let's define

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poetry, define a poet, and tell them what kind of

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language, what kind of sensibility we're employing

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here."

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Coleridge, probably you know this already,

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Coleridge was a drug addict. He was an opium

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addict. He was high all the time. Not climbing

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trees, but high. He didn't participate in writing

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the introduction, which is now known as the

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preface to *Lyrical Ballads*. It was written; I'm

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saying this because some people think that the

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preface is what Romanticism is, and this is, to a

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large extent, yes, if you consider Wordsworth

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everything in Romanticism, and this is wrong. And

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I know many of you usually... I like feminism, I

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like post-colonialism, I like romanticism. And

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then later on you find, you realize that there are

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romanticisms, feminisms, and post-colonialisms.

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Because when you study what Coleridge is going to

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be like, they share these common features, but

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they're totally different. Look at Shelley, for

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example, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Lord Byron, Lord Byron,

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hates Coleridge and William Wordsworth. He keeps

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making fun of them all the time, mocking them.

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This is the second generation. Now, so William

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Wordsworth wrote the preface himself alone. This

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is good, again, and bad because we have now

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something, unlike the metaphysicals; they didn't

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write anything to define their poetry, what they

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were doing, to tell people about their new

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sensibility.

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But again, it's bad because some people think that

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this is all what you need to know about

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romanticism. This is also good because later on

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Coleridge realized that, "Oh my God, I didn't

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participate in this." And he wrote his own book

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known as *Biographia Literaria*, or *Literary

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Biography*. So it's good that we have two books by

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these two amazing poets and critics. This poem,

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some say, is the icon, the epitome of

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Romanticism. It contains

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almost every feature, as if he wrote this poem

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just to show people how to write poetry in terms

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of form, of language, of subject matter, of the

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new sensibility, of the feelings and emotions and

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imagination, individuality, as opposed to

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everything that we had in neoclassical poetry. Okay,

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so the poem is entitled "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," or *The Daffodils*.

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Probably let's let's read the poem

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together. For the sake of time, just one stanza

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each, please. "I wandered lonely..." Okay,

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can you say again and speak up. "I wandered lonely"

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as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills."

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"When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden

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daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees,

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fluttering and dancing in the breeze." Thank you

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very much. One more, please.

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Thank you. Speak up. "The waves beside them danced,

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but they out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet

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could not but be gay, in such a jocund company:" I

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gazed—and gazed—but little thought what..." Thank you

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very much. One more, please. "On my couch."

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Very good.

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Very good. Okay, so I'll go into a journey through

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this poem and show you how I like to usually do

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things. But this is a poem that can be studied

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from different ideas. You can start with the

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features, looking for them, et cetera. But let's

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do a close reading, reading between the words and

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the lines. Now, the title itself, *Daffodils*, or

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*I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud*, suggests that

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this is a poem that is rooted, or at least

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inspired by nature. The daffodils, rather than

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*Paradise Lost*, *Paradise Regained*, rather than any

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lofty subject matter, *The Fairy Queen*; they say, on

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criticism, they say, "On Man"—that's the daffodils.

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Totally different from the neoclassical poets

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who were writing before this. When

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we read the poem, we realize that this is a poem

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that is overwhelmed by nature and natural

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elements. It's not a poem that uses nature as some

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kind of decoration for the poem. Because some of

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you will say, "Okay, Shakespeare used natural

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elements. Marlowe used natural elements in his

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poetry." What difference does it make? The

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difference is actually

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existential, not just superficial, because in this

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poem, in Wordsworth, nature *is* the poem. The poem

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is *for* nature; nature inspires the poem; nature is

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everything. Take nature from the poem, and you

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don't have a poem. But for Shakespeare, probably

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for Marlowe, if you take nature, you take the

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decorations because he's saying, "Come live

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with me and be my love. I own everything around

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me." He's not showing the relationship between him

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and nature and how nature is impacting him, his

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psychology, his everything here. So nature here,

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this is about the impact of nature. The impact,

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and again, I don't like to talk about themes

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because sometimes they limit the meaning of the

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poem. But yeah, there is this thing about how

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nature is changing, is impacting him from one

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thing to the other. And then the second thing, we

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are struck with the "I." "I wandered lonely as a

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cloud." And actually, not only "I," we have "lonely," and

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we have the singularity of a cloud. "I wandered

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lonely..." as there is subjectivity here; there is

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individualism. For Romanticism, remember we said

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that neoclassical poetry was poetry of the

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collective, of everybody, for all—not for all

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like in this sense where it talks, where it

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talk about this later on. And lonely, this is

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loneliness. We'll see at the end how he was not

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alone when he had this experience. But there's

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somebody he is totally eradicating and erasing

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from the poem. Is this anti-feminism? Is this?

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self-centeredness or is this and again emphasis on

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individuality rather than society and community

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which is a romantic feature when he says as a

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cloud as is it's a simile, thank you. And a simile

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is a metaphor where you use "as" or "like," just and in

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general, similes are easier than metaphors. If he

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said, "I wandered lonely" or "I floated lonely," we'll

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be asking, "What does he mean? Why is he floating?

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What is he? Is he a bird? Is he a duck? Is he what?

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Because the possibilities are open, but he just

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closes the door here by saying that, "I wandered

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lonely as a cloud." That's the end of it. And this

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is something some people might be interested in

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doing research on. How, for example, the Nihilists

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were more into metaphors, you know, make things

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complex sometimes, elaborate. That's why we have

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the conceit and the Elizabethan conceit. But here,

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they go for the simple. We'll see this repeated

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again later on as the stars. And then again, a

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cloud, not clouds, emphasizing the singularity of

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it. But why a cloud? Yeah? Why a cloud? Not a

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tree, a bird, a cat, or a drone, or a plane, or a

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kite, you know? A kite, a paper kite. What does it

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indicate possibly? Yeah? Maybe because it's up in

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the sky and it's hard to reach. Thank you very

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much. It's up in the sky; it's high up above

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everything; it has this bird's-eye view that it can

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look at things below; it can see things from

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a comprehensive perspective; it's up above. That's

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one, and I think because it is moving slowly, so

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he's in a state when he is staring at everything

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and imagining everything, so he couldn't be like

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But not necessarily; not all clouds move slowly,

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but that could be part of it. Sometimes they move

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slowly. So this deliberate movement could be a

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possible thing here. There is deliberation in the

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process. There could be another reason. Maybe to

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show that it's like something that is delicate and

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soft. The delicacy of it, okay, the softness. I

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heard somebody say something here.

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Okay, it's also free; it has this kind of free

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will. It's not connected with anything; it just

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moves at free will. So there could be these

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reasons for a cloud, one cloud, three. I love how

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00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:18,220
when you examine our friend here, Wordsworth,

273
00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,500
we'll see the second poem in a bit. He likes to

274
00:17:22,500 --> 00:17:24,640
position himself. Remember I said, try to

275
00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,660
understand where the poet is, what he or she is

276
00:17:27,660 --> 00:17:29,560
doing now, at the moment the poem is being

277
00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:33,460
written, right? Is he asleep? Is he walking? Is he

278
00:17:33,460 --> 00:17:37,320
eating? Is he in a class? Is he what? In a train,

279
00:17:37,460 --> 00:17:42,210
traveling? The man here positions himself up

280
00:17:42,210 --> 00:17:44,950
above. We see in the second poem, he does almost the

281
00:17:44,950 --> 00:17:50,170
same. He distances himself from things. That

282
00:17:50,170 --> 00:17:56,310
floats on high o'er vales and hills. Now, "o'er" is

283
00:17:56,310 --> 00:18:00,710
over, but "over" makes it two syllables, or one

284
00:18:00,710 --> 00:18:03,770
syllable. And again, look at nature. This is

285
00:18:03,770 --> 00:18:07,490
something. "When all at once I saw a crowd." If you

286
00:18:07,490 --> 00:18:10,330
look at the first two lines, I think there is some

287
00:18:10,330 --> 00:18:11,930
kind of deliberation. Somebody said "deliberate"

288
00:18:11,930 --> 00:18:15,910
here. They're musical, but they are a little bit

289
00:18:15,910 --> 00:18:19,910
slow. "I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on

290
00:18:19,910 --> 00:18:24,270
high o'er vales and hills." This line goes even

291
00:18:24,270 --> 00:18:27,850
quicker. "When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of

292
00:18:27,850 --> 00:18:32,590
golden daffodils." "When all at once," look at this

293
00:18:32,590 --> 00:18:37,470
suddenness here. "I saw a crowd." And the crowd

294
00:18:37,470 --> 00:18:42,050
refers to a bunch of daffodils he saw. He

295
00:18:42,050 --> 00:18:47,290
describes them as a crowd, doing something called a

296
00:18:47,290 --> 00:18:49,850
personification. Because a crowd of people, we

297
00:18:49,850 --> 00:18:52,610
say. But if "crowd" is negative, a little bit

298
00:18:52,610 --> 00:18:54,970
negative, because "crowd," you don't like crowds,

299
00:18:55,050 --> 00:18:56,850
you're like, "It's crowded; I'm not going to go

300
00:18:56,850 --> 00:19:01,290
there." He quickly follows it with "a host," which is

301
00:19:01,290 --> 00:19:05,610
more welcoming and more inviting. If you are a

302
00:19:05,610 --> 00:19:10,090
guest, the guy taking care of you is the host. And

303
00:19:10,090 --> 00:19:13,090
when you are a guest, somebody's guest, you just

304
00:19:13,090 --> 00:19:17,490
stay there, you enjoy food, you enjoy drinks, you

305
00:19:17,490 --> 00:19:22,290
enjoy, just relax, right? But it's the host that

306
00:19:22,290 --> 00:19:25,290
works hard to please you, to make you comfortable.

307
00:19:26,430 --> 00:19:29,030
I'm not sure what he's doing here, but is he

308
00:19:29,030 --> 00:19:31,730
suggesting that the closer you get, the more

309
00:19:31,730 --> 00:19:35,090
beautiful the scene becomes, the more involved you

310
00:19:35,090 --> 00:19:37,930
are, the more inviting and appealing it is,

311
00:19:37,930 --> 00:19:41,580
because it sounded like a crowd, and then they

312
00:19:41,580 --> 00:19:47,720
turn out to be a host, which also means a group of

313
00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:51,060
golden daffodils. Now, the daffodils are golden.

314
00:19:51,140 --> 00:19:53,780
Why would you say "golden" if they are already

315
00:19:53,780 --> 00:19:56,060
there? So there could be some kind of significance

316
00:19:56,060 --> 00:19:59,440
for this color, this shiny color. Some people would

317
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,120
suggest that "gold," they're precious; they're gold.

318
00:20:03,140 --> 00:20:05,120
Referring to the color, but referring to their

319
00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:10,820
significance. "Where? Beneath the lake, beside the

320
00:20:10,820 --> 00:20:14,320
lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in

321
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,120
the breeze." This is again more for the

322
00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:20,080
personification. They are fluttering like birds,

323
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,520
but also they are dancing like human beings.

324
00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,120
That's a beautiful opening to a poem, very

325
00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:33,480
ecstatic, very appealing. I'm not sure if this is

326
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,800
soothing to you, but he's inviting you to some, in

327
00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:41,060
a way, to reconsider natural scenes, natural

328
00:20:41,060 --> 00:20:45,780
experiences. I hope you never see daffodils the

329
00:20:45,780 --> 00:20:50,380
same after this poem, or roses, or cats, or birds,

330
00:20:50,620 --> 00:20:55,640
or clouds. Now, I'm not sure what words you find

331
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,620
difficult here. "Fluttering," we already mentioned

332
00:20:58,620 --> 00:21:04,000
this before. Vale, vale, vale, vale, valley.

333
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:09,480
"Fluttering," you know, "breeze," "the sweet morning."

334
00:21:12,500 --> 00:21:15,560
What else? I don't think there are difficult words

335
00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:17,840
here. Even the words you're not familiar with, you

336
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:22,380
still can guess. If you go to the rhyme scheme,

337
00:21:24,730 --> 00:21:29,150
Please. Thank you. Go. A, B,

338
00:21:29,930 --> 00:21:35,750
A, B. Are you sure? Yes. Yes. C, C. Are you sure?

339
00:21:35,910 --> 00:21:39,310
Yes. The letters are different. We have to count

340
00:21:39,310 --> 00:21:42,730
the sound. It's the sound that we care about.

341
00:21:43,090 --> 00:21:46,870
Perfect or? Perfect. Perfect. If you count, just

342
00:21:46,870 --> 00:21:48,670
to save you some time, if you count the syllables,

343
00:21:49,530 --> 00:21:53,990
each line has eight syllables, making four feet,

344
00:21:54,150 --> 00:21:56,110
mostly iambic tetrameter.

345
00:21:58,610 --> 00:22:01,430
You'll find that this time we're not going to find

346
00:22:01,430 --> 00:22:05,930
many poems going for the five-foot iambic

347
00:22:05,930 --> 00:22:06,570
pentameter.

348
00:22:10,090 --> 00:22:12,810
And then the second syllable goes for continuous

349
00:22:12,810 --> 00:22:19,070
as the stars that shine. Again, another simile: as

350
00:22:19,070 --> 00:22:22,630
the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,

351
00:22:22,990 --> 00:22:26,690
they referring to? And look at this; this is by

352
00:22:26,690 --> 00:22:31,130
the way, this is now a modifying phrase.

353
00:22:33,390 --> 00:22:38,610
The sentence is originally, "because they are

354
00:22:38,610 --> 00:22:41,470
continuous, they stretched," or "they were

355
00:22:41,470 --> 00:22:46,500
continuous; they stretched." This is one of them is

356
00:22:46,500 --> 00:22:50,480
reduced. "Continuous as the stars that shine and

357
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,860
twinkle on the Milky Way, they stretched in a never-

358
00:22:53,860 --> 00:22:58,160
ending line." Grammatically, it's a never-ending

359
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,500
line because "line" is one. So there is, again,

360
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,920
because many people still say there's no such

361
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,340
thing as spontaneous overflow of powerful

362
00:23:07,340 --> 00:23:11,090
emotions; there's always a conscious attempt, a

363
00:23:11,330 --> 00:23:15,650
deliberate attempt to write poetry. So if this is

364
00:23:15,650 --> 00:23:17,650
a poem with a perfect rhyme scheme and a perfect,

365
00:23:17,930 --> 00:23:21,690
you know, same number of syllables, yes, great

366
00:23:21,690 --> 00:23:24,750
poets don't stop and count; they feel the beat,

367
00:23:24,850 --> 00:23:28,940
they feel the rhythm. But here, he's deleting the

368
00:23:28,940 --> 00:23:33,080
"أ" just to make it fit the eight syllables, the

369
00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:37,340
four feet. "Along the margin of a bay, ten thousand

370
00:23:37,340 --> 00:23:39,420
I saw at once." Look at this. Again,

371
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:43,460
grammatically, this is called fronting. Fronting,

372
00:23:44,060 --> 00:23:47,120
when you bring something in front.  تقديم in

373
00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:52,700
Arabic. It should be "I saw ten thousand" subject

374
00:23:52,700 --> 00:23:58,060
verb at a glance. But why is he doing this? Why

375
00:23:58,060 --> 00:24:01,520
is he starting with "ten thousand" and then delaying

376
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:05,860
the subject? The door, the eye? Because the scene

377
00:24:05,860 --> 00:24:09,820
is more important

378
00:24:09,820 --> 00:24:12,200
than the person himself. What kind of scene do we

379
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,680
have here? The daffodils. Very good. So the

380
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,740
daffodils, the scene, thank you, nature is more

381
00:24:17,740 --> 00:24:18,840
significant than he is.

382
00:24:21,740 --> 00:24:23,660
He's bringing nature before, and of course we

383
00:24:23,660 --> 00:24:26,320
don't, how did he know that this is 10,000

384
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,160
daffodils?

385
00:24:30,140 --> 00:24:34,360
Just, it's again, this is possible; it is possible

386
00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:36,660
that this is an exaggeration, but you could see in

387
00:24:36,660 --> 00:24:41,160
fields, you could see 10,000 roses or flowers in

388
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,280
a particular natural scene.

389
00:24:46,530 --> 00:24:49,410
If you, I'm sure you've seen many pictures online,

390
00:24:49,910 --> 00:24:52,970
you will find sometimes actually none in, you look

391
00:24:52,970 --> 00:24:55,590
to the horizon; everywhere you'll be surrounded

392
00:24:55,590 --> 00:25:00,210
with, but yeah, it could be, could be he's just

393
00:25:00,210 --> 00:25:05,300
creating this perfect ecstatic image. "Ten thousand I saw

394
00:25:05,300 --> 00:25:08,320
at a glance," again extending the personification

395
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:11,920
here, the metaphor, "tossing their heads, like

396
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:16,020
moving their heads in a sprightly dance." They're

397
00:25:16,020 --> 00:25:18,420
still dancing. They're dancing here; they're

398
00:25:18,420 --> 00:25:20,820
dancing in the second stanza; in the second

399
00:25:20,820 --> 00:25:24,760
stanza. Dancing and dancing. They're happy; they

400
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:29,000
inspire joy, inspire happiness, beauty. If you look

401
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:34,400
at, again, same eight, eight, eight; four feet each. The

402
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,200
rhyme scheme is, remember you could continue with

403
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,820
the letters. But my advice is when you begin a new

404
00:25:39,820 --> 00:25:43,520
stanza, go back to the alphabet to do this.

405
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:49,240
Please, A, B, A, B,

406
00:25:51,650 --> 00:25:55,050
C and D, also perfect rhyme. So it's the same, A,

407
00:25:55,150 --> 00:25:59,830
B, A, B, C, C, A, B, A, B, C, C, creating this

408
00:25:59,830 --> 00:26:06,830
perfect world, world, natural element. And then,

409
00:26:07,370 --> 00:26:15,090
stanza three, which I love very much.

41

445
00:28:42,470 --> 00:28:50,010
but to be gay in such joking company. I gazed. And

446
00:28:50,010 --> 00:28:54,070
gaze. He could have said, I gazed a lot. Right? We

447
00:28:54,070 --> 00:28:58,350
do this. I gazed a lot. And that's it. I gazed.

448
00:28:58,610 --> 00:29:04,070
This is how he reacts. He just stands there. Once

449
00:29:04,070 --> 00:29:07,350
he was suggesting this beautiful thing, submissive

450
00:29:07,350 --> 00:29:12,650
to nature. You know? Like how the cloud is

451
00:29:12,650 --> 00:29:15,510
submissive to nature, to the wind blowing it here

452
00:29:15,510 --> 00:29:18,860
and there at free will. Because it doesn't control

453
00:29:18,860 --> 00:29:21,560
it. He is exactly like this. He's just standing

454
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:24,880
there absorbing. You know, absorbing like a sponge?

455
00:29:25,100 --> 00:29:28,000
It absorbs water. He's trying to absorb this

456
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:33,860
beauty, this never-ending beauty. I gaze and gaze.

457
00:29:33,900 --> 00:29:36,440
Look at how he's emphasizing feelings and emotions

458
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:38,940
over thinking.

459
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:44,760
But little thought. Not never.  Same thing, two

460
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:47,180
syllables. But little thought.

461
00:29:49,730 --> 00:29:52,790
This is unlike the Age of Reason, the Augustan

462
00:29:52,790 --> 00:29:57,050
Age, where thinking and logic are more important

463
00:29:57,050 --> 00:30:01,630
than feelings and emotions. I gazed, I just kept

464
00:30:01,630 --> 00:30:04,570
looking and looking. And I found this very

465
00:30:04,570 --> 00:30:06,590
beautiful, one of the most fascinating lines.

466
00:30:06,950 --> 00:30:09,030
Because nowadays what we would be doing is just

467
00:30:09,030 --> 00:30:11,290
again, take our mobile phones and just snap

468
00:30:11,290 --> 00:30:15,190
pictures just to show off on social media. You

469
00:30:15,190 --> 00:30:20,450
care more about the picture than just enjoying the

470
00:30:20,450 --> 00:30:24,770
scene. Submitting yourself to the scene. What

471
00:30:24,770 --> 00:30:27,270
wealth the show to me had brought. There's wealth

472
00:30:27,270 --> 00:30:30,390
here. This is not a businessman looking, wow, I'm

473
00:30:30,390 --> 00:30:34,050
going to make a lot of money because he said gold

474
00:30:34,050 --> 00:30:38,570
before. So we'll come back after a very, very

475
00:30:38,570 --> 00:30:42,130
short break. So I'm saying here that there's

476
00:30:42,130 --> 00:30:44,250
wealth here, but that's not the financial

477
00:30:44,250 --> 00:30:47,790
materialistic wealth. This is the spiritual,

478
00:30:48,210 --> 00:30:52,470
natural kind of wealth that the romantics look

479
00:30:52,470 --> 00:30:57,490
forward to. Now, I find this very interesting as a

480
00:30:57,490 --> 00:30:59,570
stanza. I think this is the core of the whole

481
00:30:59,570 --> 00:30:59,850
poem.

482
00:31:02,660 --> 00:31:05,480
If we start with the rhyme scheme, can somebody

483
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:13,920
help me with the rhyme scheme, please? A, B, A, C,

484
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:22,380
D, D, D. Possible? Possible? But do you have

485
00:31:22,380 --> 00:31:27,320
another suggestion, somebody? Please? Say again?

486
00:31:27,940 --> 00:31:35,230
Okay, begin again. A, B, A, another B, but does

487
00:31:35,230 --> 00:31:41,310
"company" and "glee" rhyme? This is "glee" and this is

488
00:31:41,310 --> 00:31:41,830
"company".

489
00:31:44,870 --> 00:31:50,210
Long, short. Okay, so we go for an imperfect rhyme

490
00:31:50,210 --> 00:31:51,950
here, although I find this possible.

491
00:31:55,630 --> 00:31:58,830
And the fact that we differ here, that the first

492
00:31:58,830 --> 00:32:01,310
two sentences were beautiful and perfect. We're

493
00:32:01,310 --> 00:32:03,410
fine with that. But all of a sudden there's

494
00:32:03,410 --> 00:32:05,510
something, there's something that doesn't add up,

495
00:32:05,610 --> 00:32:07,210
something that is imperfect, something that is

496
00:32:07,210 --> 00:32:10,050
making us disagree. The first two sentences made

497
00:32:10,050 --> 00:32:15,410
all of us like, you know, nodding. But here, they,

498
00:32:15,650 --> 00:32:21,800
again, A, B, A, B, Nobody does this, the A, the S,

499
00:32:21,940 --> 00:32:25,040
the B small thing, but I like to do it to indicate

500
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,200
an imperfect rhyme. And then another C, another

501
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,480
C. If we just do the last one and come back to

502
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:37,620
this, it's going to also be A, B.

503
00:32:40,180 --> 00:32:44,260
Perfect? So the only stanza with an imperfection

504
00:32:44,260 --> 00:32:47,120
is stanza number three. That's number one. I was

505
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,460
counting the syllables the other day and I

506
00:32:49,460 --> 00:32:55,300
realized the only line that has an

507
00:32:55,300 --> 00:32:56,960
extra syllable was this one.

508
00:32:59,540 --> 00:33:04,840
Is it this one? One, two, three, four, five, six,

509
00:33:05,220 --> 00:33:07,800
seven, eight. No, which one? Which one was that?

510
00:33:09,660 --> 00:33:11,840
Not this one. I think this one is perfect. Where's

511
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:16,290
the eraser? This one is also eight syllables. I must

512
00:33:16,290 --> 00:33:21,090
have mixed this up with another one. Okay. The

513
00:33:21,090 --> 00:33:25,690
thing I noticed, if you look at this, is that the

514
00:33:25,690 --> 00:33:27,670
poet here, remember this is a first, if this is a

515
00:33:27,670 --> 00:33:30,990
story, this is a first-person narrator. I

516
00:33:30,990 --> 00:33:36,530
wondered, saw I at once, I gazed and gazed. And

517
00:33:36,530 --> 00:33:42,730
then all of a sudden, he shifts. He shifts from I

518
00:33:42,730 --> 00:33:50,770
to He or she, a poet. A poet could not but be gay.

519
00:33:50,990 --> 00:33:59,230
He doesn't say I was nothing but gay. Why didn't

520
00:33:59,230 --> 00:34:03,750
he say I was gay, I was happy? Definitely he

521
00:34:03,750 --> 00:34:08,910
didn't care about coming out and people saying

522
00:34:08,910 --> 00:34:12,920
he's gay because it meant happy here. A poet could

523
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:16,840
not but be gay. Poets should be happy, would be

524
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,580
happy. Can be nothing but happy when they come

525
00:34:20,580 --> 00:34:24,180
face to face with this fascinating scene here. A

526
00:34:24,180 --> 00:34:26,760
poet could not but be gay in such joking

527
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:30,500
company. And there is another indication here. I

528
00:34:30,500 --> 00:34:33,960
gazed and gazed. But little thought. The binary,

529
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,200
the opposites. So I gazed, some would be

530
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,860
thinking. I wandered lonely, I gazed and some

531
00:34:41,860 --> 00:34:47,780
might just be happy. What wealth does he show? He

532
00:34:47,780 --> 00:34:53,470
didn't care about even this kind of wealth. In

533
00:34:53,470 --> 00:34:56,730
other words, he didn't react instantly to the

534
00:34:56,730 --> 00:35:00,170
poem, to the scene here. And we'll talk about two

535
00:35:00,170 --> 00:35:03,490
types of imagination here. There is primary

536
00:35:03,490 --> 00:35:06,030
imagination and there is secondary imagination.

537
00:35:06,170 --> 00:35:09,150
The primary imagination is the instant reaction to

538
00:35:09,150 --> 00:35:11,710
beauty, to nature. You see something beautiful,

539
00:35:11,790 --> 00:35:14,270
you say, wow, and that's it. Or you take a picture

540
00:35:14,270 --> 00:35:18,070
and you just go on. But for the romantics, they

541
00:35:18,070 --> 00:35:22,750
like to absorb, to put it there in their heart and

542
00:35:22,750 --> 00:35:27,650
mind and everything. And later on, two years

543
00:35:27,650 --> 00:35:30,030
later, a day later, one month later, two months

544
00:35:30,030 --> 00:35:32,250
later, they would be reflecting on this.

545
00:35:33,490 --> 00:35:34,970
Recalling, that's why the second part of the

546
00:35:34,970 --> 00:35:37,450
definition is as important. Recollected in

547
00:35:37,450 --> 00:35:41,870
tranquility. But why would the poet shift from,

548
00:35:42,170 --> 00:35:44,390
why is he distancing himself from this experience?

549
00:35:45,770 --> 00:35:50,060
He's not saying, I was happy, right? He's saying a

550
00:35:50,060 --> 00:35:58,500
poet could not but be gay. Yeah, please. Thank you

551
00:35:58,500 --> 00:36:01,660
very much. This could suggest that not only words

552
00:36:01,660 --> 00:36:04,980
worth, but also all poets. That's very good.

553
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:10,420
That's possible. More. Please. It's also maybe

554
00:36:10,420 --> 00:36:14,760
an attack or talking about the previous poet. Not

555
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,420
the, not the, the neo-classical maybe, or the poet

556
00:36:18,420 --> 00:36:22,980
that they prefer him. How's that? Because they

557
00:36:22,980 --> 00:36:27,640
maybe don't appreciate nature as, as he does.

558
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,040
But, but he's saying the poet is happy. Could not

559
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,380
but be. Please. It might be an advice, or advice.

560
00:36:38,470 --> 00:36:40,830
So this is for all poets, but why poets in

561
00:36:40,830 --> 00:36:42,190
particular? Why not everybody? Remember the

562
00:36:42,190 --> 00:36:45,410
romantics believe that a poet is an ordinary man

563
00:36:45,410 --> 00:36:49,390
endowed with comprehensive sensibility.

564
00:36:53,590 --> 00:36:57,790
You're not a poet, but poets don't only write

565
00:36:57,790 --> 00:36:58,990
about happiness, right?

566
00:37:02,350 --> 00:37:05,130
Okay, yeah, like if nature doesn't inspire

567
00:37:05,130 --> 00:37:08,410
happiness and pleasure and beauty, you're not a

568
00:37:08,410 --> 00:37:10,530
poet or you're not a romantic poet.

569
00:37:25,980 --> 00:37:29,680
So when he says a poet, he means that a poet will

570
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,800
see this as being something much more than any normal

571
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,260
or ordinary person would see. And this would make

572
00:37:35,260 --> 00:37:37,740
him happy? That would make him happy.

573
00:37:40,910 --> 00:37:45,570
Okay. Thank you very much. Want somebody here? I

574
00:37:45,570 --> 00:37:49,070
think he's here distancing himself from this term

575
00:37:49,070 --> 00:37:52,370
of "the poet". Like he's putting himself above this

576
00:37:52,370 --> 00:37:55,570
word. He's considering himself more than just a

577
00:37:55,570 --> 00:37:58,570
poet. Because any other poet would just see the

578
00:37:58,570 --> 00:38:01,590
scenery and be happy and react momentarily to it.

579
00:38:01,650 --> 00:38:04,150
But he sees himself as something more than this. So

580
00:38:04,150 --> 00:38:06,390
he is in a way challenging the neo-classical

581
00:38:06,390 --> 00:38:10,980
people. What's wrong with this? What's wrong with

582
00:38:10,980 --> 00:38:11,720
being happy?

583
00:38:14,820 --> 00:38:17,620
Okay, that's good. Connecting this with the

584
00:38:17,620 --> 00:38:18,720
primary and secondary.

585
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:26,500
Some kind

586
00:38:26,500 --> 00:38:28,680
of discipline and that, you know, the idea of

587
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,640
spontaneity could be challenged here.

588
00:38:40,690 --> 00:38:41,250
Okay,

589
00:38:44,570 --> 00:38:48,270
so you agree there with Rahaf that the ability to

590
00:38:48,270 --> 00:38:50,830
express this, although not all people can express,

591
00:38:50,950 --> 00:38:52,530
at least they can feel it inside.

592
00:38:57,770 --> 00:39:00,670
Not all poets, remember. Romantic poets.

593
00:39:20,860 --> 00:39:24,500
But what's wrong with being happy? Isn't that

594
00:39:24,500 --> 00:39:24,800
good?

595
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:40,060
But clearly this poet is expressing himself or

596
00:39:40,060 --> 00:39:46,240
herself by being happy, by being gay. Okay, so

597
00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:50,420
you're taking happiness as just again some kind of

598
00:39:50,420 --> 00:39:54,320
an instant, momentary reaction to this, but for the

599
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,040
romantics, a primary reaction, for the romantics

600
00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:05,320
it's much more. Okay, sorry? He's beyond, he

601
00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:07,940
doesn't find this... I think I agree with those who

602
00:40:07,940 --> 00:40:10,080
suggested that this could include some kind of

603
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:12,820
parody, clearly when he said "but little thought,"

604
00:40:12,820 --> 00:40:15,340
again he's putting himself as opposed to the other

605
00:40:15,340 --> 00:40:18,500
Augustan poets. "I'm different from those people,"

606
00:40:18,500 --> 00:40:22,150
which is a poet... he's suggesting an ordinary poet,

607
00:40:22,450 --> 00:40:25,410
this is, yes, this emphasizes here "couldn't but,"

608
00:40:26,010 --> 00:40:28,650
but it includes some negativity, the negative of "not"

609
00:40:28,650 --> 00:40:31,750
here. And the distance, the shift from the "I" to "he"

610
00:40:31,750 --> 00:40:34,770
or "she," the third-person pronoun, suggests that

611
00:40:34,770 --> 00:40:36,770
the poet is distancing himself from this

612
00:40:36,770 --> 00:40:40,210
momentarily artificial reaction to nature. He's

613
00:40:40,210 --> 00:40:45,170
saying an Augustan poet, an ordinary poet, would

614
00:40:45,170 --> 00:40:48,770
just be happy and that's it, bye bye. But I am

615
00:40:48,770 --> 00:40:51,470
different, I am not an ordinary poet, I'm a

616
00:40:51,470 --> 00:40:54,630
romantic poet. Remember the romantics did not call

617
00:40:54,630 --> 00:40:57,670
themselves romantic poets, later critics called

618
00:40:57,670 --> 00:41:01,230
them the romantics or romanticism. Because for him

619
00:41:01,230 --> 00:41:05,270
it's much more than just being happy, than just

620
00:41:05,270 --> 00:41:08,510
the instant reaction to nature. It's about,

621
00:41:08,590 --> 00:41:13,070
remember, absorbing, living the experience, making

622
00:41:13,070 --> 00:41:15,970
it overwhelm you, submitting yourself to this.

623
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:18,860
Making it change your life radically altogether,

624
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,940
as we're going to see in the second, in the last

625
00:41:21,940 --> 00:41:26,800
stanza, in stanza number four. So this, again,

626
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:29,020
stanza in particular, has this imperfection, which

627
00:41:29,020 --> 00:41:31,000
creates tension, tells us, wait a minute, there's

628
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:37,580
something there, and then we find the shift from "I"

629
00:41:37,580 --> 00:41:39,980
to "he" or "she," and then the negative here,

630
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:42,260
indicating that there's something, a poet is

631
00:41:42,260 --> 00:41:46,020
telling us, calm down, wait a minute, pay

632
00:41:46,020 --> 00:41:48,060
attention, I'm doing something here. I'm raising a

633
00:41:48,060 --> 00:41:54,360
point that is deeper than probably other ideas.

634
00:41:54,660 --> 00:41:57,160
Some might read this and just keep going. But

635
00:41:57,160 --> 0

667
00:44:09,410 --> 00:44:12,410
Pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils. I

668
00:44:12,410 --> 00:44:14,790
love how he, at the beginning, personified nature

669
00:44:14,790 --> 00:44:19,150
and now he's objectifying himself. He's not

670
00:44:19,150 --> 00:44:21,210
uniting with nature. He's submitting himself to

671
00:44:21,210 --> 00:44:23,930
nature. He's allowing nature to control him. He's

672
00:44:23,930 --> 00:44:28,930
becoming part of nature, Mother Nature. I return

673
00:44:28,930 --> 00:44:32,290
to nature as a romantic feature.

674
00:44:33,690 --> 00:44:36,170
So the shift from the past simple tense to the

675
00:44:36,170 --> 00:44:39,960
present simple tense is a very interesting thing

676
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,240
because he is reliving. This is the secondary

677
00:44:44,240 --> 00:44:46,980
imagination we talk about. Later on, I'm not sure

678
00:44:46,980 --> 00:44:49,740
how long after the original experience he's

679
00:44:49,740 --> 00:44:52,440
writing this, but he's using the present

680
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,480
simple tense to express that this happens to him all

681
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:56,640
the time. Every time he's in a vacant or pensive

682
00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:00,300
mood, what does he do? He recollects, he recalls,

683
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:03,580
he remembers that experience. And every time he

684
00:45:03,580 --> 00:45:05,820
does so, this is again, remember, the baby-like

685
00:45:05,820 --> 00:45:09,380
experience.  Experiencing it every time,

686
00:45:10,180 --> 00:45:12,780
everything as if it's the first time you've ever

687
00:45:12,780 --> 00:45:15,740
seen this. Reliving it again and again and again.

688
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:19,300
Every time being awestruck by this. This sense of

689
00:45:19,300 --> 00:45:22,800
awe. Sense of wonder. Everything is a miracle.

690
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:28,210
Everything is a blessing. So this present

691
00:45:28,210 --> 00:45:32,070
continuous tense gives it continuity, but also it

692
00:45:32,070 --> 00:45:35,230
indicates how the poet is reliving this experience

693
00:45:35,230 --> 00:45:39,450
now. One last thing I find interesting about this

694
00:45:39,450 --> 00:45:44,490
poem is the last couplet, if you want to call it a

695
00:45:44,490 --> 00:45:46,450
couplet. I don't like to call it a couplet here,

696
00:45:46,530 --> 00:45:56,450
but okay. The last line: If you do the scansion,

697
00:45:56,510 --> 00:46:00,650
if you scan the meter here, it should be like this:

698
00:46:00,650 --> 00:46:09,350
and it says, "with the daffodils."

699
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,020
Okay, so weak, strong, stressed, unstressed,

700
00:46:25,220 --> 00:46:28,480
stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, and

701
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:34,120
then stressed. But this way, and you should be

702
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:38,800
reading it, "and dances with the daffodils." And

703
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,960
then, "my heart with pleasure fills and dances with

704
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,540
the daffodils," without stress on "with." And then my

705
00:46:45,540 --> 00:46:48,460
heart with pleasure fills and dances with the

706
00:46:48,460 --> 00:46:54,710
daffodils. Which is okay, again. But I think this

707
00:46:54,710 --> 00:47:00,050
should be going back because "with" is a preposition;

708
00:47:00,050 --> 00:47:03,330
remember determiners, articles, prepositions, even

709
00:47:03,330 --> 00:47:07,410
auxiliaries are unstressed generally because it's

710
00:47:07,410 --> 00:47:10,570
something you add to the syllable, to the word, to

711
00:47:10,570 --> 00:47:12,650
the main syllable, so unstressed; and then "with"

712
00:47:12,650 --> 00:47:17,490
unstressed, with two weak syllables here, a weak

713
00:47:17,490 --> 00:47:21,900
thought, "and dances with the daffodils." But it

714
00:47:21,900 --> 00:47:26,540
should be read otherwise, with "with" being stressed. And

715
00:47:26,540 --> 00:47:31,200
I find this beautiful and again deliberate, with a

716
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:33,580
spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions stirred

717
00:47:33,580 --> 00:47:37,740
word for word. In this sense, we emphasize the

718
00:47:37,740 --> 00:47:42,900
idea of "withness" with nature. And then my heart

719
00:47:42,900 --> 00:47:46,080
with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils.

720
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:52,770
Emphasizing this "with" is... not only gaining unity, like you

721
00:47:52,770 --> 00:47:55,350
could say unity, I accept that, but this is nature

722
00:47:55,350 --> 00:47:58,450
is overwhelming. He's submitting himself to

723
00:47:58,450 --> 00:48:02,010
nature. He's emphasizing the idea of "withness" with

724
00:48:02,010 --> 00:48:05,910
nature, unity with nature, going back, a return to

725
00:48:05,910 --> 00:48:10,210
nature, to Mother Nature, like I said. So I could

726
00:48:10,210 --> 00:48:13,670
ask you a question, for example, why should "with"

727
00:48:13,670 --> 00:48:16,450
in the last line, "with the daffodils," be stressed?

728
00:48:17,090 --> 00:48:22,020
Please, don't say "to emphasize." "To emphasize" is

729
00:48:22,020 --> 00:48:25,700
not the answer. That's why I'd be asking you this

730
00:48:25,700 --> 00:48:30,100
question, why is he emphasizing "with"? So the

731
00:48:30,100 --> 00:48:32,740
emphasis here is to indicate this unity, this

732
00:48:32,740 --> 00:48:34,960
total submission to nature.

733
00:48:38,140 --> 00:48:43,520
What a beautiful poem! A critic says, many critics

734
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:47,600
say, this man was the poet who taught us how to

735
00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:51,500
remember. Because this is about remembering

736
00:48:51,500 --> 00:48:52,380
things.

737
00:48:56,260 --> 00:49:00,220
Now, you could see all the features of Romanticism

738
00:49:00,220 --> 00:49:02,620
here. Maybe I forgot something. There's a return

739
00:49:02,620 --> 00:49:04,020
to nature, imagination,

740
00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:10,000
individuality, simplicity of language, anti-

741
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:14,220
mainstream, rejection of artistic conventions, and

742
00:49:14,220 --> 00:49:17,160
the form is the content; how in the third stanza

743
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:20,700
when he wanted to make a point, he just created

744
00:49:20,700 --> 00:49:23,240
this tension and conflict; memory, feelings, and

745
00:49:23,240 --> 00:49:28,380
emotions as opposed to reason. There are questions

746
00:49:28,380 --> 00:49:30,840
here; I'll be posting one of them online so we can

747
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:31,920
continue the discussion.

748
00:49:36,330 --> 00:49:37,690
Probably you mentioned some of them.

749
00:49:41,110 --> 00:49:48,010
Look at this, number five. In real life, by the

750
00:49:48,010 --> 00:49:52,210
way, it was Dorothy who had this entry, this

751
00:49:52,210 --> 00:49:56,330
experience in her diaries. She's totally not

752
00:49:56,330 --> 00:50:00,990
there. So I'm saying here that what is, why is

753
00:50:00,990 --> 00:50:03,910
she—should be "why"—why is she erased from the

754
00:50:03,910 --> 00:50:07,090
poem? We can continue this discussion online. Is

755
00:50:07,090 --> 00:50:10,210
she erased because he hates her, because he's anti-

756
00:50:10,210 --> 00:50:15,750
feminist, because women are not good enough? Or

757
00:50:15,750 --> 00:50:20,010
is this more to do with the fact that this is a

758
00:50:20,010 --> 00:50:24,910
romantic poem and individuality? Think about this.

759
00:50:25,750 --> 00:50:28,090
But the last question is more important to me.

760
00:50:28,350 --> 00:50:30,630
It's not showing here; I have to show it to you

761
00:50:30,630 --> 00:50:34,350
because it's important. I love this question.

762
00:50:38,140 --> 00:50:41,460
The question says—I'm quoting somebody.

763
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:49,140
It says, "a trivial subject matter," okay? The

764
00:50:49,140 --> 00:50:52,940
question says, "a trivial subject matter, as Anne

765
00:50:52,940 --> 00:50:58,780
Seward says or thought a daffodil to be, does not

766
00:50:58,780 --> 00:51:04,140
deserve the ecstatic diction of 'vacant,' 'pensive,'

767
00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:07,880
and 'bliss.' Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is

768
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,900
just a daffodil, a bunch of daffodils. You don't

769
00:51:10,900 --> 00:51:18,000
write this fascinating poem to react to just a

770
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:23,600
bunch of daffodils. That's too much. You use this

771
00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:28,260
language and this beautiful reaction, what, to

772
00:51:28,260 --> 00:51:33,050
write about the queen, about more significant

773
00:51:33,050 --> 00:51:36,230
issues. How would you react? How would you reply

774
00:51:36,230 --> 00:51:39,750
to this critic? Clearly, she's trashing the

775
00:51:39,750 --> 00:51:43,850
Romantics. Clearly, she is not happy with what the

776
00:51:43,850 --> 00:51:46,870
Romantics are doing. This will be our question to

777
00:51:46,870 --> 00:51:49,910
discuss online. Would you agree that, yes, this is a

778
00:51:49,910 --> 00:51:53,930
trivial matter? You're causing us a headache with

779
00:51:53,930 --> 00:51:57,830
this "just daffodil," "just a rose." Why are people

780
00:51:57,830 --> 00:52:03,150
reacting to the poem this way? Now, in the

781
00:52:03,150 --> 00:52:05,630
remaining time, we need to study this again, a

782
00:52:05,630 --> 00:52:08,370
poem by William Wordsworth. I'm sure I'm shifting

783
00:52:08,370 --> 00:52:08,850
quickly.

784
00:52:11,430 --> 00:52:14,630
"Upon Westminster Bridge." If you know London,

785
00:52:15,290 --> 00:52:20,290
Westminster Bridge is a famous, famous bridge in

786
00:52:20,290 --> 00:52:22,250
London, probably the most famous bridge in London,

787
00:52:22,430 --> 00:52:22,670
Westminster.

788
00:52:28,230 --> 00:52:31,370
Remember, this is a poet of nature. What on earth

789
00:52:31,370 --> 00:52:38,850
is he doing in London? If you reject London and

790
00:52:38,850 --> 00:52:42,770
its corruption and its society, why are you there?

791
00:52:44,270 --> 00:52:46,670
And again, let's examine where he positions

792
00:52:46,670 --> 00:52:50,770
himself in time and in place. Please read the poem

793
00:52:50,770 --> 00:52:54,830
very quickly. "Earth hath not anything to show more fair:

794
00:52:55,370 --> 00:52:59,020
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

795
00:52:59,020 --> 00:53:04,040
A sight so touching in its majesty: This

796
00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:08,520
City now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of

797
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:14,700
the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes,

798
00:53:15,460 --> 00:53:20,980
Theaters, and temples lie open unto the fields, and to

799
00:53:20,980 --> 00:53:24,250
the sky; All bright and glittering in the

800
00:53:24,250 --> 00:53:27,690
smokeless air; Never did the sun more beautifully

801
00:53:27,690 --> 00:53:33,330
steep In his first splendor, valley, bronze

802
00:53:33,330 --> 00:53:38,670
overhead;  Never saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

803
00:53:39,450 --> 00:53:44,030
The river glideth at his own sweet will: Dear God!

804
00:53:44,450 --> 00:53:48,510
the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty

805
00:53:48,510 --> 00:53:52,850
heart is lying still." Okay, beautiful reading.

806
00:53:53,470 --> 00:53:57,770
Thank you for this recitation. What do you notice

807
00:53:57,770 --> 00:54:00,410
the first thing before we talk about it? Please.

808
00:54:01,370 --> 00:54:05,790
Fourteen lines, so this is a sonnet. Ah, he's not

809
00:54:05,790 --> 00:54:10,500
only in London; he's also restricting himself.

810
00:54:10,700 --> 00:54:12,540
Where is the spontaneity, the spontaneous

811
00:54:12,540 --> 00:54:14,580
overflow? Remember I told you never believe

812
00:54:14,580 --> 00:54:18,300
critics and teachers. This is where you should

813
00:54:18,300 --> 00:54:20,380
listen to my advice, unless you don't want to

814
00:54:20,380 --> 00:54:23,740
listen to me as being a teacher. So this is a 14-

815
00:54:23,740 --> 00:54:29,920
line poem. It's a sonnet. Remember a sonnet is

816
00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:34,240
very rigid. It's like, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

817
00:54:34,420 --> 00:54:38,250
So he's doing the same as the Romans. Thank you. You

818
00:54:38,250 --> 00:54:43,310
know, putting himself in this cage. So it's a

819
00:54:43,310 --> 00:54:45,830
sonnet, thank you very much. 14 lines, thank you

820
00:54:45,830 --> 00:54:50,010
very much. And what about the rhyme scheme? Could

821
00:54:50,010 --> 00:54:51,570
somebody do it very quickly, the rhyme scheme,

822
00:54:52,110 --> 00:54:56,550
please? A, B, B,

823
00:54:58,750 --> 00:55:06,650
A, leave her alone, yeah? A, B,

824
00:55:09,690 --> 00:55:15,830
B, A. Thank you. C, D,

825
00:55:18,750 --> 00:55:22,130
deep and

826
00:55:22,130 --> 00:55:35,570
deep. C, Well. D, Asleep. C. And then? That's a

827
00:55:35,570 --> 00:55:37,910
Petrarchan sonnet, not a Shakespearean sonnet. He

828
00:55:37,910 --> 00:55:42,970
doesn't like Shakespeare, clearly. Listen, the

829
00:55:42,970 --> 00:55:46,410
Romantics were called Romantics because

830
00:55:46,410 --> 00:55:48,750
Romanticism, the word "Romantic," was used to

831
00:55:48,750 --> 00:55:52,030
describe the Middle Ages, the medieval times, when

832
00:55:52,030 --> 00:55:56,510
nature was unregulated, uncivilized, uncontrolled

833
00:55:56,510 --> 00:56:01,110
by man. When nature was, when life was as simple

834
00:56:01,110 --> 00:56:06,680
as it could be in a way. So he's leaving, jumping over

835
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:09,940
all the poets, the giants, the Romantic, the

836
00:56:09,940 --> 00:56:13,440
Neoclassicists, those poets, and he's going back

837
00:56:13,440 --> 00:56:18,580
to the origin, the origin of things. So I think

838
00:56:18,580 --> 00:56:21,800
this is a deliberate, again, attempt to distance

839
00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:25,220
himself from Shakespeare. I also think that it's a

840
00:56:25,220 --> 00:56:28,120
way of defining critics. Like, if you say, "I'm not

841
00:56:28,120 --> 00:56:30,480
a poet, I can write upon it just as well," I can,

842
00:56:30,560 --> 00:56:33,610
it could be, yeah. But also it says that the idea

843
00:56:33,610 --> 00:56:36,910
of spontaneity in poetry and writing is a myth.

844
00:56:37,830 --> 00:56:39,890
It's not always true. Sahya, you're right, you

845
00:56:39,890 --> 00:56:43,170
react instantly sometimes. I'm sure you started

846
00:56:43,170 --> 00:56:44,810
writing poetry, some of you. Sometimes you just

847
00:56:44,810 --> 00:56:47,590
get the inspiration and you write a poem and it's

848
00:56:47,590 --> 00:56:50,310
a beautiful poem. But sometimes you go back to

849
00:56:50,310 --> 00:56:53,370
check, you know, on language and diction and

850
00:56:53,370 --> 00:56:57,310
poetic language and everything. Some of you

851
00:56:57,310 --> 00:57:00,070
protested something here. I agree that this is...

852
00:57:00,650 --> 00:57:03,730
Okay, an imperfect rhyme. At the time when he's

853
00:57:03,730 --> 00:57:08,410
talking about the majesty, the "majesty" here, by

854
00:57:08,410 --> 00:57:10,490
and "majesty," there is an imperfect rhyme. Again,

855
00:57:10,570 --> 00:57:12,990
creating some kind of conflict. There is something

856
00:57:12,990 --> 00:57

889
00:59:28,190 --> 00:59:33,850
as an escapist, as

890
00:59:36,710 --> 00:59:41,290
He's doing nothing. For many people, he is running

891
00:59:41,290 --> 00:59:44,230
away, but for others, the act of writing poetry

892
00:59:44,230 --> 00:59:50,450
itself is how he avoids corruption. And for this, you

893
00:59:50,450 --> 00:59:52,230
will be surprised by the way, when the second

894
00:59:52,230 --> 00:59:56,850
generation was writing, Shelley, Keats, and Byron,

895
00:59:58,090 --> 01:00:00,130
this man was still alive because he lived like a

896
01:00:00,130 --> 01:00:03,700
hundred years. I'm not sure how old, but he was

897
01:00:03,700 --> 01:00:06,320
very old. But again, the second generation was

898
01:00:06,320 --> 01:00:11,180
taking control. And those people, Chile, you are

899
01:00:11,180 --> 01:00:14,240
many, they are few. He was clearly calling for

900
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:17,100
revolution, for an actual revolution. And that's

901
01:00:17,100 --> 01:00:20,300
probably one reason why I love him the most,

902
01:00:20,780 --> 01:00:26,620
Chile. He was anti-authoritarian, anti-everything.

903
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:33,540
So the poem here, Upon Westminster Bridge, shows

904
01:00:33,540 --> 01:00:35,700
how this Romantic poet would choose a

905
01:00:35,700 --> 01:00:37,820
particular timing and a particular place, again

906
01:00:37,820 --> 01:00:40,960
just to be himself. If you read the poem, I'll

907
01:00:40,960 --> 01:00:43,200
just do some commentary very quickly before we

908
01:00:43,200 --> 01:00:49,000
leave. "Earth has nothing," again this is starting

909
01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:53,530
with a stressed syllable. "Earth has nothing." Has

910
01:00:53,530 --> 01:00:59,450
not anything to show more fair. What? You just

911
01:00:59,450 --> 01:01:02,530
said the daffodils are the most beautiful thing.

912
01:01:04,990 --> 01:01:10,110
"Dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sight"

913
01:01:10,110 --> 01:01:13,130
"so touching in its majesty."

914
01:01:15,710 --> 01:01:17,970
You'd be dull if you don't react to the beauty

915
01:01:17,970 --> 01:01:24,300
here. "The city now doth," I love him using the word

916
01:01:24,300 --> 01:01:27,080
the old English/Middle English "doth" rather than

917
01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:31,340
"does," because again he's taking London 300 years

918
01:01:31,340 --> 01:01:34,580
before, 200 years before the Industrial

919
01:01:34,580 --> 01:01:36,160
Revolution and the factories and the corruption

920
01:01:37,380 --> 01:01:40,780
"Doth like a garment wear," and sadly this is only a

921
01:01:40,780 --> 01:01:43,880
garment; he knows this; it's only something the

922
01:01:43,880 --> 01:01:48,080
city will shed, will take off in minutes

923
01:01:48,080 --> 01:01:53,540
or in an hour or so; a garment like a dress; the

924
01:01:53,540 --> 01:01:59,260
beauty of the morning silent, bare; the silence here,

925
01:01:59,260 --> 01:02:01,160
the lack of people, the fact that there are no

926
01:02:01,160 --> 01:02:09,160
people; and there ships, towers, domes, theaters,

927
01:02:10,160 --> 01:02:13,660
temples, lie. And I think there could be a pun

928
01:02:13,660 --> 01:02:17,160
here. "Lie," they're just lying asleep out there,

929
01:02:17,540 --> 01:02:21,600
but the scene lies. It's deceptive. Now it's

930
01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:24,900
beautiful and romantic. In an hour or so, it's

931
01:02:24,900 --> 01:02:29,700
going to be hell breaking loose. "Upon

932
01:02:31,510 --> 01:02:35,530
open onto the fields and to the sky," how it's just

933
01:02:35,530 --> 01:02:38,670
one painting, one image, all bright and glittering

934
01:02:38,670 --> 01:02:42,730
in the smokeless air. I think this is where I mix

935
01:02:42,730 --> 01:02:45,810
things up. This is; every line is 10 syllables.

936
01:02:46,230 --> 01:02:49,390
It's basically Iambic Pentameter, but he does

937
01:02:49,390 --> 01:02:54,340
experiment more. He's just not as symmetrical as

938
01:02:54,340 --> 01:02:57,740
others. This is the only line that has an extra

939
01:02:57,740 --> 01:03:01,180
syllable unless you want to delete the schwa in "glittering." If you go for "glitter," it's 10; if you

940
01:03:01,180 --> 01:03:04,380
go for "glittering," it's just 8; it's

941
01:03:04,380 --> 01:03:07,760
already 11. "All bright and glittering in the

942
01:03:07,760 --> 01:03:11,660
smokeless air." Look at this: "smokeless." People is

943
01:03:11,660 --> 01:03:16,100
what else does he go for; list. How many instances do

944
01:03:16,100 --> 01:03:18,280
we have? Two or more?

945
01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:20,760
"Smokeless," just one. So, "glittering in the

946
01:03:24,020 --> 01:03:26,580
smokeless air," "never did sun." It should be "the sun"

947
01:03:26,580 --> 01:03:31,760
because there's just one sun, right? Or is he considering

948
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:34,700
it the "son of nature," son of this? But he doesn't go

949
01:03:34,700 --> 01:03:37,520
for "the sun"; he's going to break... See my point

950
01:03:37,520 --> 01:03:40,670
here? Grammatically, it should be "the sun," which is

951
01:03:40,670 --> 01:03:44,050
going to add an extra syllable. But why did he

952
01:03:44,050 --> 01:03:46,130
add an extra syllable here? I didn't want to add

953
01:03:46,130 --> 01:03:49,790
one here because there is a message he's sending

954
01:03:49,790 --> 01:03:52,070
here. If you dig deeper, you'll find it.

955
01:03:52,070 --> 01:03:54,590
If you dig deeper, you'll find it.

956
01:04:00,160 --> 01:04:02,300
Possible, but I'm not sure whether, because

957
01:04:02,300 --> 01:04:04,840
sometimes you have different texts, I try to look

958
01:04:04,840 --> 01:04:07,280
for the original text; I couldn't find one, just

959
01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:10,440
to see whether it's "glittering" or "glitter,"

960
01:04:10,500 --> 01:04:14,220
right? And yeah, you look at texts; if this is the

961
01:04:14,220 --> 01:04:16,140
original text, this is how he wrote it, why is

962
01:04:16,140 --> 01:04:22,020
this capitalized, but not this? Or is this where

963
01:04:22,020 --> 01:04:26,060
society and civilization control overwhelm and

964
01:04:26,060 --> 01:04:30,950
subdue nature, which is not good? "Never did sun"

965
01:04:30,950 --> 01:04:34,810
more beautifully steep in this first, in his first

966
01:04:34,810 --> 01:04:39,410
remember his—refers to the sun—his first splendor

967
01:04:39,410 --> 01:04:43,850
valley, rock, or hell, no, so I again, never two

968
01:04:43,850 --> 01:04:47,470
syllables, "no, so I again," the fronting here, "I never"

969
01:04:47,470 --> 01:04:53,470
saw; I never saw; never felt; there's a lot of

970
01:04:53,470 --> 01:04:57,560
negativity; we'll see this in a bit. "A calm so deep,"

971
01:04:57,940 --> 01:05:00,120
a calm beauty, a silence.

972
01:05:03,590 --> 01:05:08,490
"The river glides," he goes again for, not "glides,"

973
01:05:09,810 --> 01:05:13,810
going for old English because he's situating

974
01:05:13,810 --> 01:05:16,430
himself in a different place. Remember this is the

975
01:05:16,430 --> 01:05:19,950
relativity of time and issues of time and shapes

976
01:05:19,950 --> 01:05:22,370
of time Dr. Lyman mentioned before; you could use

977
01:05:22,370 --> 01:05:25,970
this as an example. "The river glides at his own

978
01:05:25,970 --> 01:05:27,150
sweet will."

979
01:05:30,520 --> 01:05:32,440
I don't think this is religious; "dear God," some

980
01:05:32,440 --> 01:05:34,400
people would take it as a religious thing. It's

981
01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:40,820
just, "dear God, the very houses seem asleep." This

982
01:05:40,820 --> 01:05:43,500
is another personification. People are asleep;

983
01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:50,020
everything is asleep. "And all that mighty heart is

984
01:05:50,020 --> 01:05:54,820
lying still." The mighty heart, London. Is he just

985
01:05:54,820 --> 01:05:57,760
referring to London as a whole? Or the factories?

986
01:05:58,040 --> 01:06:02,260
Or the machines? Remember this is momentarily;

987
01:06:02,500 --> 01:06:06,580
it's going to change. I find the imperfect rhyme,

988
01:06:06,960 --> 01:06:08,780
the extra syllable, and thank you; somebody said

989
01:06:08,780 --> 01:06:11,160
the repetition of "never," "never," and "not,"

990
01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:15,120
"not." Things that create tension that tell us that

991
01:06:15,120 --> 01:06:18,460
this is not going to last forever. Because it's

992
01:06:18,460 --> 01:06:21,640
only, and he admits this; he's not deceiving us or

993
01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:25,480
himself. This is a garment; it's just a gown you

994
01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:31,380
put on at night. And soon it will be taken off and

995
01:06:31,380 --> 01:06:40,040
a garment of corruption, sins, pollution, smoke.

996
01:06:40,940 --> 01:06:46,660
Smoke will overwhelm, will take over. Such a

997
01:06:46,660 --> 01:06:48,800
beautiful poem. One of the most, again,

998
01:06:49,360 --> 01:06:52,920
interesting poems of all times. But again, he's

999
01:06:52,920 --> 01:06:55,360
not going for Shakespeare. He's jumping over

1000
01:06:55,360 --> 01:07:00,020
Shakespeare. That's the term: "frog leaping," or you

1001
01:07:00,020 --> 01:07:04,220
know, it's going back to Petrarch. I think the

1002
01:07:04,220 --> 01:07:07,520
word "garment" works entirely with the whole

1003
01:07:07,520 --> 01:07:11,460
time idea of "lie" and "lying." The garment? Possibly,

1004
01:07:11,540 --> 01:07:16,480
it's momentary. It's now this

1005
01:07:16,480 --> 01:07:19,600
beautiful and silent and bare, but in a moment

1006
01:07:19,600 --> 01:07:21,500
it's going to be different.

1007
01:07:24,160 --> 01:07:26,700
More? Please.

1008
01:07:36,530 --> 01:07:38,870
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but look at

1009
01:07:38,870 --> 01:07:42,390
what timing he chooses, what place he places

1010
01:07:42,390 --> 01:07:46,430
himself. That's a Romantic concept. If you look at

1011
01:07:46,430 --> 01:07:50,750
these questions, they are very interesting things

1012
01:07:50,750 --> 01:07:53,770
to look into in this poem. I'll stop here. If you

1013
01:07:53,770 --> 01:07:57,190
have questions, please stay behind.