This skepticism shows most clearly when the speaker undergoes a personal and philosophical crisis in the aftermath of the French Revolution. He realizes that this attachment to reason is misguided and actually keeps the truth at arm's reach, and thus he chooses to prioritize feeling over empiricism in his own outlook. This outlook is cemented after the speaker goes through a youthful period of infatuation with reason and empiricism. It is, the speaker suggests, better to acknowledge one's own biases and internal experiences, valuing them rather than striving to ignore them. Rather than simply observing the world as it is, in all of its complexity, human desire reshapes the world according to the limits of human perception. Indeed, he contends that desire is in some ways the opposite of an empirical fact. He contrasts this openness to ambiguity with an empiricism-driven desire to pin down and name every element of reality. He stresses that his own goal-that of narrating his life from childhood through adulthood-involves dealing with messy, ambiguous processes and accepting their complexities. Instead, he repeatedly emphasizes the inevitability of uncertainty and the importance of subjectivity. The speaker of the "Prelude" condemns the arrogance of scientists who believe that Enlightenment-era empiricism can singlehandedly solve the world's problems and clarify its mysteries. The periods of his adult life when he feels the most authentic and intelligent are also the ones where he feels most connected to his childhood self.
After all, the entire point of the "Prelude" is to recount the speaker's artistic development, starting with his childhood the poem is premised on the idea that every phase of a poet's life will one day infuse their work. At the same time, the speaker's childhood self is undeniably an essential part of the artist he'll one day become. Elsewhere in the Prelude, he describes other children in the same terms, often identifying them as victims of a lost innocence.Ĭhildhood is such a distinct and elusive period that, in recalling his own, the speaker almost feels as if he's describing another person rather than a version of himself.
This contrasts with a type of childhood that he increasingly notices and condemns-overeducated, constrained, and cut off from nature.
Through these descriptions, Wordsworth embraces a prototypically Romantic ideal of childhood as a distinct period of authenticity and innocence. He remains free from the shackles of urban, adult society, and therefore is more in touch with underlying truths. In this state, the younger speaker is generally happy, often deliriously so. The speaker describes his childhood as a time of deep connection to the natural world.
0 kommentar(er)
