{"id":887,"date":"2015-09-29T17:48:24","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T17:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=887"},"modified":"2015-09-29T17:48:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T17:48:24","slug":"on-this-day-in-1815-william-wordsworth-and-a-sonnet-for-a-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=887","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1815: William Wordsworth and a Sonnet for a Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of a new series of On This Day posts edited by Anna Mercer<\/a>.\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in contributing to the series, please contact her on\u00a0anna.mercer@york.ac.uk<\/a>. We are currently looking for contributions\u00a0about literary\/historical events in 1816.<\/em><\/p>\n

September’s post is contributed by Katherine Fender<\/a>, who is a PhD student at the University of Oxford.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Benjamin<\/a>

Benjamin Robert Haydon, \u201cWordsworth on Helvellyn\u201d, (1842) \u2013 oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, London<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2026I have never been so moved as I was on reading your exquisite sonnets…I must say that I have felt melancholy ever since receiving your sonnets, as if I was elevated so exceedingly, with such a drunken humming in my brain, that my nature took refuge in quiet humbleness and gratitude to God.<\/p>\n

– Benjamin Robert Haydon in a letter to William Wordsworth, 29th<\/sup> December 1815<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On 12th<\/sup> September 1815, in a letter to painter Benjamin Robert Haydon \u2013 who he had befriended on his visit to London in May-June 1815 \u2013 Wordsworth declared that:<\/p>\n

I have not forgotten your Request to have a few verses of my Composition in my own handwriting, and the first short piece that I compose, if it be not totally destitute of merit, shall be sent you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Close to many key Romantic figures such as Shelley, Hazlitt and Keats, Haydon had already taken a plaster cast of Wordsworth\u2019s face on 12th<\/sup> June 1815 in order to make a life mask of the poet. Haydon was determined to ensure that \u2013 as Wordsworth phrases it in a later letter (of 13th<\/sup> January 1816) \u2013 \u201cmy [Wordsworth\u2019s] merits as a Poet might be acknowledged during my life-time.\u201d True to his word (albeit slightly later than anticipated), Wordsworth sent the sonnet below to Haydon a few months afterwards:<\/p>\n

September, 1815<\/u><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While not a leaf seems faded; while the fields,<\/p>\n

With ripening harvest prodigally fair,<\/p>\n

In brightest sunshine bask; this nipping air,<\/p>\n

Sent from some distant clime where Winter wields<\/p>\n

His icy scymetar, a foretaste yields<\/p>\n

Of bitter change, and bids the Flowers beware;<\/p>\n

And whispers to the silent Birds, \u201cPrepare<\/p>\n

Against the threatening Foe your trustiest shields.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, who under kindlier laws belong<\/p>\n

To Nature\u2019s tuneful quire, this rustling dry<\/p>\n

Through leaves yet green, and yon crystalline sky,<\/p>\n

Announce a season potent to renew,<\/p>\n

\u2018Mid frost and snow, the instinctive joys of song,<\/p>\n

And nobler cares than listless summer knew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The poem initially centres on images of comfort and plenitude: \u201cnot a leaf seems faded\u201d, \u201cripening\u201d, \u201cprodigally\u201d, \u201cbrightest\u201d, \u201cbask\u201d. However, by line 3, a chilling wind \u2013 \u201cthis nipping air\u201d, which spooks the speaker \u2013 heralds change. The alliteration in the phrase \u201cwhere Winter wields\u201d in line 4 \u2013 through repetition of the voiced labio-velar approximant \u201cw\u201d \u2013 mimics the motion and sound of the blustery onset of the winter wind referenced. Similarly, the repetition of the bilabial \u201cb\u201d in the stressed syllables of \u201cbi<\/strong>tter\u201d and \u201cbi<\/strong>ds\u201d in line 6 reinforces the sharp contrast between the initial potential for gathering \u2013 the sheer abundance of autumn at the poem\u2019s opening, highlighted by the reference to harvest \u2013 and the comparative emptiness of the winter, signalled by the expulsion of air necessitated by the bilabial sounds. Autumn invites acts of reaping, gathering, taking all inward; the coming winter promises to be cold, \u201csilent\u201d, \u201cthreatening\u201d, with all warmth and growth expelled. The speaker\u2019s choice of words hints at warfare: \u201cwields\u201d, \u201cscymetar\u201d, \u201cFoe\u201d, \u201cshields\u201d. The coming season is presented as an adversary to the landscape; it is the \u201cFlowers\u201d and the \u201cBirds\u201d that are warned to prepare for the \u201cbitter change\u201d that the winter shall bring.<\/p>\n

However, the whispering wind \u2013 the \u201crustling\u201d of the autumn leaves prompted by the wind, warning of winter\u2019s imminent arrival \u2013 highlights the benefits of nature and of natural forces to the speaker. This becomes the focus of the poem\u2019s sestet. Rather than foregrounding the landscape (as in the sonnet\u2019s octave) by detailing its sights and its sounds, the chill in the air contrasting with the autumn sunshine, the emphasis of the sestet from its outset is on the personal, on the individual, in relation to <\/em>changes in the external world. Opening with the prepositional phrase \u201cFor me\u201d \u2013 foregrounding the human subject, the speaker \u2013 these lines invert the poem\u2019s earlier theme of sterility, typically associated with winter, by highlighting the creative potency of the winter months. Affiliating himself with \u201cNature\u2019s tuneful quire\u201d, the \u201crustling\u201d brought about by the winter wind relieves the silence of the birds and the eerie quiet of the landscape for the speaker.<\/p>\n

This could, perhaps, be seen as a metaphor for Wordsworth\u2019s own frustration at not having been able to produce as much writing as he had wished to during the preceding summer months. The poem, though set in September, was not in fact penned until December of 1815, when Wordsworth sent it (together with two others, \u201cNovember 1, 1815\u201d and \u201cTo R. B. Haydon, Esq.\u201d) to Haydon. In the accompanying letter, of 21st<\/sup> December, he begins:<\/p>\n

My dear Sir,<\/p>\n

I sit down to perform my promise of sending you the first little Poem I might compose on my arrival at home. I am grieved to think what a time has elapsed since I last paid my devoirs to the Muses, and not less so to know that now in the depth of Winter when I hoped to resume my Labours, I continue to be called from them by my unavoidable engagements.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wordsworth informs Haydon that the poem offers an account of a \u201cstill earlier sensation which the revolution of the seasons impressed me with last Autumn\u201d. It seems that the sharp, stinging effects of the \u201cnipping air\u201d and \u201cfrost and snow\u201d are rejuvenating ones for the speaker, the noun phrase \u201cgreen leaves\u201d connoting growth, life, potential, bolstered by the phrase \u201ca season potent to renew\u201d. The phrase \u201cinstinctive joys of song\u201d suggests that it is these \u2013 the joys of song, poetry \u2013 which can be revived by the change in season.<\/p>\n

In the final lines of the poem, the speaker implies that there is greater creative inspiration to be found in times of adversity than in those of calm and comfort, the latter state conveyed through the phrase \u201clistless summer\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2026this rustling dry<\/p>\n

\u2026and yon crystalline sky,<\/p>\n

Announce a season potent to renew,<\/p>\n

\u2018Mid frost and snow, the instinctive joys of song\u2026 [ll. 10-13]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In The Fenwick Notes of William Wordsworth <\/em>(1993), Jared Curtis speculates as to whether the \u201cnobler cares\u201d described relate to Wordsworth\u2019s concerns for Dorothy \u2013 specifically, his anxiety about how, given her fragile state of health, she would cope with the bitterly cold winters of the Lake District.<\/p>\n

The final word of the poem is a crucial one. End-stopped, and constituting the last beat of the final line of the poem, the sense of finality we may expect is instead replaced by an echo of \u201crenew\u201d in line 12. Rather than simply rhyming with line 12, the last word of line 14 is a homophone of the second syllable of \u201crenew\u201d. Thus, a seasonal and textual end marks a new intellectual and artistic beginning: it is a reminder to create.<\/p>\n

Fittingly, the poem was itself recreated. Unsurprisingly, the text was revised by Wordsworth \u2013 as well as reprinted in various publications \u2013 multiple times. It was published in the magazine Examiner <\/em>on 11th<\/sup> February 1816, and subsequently appeared in both The Advertiser<\/em> and, just a week later, Wordsworth\u2019s local paper, the Westmoreland Advertiser<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The publication of the poem in Wordsworth\u2019s local paper seems appropriate given that, like so many of his other poems, \u201cSeptember, 1815\u201d foregrounds the important of locality and community. Firstly, emphasis is on the perception and experience of the external world – the sensory, and the grandeur of nature. Then, the focus shifts to the speaking subject\u2019s personal, emotional and psychological response to it. This is what Geoffrey Hartman has described as \u201ca summons to self-consciousness\u201d: the poet is alone with the landscape.[1]<\/a> Such a process leads to acts of imagination, whether of recollection or innovative creation. Finally, the speaker turns to consider broader concerns and \u201cnobler cares\u201d \u2013 about community, society, faith and family. As David Ferry has observed, and as Frances Ferguson has helpfully phrased it:<\/p>\n

Wordsworth learns from his love of nature a love of man that is a love of the idea <\/em>of man \u2013 and that is, in turn, again a love of nature.[2]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Wordsworth, acts of introspection induced by one\u2019s surroundings afford a depth of thought \u2013 and feeling \u2013 that in turn engenders nobler cares and even greater imaginings.<\/p>\n

\"Plaster<\/a>

Plaster cast of William Wordsworth\u2019s life mask\u00a0by Benjamin Robert Haydon (1815).\u00a0National Portrait Gallery, London<\/p><\/div>\n

Works cited:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Geoffrey Hartman, Wordsworth\u2019s Poetry 1787-1814, <\/em>(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971), p. 29.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Frances Ferguson, Solitude and the Sublime: Romanticism and the Aesthetics of Individuation, <\/em>(London: Routledge, 1992), p. 125.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of a new series of On This Day posts edited by Anna Mercer.\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in contributing to the series, please contact her on\u00a0anna.mercer@york.ac.uk. We are… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":892,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions\/892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}