Monday, January 3, 2011

Reading Response: Comparing Wordsworth and Blackwood

In “A Wordsworth Source for Algernon Blackwood’s The Sea Fit” the author Terry W. Thompson explains how closely related Wordsworth’s and Blackwood’s poems are. Algernon Blackwood and William Wordsworth were both romantic poets that used nature in so much of their work. The article portrays that Blackwood’s poems have a lot in common or directly quote some of Wordsworth’s work. Most of all, In Blackwood’s “The Sea Fit” the theme seems to be directly from Wordsworth’s poem, “The World is Too Much with Us.” Also Blackwood’s poems “Ancient Lights” and “The Wendigo” have the same related theme to “The World is Too Much with Us.” In those poems a force comes upon the modern world where noise and bustle are normal and nature is ignored or abused; this is the same with Wordsworth’s opinion in “The World is Too Much with Us.” While going through “The Sea Fit” Thompson says “Just like the speaker in Wordsworth’s sonnet, Ericson (the captain in the poem) never concerned himself with getting and spending during his adventurous career, did not lay waste his powers. Rather, he lives in the seaside cottage with just a few meager possessions; and most of those are but sentimental reminders of a way of life that he is now too old and too frail to pursue.” Thompson clarifies this because it is related to Wordsworth’s poem so much. The poem also goes on repeatedly about how Ericson doesn’t care about the tangible or material things, but how he always looked for the transcendent in life. Later Thompson explains that “this old sailor declares he would rather be a pauper at sea,” “than make a million on shore” (Blackwood line 188). It is later in the poem that Ericson is having “one of his queer sea fits” (Blackwood 189) and the priest quotes Wordsworth: “My uncle’s such a pagan, you know […] that as I flew along those deserted sands from Studland I almost expected to hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” (Blackwood 197). When the captain was washed away by the sea Thompson explains that Blackwood “has achieved what the speaker in “The World is Too Much with Us” could only dream of doing: becoming one with nature.” In “The Sea Fit” Just as in the one that inspired it by William Wordsworth, Algernon Blackwood makes an atmosphere that shows the reader what it’s like to become one with nature.
In the article, Thompson describes how Algernon Blackwood’s “The Sea Fit” is inspired and related to William Wordsworth’s “The world is Too Much with Us.” Blackwood loved nature and his poem is just like Wordsworth’s. By looking at both poems you can see how closely related they are. In “The World is Too Much with Us” Wordsworth is disappointed with the modern age losing its connection to nature. It talks about how people are distracted with material things and how nature is going to waste. “Late and soon” means now and in the future we waste our powers. “Little we see in nature” is saying we do not notice of care about the beauty of nature. For all of this “we are out of tune” and Wordsworth would “rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn” then be stuck in an industrialized world where everything is based on material things. He would rather stand o this pleasant spot and “Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; / Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; / or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” (Wordsworth lines 12-14).
In “The Sea Fit”, He “owned nothing in the world on land except this tumbledown, one-story bungalow-more like a ship’s cabin than anything else” (Blackwood line 188). Ericson didn’t care for the material things but he always looked for the transcendent in life. Thompson explains “This old sailor has made great fortunes for others during his long career, but none for himself; and he declares he would rather be a pauper at sea,” “than make a million on shore” (Blackwood 188). When he is having a sea fit the priest states almost exactly what Wordsworth said in his poem. He says “My uncle’s such a pagan […] I almost expected to hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” (Blackwood 197). Because of all the resemblance and the quotes that are the same, it is obvious that “The Sea Fit” was inspired by William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us.”

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