Discussion QuestionsBottom of Form
I think Wordsworth’s encounter with nature is a religious experience. It appears that the very act of visiting the banks of the Wye is religious journey that reaches its climax when he is meditating. The reason is that he seems to take another form to become a living soul who is able to see the life other things. This kind of experience is like it is religious, because he is filled with another kind of power that he did not before this experience. When remembering his sister he appears to be cursing the evil ones, in a religious version. Actually, the poem gives an idea that he could be praying to the river as he says, his spirit has often turned to the river.
Utpicturapoesis ("As in painting, so is poetry"--Horace, ArsPoetica)
The painting helps me in reading and understanding the poem. I am able to see how the scenery looks like. When he talks of ‘steep lofty cliffs”, I can at least see them and I can almost feel his experience. With the painting, I read the poem with the river and the scenery before me. Therefore, when he says “I came among these hills”, I feel as if we go there together. The painting makes me almost own the experience, feel as if I am the one saying how experienced this encounter with nature.
"Mind Forg'd Manacles"
The phrase means that people are experiencing the pain caused by the problems constructed by the mind. The manacles come from the outside world; the world outside the senses. They seem to be tormenting the Londoners, as the sign of the pain may be seen in their faces and heard in their cries. The reason is that the speaker says that there is a “mark in every face” that he meets; and that these are the “marks of weakness, marks of woe.” He also says that the same is heard in “every cry” of man and infants. Today’s society may also be victimized by mind-constructed manacles.
Chimney Sweepers
Both the The Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence make reference to Christianity. In the first case, it is said that father and mother have “both gone up to the church to pray.’ There is also reference made to God and praise. In the Songs of Innocense version, reference to Christianity is made by mentioning that he would “have God for his father” Both poems versions of the poem are making mentioning things about Christianity so that the theme of the first poem can be continued. Since they are talking about the same issue, that is why there is similarity.
