Text

ETD_2116

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.000051971

theses

This study examines the ways in which nineteenth-century readers experienced Wordsworth's poetry as wisdom literature--ways of reading the poetry which have been largely lost in the twenty-first century. Considered as disciples, these men and women of letters had lifelong relationships with the poet and poetry which paralleled Wordsworth's own ritual of returning to the text and to the consecrated place in nature. By examining the reading practices of these Wordsworthians in the light of interpretive methods dating back to monastic readers, I show how such practices went hand in glove with the poet’s epitaphic aesthetic.
Wordsworth's theory of poetry derives from his "Essays Upon Epitaphs" which privilege the sympathetic relationship of the epitaph writer to the deceased and to the mourning survivors. I trace the evolution of this aesthetic in Wordsworth's poetry through his autobiographical poem, The Prelude, considered as the poet's own epitaph, and through his turn to the frugality and rigid lines of the sonnet as the form most conducive to fulfilling his prophetic duty in later years. I follow this aesthetic as poetic persona and readers enact the sincerity between epitaph writer and mourners in a mutually sympathetic relationship. This bond between writer and reader assisted in transforming suffering into an attractive if unattainable ideal which yet inspired readers to social duty. I use psychoanalytic theory to show how the persona modeled the "transmutation" of sorrow for readers by ordering the mind and cultivating self-forgiveness by means of this ideal.
The ritual of reading and revising sorrows which incorporated the persona’s mental discipline importantly depended on the "counter-spirit" or deconstructive quality inherent in language which has its analogue in the cycles of renovation and decay in nature. This instability of language contributed to an ambiguity at the heart of Wordsworth's poetry which opened up a range of possible interpretations. Depending on the individual, such ambiguity made it possible for nineteenth-century readers to apply the poetry to their lives methodically, both as an aid to mourning and to religious reflection.

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-295)

by Sharon McGrady

doi:10.7282/T3513ZB6

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work

ETD

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