William Wordsworth

Activities

Before viewing and reading

You are about to study one of the great poets of the English language. He wrote his poems at the beginning of the last century, and you will find that the language is sometimes different from ours. However, the ideas and feelings he expressed are familiar to us even now.

William Wordsworth wrote about places that were very special to him: places from his childhood, places he loved and places that scared him. He also wrote about the ordinary people that he met, and stories he heard during his time in England's Lake District.

While viewing

The programme gives you an insight into Wordsworth's life and character. As you watch it, note down any information you hear or see about him: his personality, events in his life, his ideas, his feelings. . .

When you have seen the programme, discuss the way the words and pictures were put together. Were your ideas about location similar? Were the feelings you wrote down similar to those of the poet?

After viewing

You are now ready to study the poems in depth, and to reach your own understanding and interpretation of them.

1. 'Locations': words to pictures
   You will now need the page entitled 'Extracts'. These are taken from some of the poems used in the programme. Look at each extract in turn, and think of a location that you know where this part of the poem could have been filmed. Say why you would choose this particular place. What type of visual image are you trying to create?
   
   
2. 'Spots of Time'
   In pairs, discuss places that have been special to you for good or for bad reasons, and present these on a chart entitled 'Spots of Time'. Include words to explain the feelings aroused by the places that you have chosen such as 'fear', 'joy', 'pain'; 'sorrow', 'happiness'.
   
   
3. Group readings
   Poetry should be heard as well as read. When you have selected the poem you would like to work on, try these ways of presenting the poem:
   a) As a whole class, first, take a line each and read them out in order; second, read the poem in turns, stopping when you reach a punctuation mark. Which works best, and why?
   b) In a small group, devise a way of reading the poem to get the meaning across to your audience. You could use a similar method to the one used on the programme for the 'Daffodils' poem.
   c) In the same group, work on devising an explanation of the meaning as you see it, and explain this to the class. You could translate some of the more difficult lines into your own words.
   
   
4. Collage
   Choose a poem that you feel is visually powerful. Create a collage, using pictures, drawings and other materials, to illustrate the meaning you have found. Try and convey atmosphere and emotions, rather than just a picture of what is being described.
   
   
5. 'Lucy Gray'
   This poem tells the true story of a girl who disappeared on a winter's night in the hills of the Lake District.
   a) In small groups, prepare a series of tableaux (still scenes) to illustrate the key moments in the poem. Give voice to the feelings of the characters involved by 'thought-tracking' – speaking the character's thoughts in role, as the still image is held.
   b) The poem is written in ballad form. Many events in history have been told in this way. More recently, Elton John reworded his song 'Candle in the Wind', as a tribute to Princess Diana. Think of an event in the news that you feel could be rewritten as a ballad, telling the story in poetic form.
   c) Imagine you are a reporter at the time of the disappearance of Lucy Gray. Write a newspaper account of the events. Compare this with Wordsworth's poem. What are the differences?
   
   
6. In the poem, 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud', and in the 'After-Thought' sonnet from River Duddon, Wordsworth writes of his beliefs about the natural landscape and mankind. He gained great comfort from the beauty and power of nature, even when he was away from the Lake District. Re-read these poems.
   Think of a place that raises your spirits – that cheers you up when you feel down. Write about that place, describing it in, and explain why it has this effect on you.
   
   
7. Style
   In your GCSE work you also need to gain an understanding of the style a writer uses to convey his meaning. Look closely at one verse of 'Lucy Gray', and compare it with four lines from the sonnet 'After-Thought' from the River Duddon poem. You should comment on:
   
   
   • Rhyme
   • Rhythm
   • Imagery
   • Choice of words and the associations they create in the reader's mind
   • General use of language: is it simple, archaic, informative, complex, descriptive, conversational? Try to explain why the poem is written in this way.
     
   
   
8. Select any of the magnificent photographs on the web pages to illustrate some of Wordsworth's poetry. Explain what the poet achieves which the camera could not. How successful did you find the programme's film sequences accompanying the poetry readings?
   
   
9. Compare Wordsworth's original and revised versions of the boating incident from The Prelude. Study the changes made and their effects. What gain or loss do you find? Would you consider one version to be better than the other?
   
   
10. Wordsworth felt that within nature and within himself there was a vital interrelationship. Compare the 'Boating' extract from The Prelude with its 'Nutting' and 'Skating' extracts. Explain how these episodes illustrate Wordsworth's feeling that he was 'foster'd alike by beauty and by fear'.
    
    
11. Both Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, wrote about the daffodils they saw on a visit to the shores of Ullswater lake in April 1802, and about meeting a Leech-gatherer. What differences can you find in the ways they approached these subjects? What do they reveal about Wordsworth's writing?
    
    
12. If Dorothy Wordsworth had accompanied her brother to Furness Abbey, how might she have described the visit in her Journal ? Write her account and then explain to others in the class how Wordsworth's poem differs from the diary entry.
    
    
13. Compare Wordsworth's 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' with Robert Frost's 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'. What similarities and differences do you notice about the poets' thinking or way of writing?
    
14. Modern poets freely express themselves in everyday English. In Wordsworth's time, poets used a pompous and artificial vocabulary. Wordsworth decided to use 'a selection of language really used by men'. Compare his writing with traditional eighteenth-century verse, such as:
    
    

    The stable yields a stercoraceous heap,
    Impregnated with quick fermenting salts,
    And potent to resist the freezing blast . . .
    Warily, therefore, and with prudent heed,
    He seeks a favour'd spot; that where he builds
    Th' agglomerated pile his frame may front
    The sun's meridian disc.
    
    The Task, Book 3, William Cowper (1731–1800)
    

    
    (Note: Cowper is trying to explain how to grow cucumbers!)
    
    
15. What evidence can be found in Wordsworth's poetry that illustrates his famous declaration that 'The child is father of the man'?
    
    
16. What similarities and differences can you find in three or four of the poems by Wordsworth?
    
    
17. Could any of Wordsworth's ideas be valid in today's world?
    
    

18. One impulse from a vernal wood
    May teach you more of man,
    Of moral evil and of good,
    Than all the sages can.
    

    
    What kind of 'nature poet' was Wordsworth?
    
    
19. Your own 'Lyrical Ballad'
    A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story. A lyric or lyrical poem conveys the personal thoughts and feelings of its speaker. In a lyrical ballad, the emotions of the main character are of more importance than the story content.
    
    Try writing your own lyrical ballad. Invent a character and identify their thoughts and feelings about some situation. Tell the story in ballad form. Use some direct speech, allowing the character to express their feelings in the first person; what is said should reveal something of their human nature or character. Study how Wordsworth has done this in his tale of 'Lucy Gray'.