Sublime

One of the most famous Romantic poems is I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth. I became somewhat numb to the poem as I grew up, often hearing it chanted by speakers without any real emotion. Reading the poem aloud for myself for the first time was a revelation and truly inspirational. I found the joy the poet found in the simple beaut

An appetite; a feeling, and a love, That had no need of a remoter charm, By thought supplied, or any interest Unborrow'd from the eye. [Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey".]

The great works of past ages seem to a young man things of another race, in respect to which his faculties must remain passive and submiss, even as to the stars and mountains. But the writings of a contemporary, perhaps not many years older than himself, surrounded by the same circumstances, and disciplined by the same manners, possess a reality fo

As a mini-task, try reading Wordsworth’s words out to yourself, aloud, a few times and see if you can find the variety of emotions in his work.

As T. S. Eliot wrote, in a brilliant and painstaking way: I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, For hope would be hope for the wrong thing: wait without love for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.