Wordsworth’s “Ode on Imitation of Immortality” makes the most memorable recollection of early childhood that we can clear a critical analysis with a very accurate summary or theme.
Intimation of Immortality
Wordsworth’s “Ode Intimation of Immortality” from “Recollections of Early Childhood” is
control because of the high water-mark of Romantic poetry of the Romantic Revival.
It’s popularly called “The Immortality
Ode”. The literary work is significant to understanding Wordsworth’s creative career. Besides
creating a most unforgettable affirmation of the glory of childhood, the lyric
explains the decline of his originative insight and therefore the growth of
fair philosophic insight in his later poetic works.
Summery
William
Wordsworth's “Ode:Intimations of Immortality” from “Glorification
of Childhood” is a very detailed account of how man grew up in the lap of
nature and lost himself in the vastness of nature.
The poem begins with
the emotion of the speaker's mournful heart where the speaker wants to tell how
his mischievous youth is lost in the blink of an eye and that grayness of old
age comes and consumes him. She tries to kiss past emotions but can't. Everything
seems to remain elusive. The meaning of the age of human life has been
skillfully drawn here. The fifth stanza declares that we come from an earth
that is more heavenly than the earth.
We see the world with
the shadow of the memory of this place, at the boundary of the first sight,
then we grow old, the creations of life become oblivion, and what the world gave
at the beginning of life comes old age and the world itself accepts
everything.
The poet thinks that
his fitful childhood memories are always alive and he always sees his memories
in the invisible mirror of his mind. He can take these experiences into the
present and live as before. In this way, he regains the joy of the past and
lives happily with his death ailment.
Theme
In his poems, the
poet explores the interplay of youth, age, religion or spirituality, and nature.
These themes are reflected in Wordsworth's
poetic work, and this reflection is repeated in all his other poems. He begins
the poem by acknowledging the evolutionary course of time and shows how his
connection to the earth has changed. He remembers what his childhood was like
when he was younger but for some reason, he is unable to get back the emotions
he had. Wordsworth also uses
spirituality and religion at the beginning of the poem which is an outward form
of the human race's self-belief.
Read More about William Wordsworth a poet of and masterclass of romanticism.
Critical Analysis
The Neo-platonic idea
that Wordsworth gets via Coleridge and Vaughan is the most important idea here and explains in a
convincing manner the nature of his poetic crises. The doctrine popularly known
as the theory of reminiscence holds that the human soul comes into this world from
its original home, heaven. And with the birth of the kid begins his journey
from heaven to the current tangible material world. Contemporary from heaven he
finds himself wrapped in heavenly lightweight and sees heavenly lightweight in
every and each object of nature. His vivid reminiscences of celestial existence
invest no matter he sees around with a form of visionary dream-like splendour.
As he grows up, the charms and attractions of the fabric world stand to the
manner and decide to efface those heavenly reminiscences
and keep the romantic dream-like glories in natural objects.
But there are moments
in mature age when his mind travels back to his childhood days and gets vague intimations of immortality from his retrospections the fresh memories of
pre-natal heavenly life and the memories
of childhood days give him a sense of immortality. It is because of his
fresh and clear memories of heavenly life that a child comes to learn many
truths which the grown-ups spend all their lives to learn. Thus his sense or awareness
of the deeper truths, especially the immortality of the soul comes from his
vivid memorization of holy heavenly
life.
In his mature days, he
may be away from the sea-shore of immortality. His memories of that immortal
heavenly life may be dimmer and dimmer but he is still able to catch occasional
glimpses of it in moments of tranquility. The very title of the poem's intimation of immortality from the nostalgia of early childhood suggests this
idea. There are also other ideas forming the thematic basis of the poem. For
example, the peat doubts the solidity and concreteness of the material
world. In his childhood, the poet used to experience some fits of dreaminess.
When the material world used to melt away into a sort of nothingness leaving
only a mist before his eyes. He had to grab a tree or something else to see
whether it was actually there. This is, however, a typical platonic belief. To Plato, the world of sense is an illusion, a shadowy world, a world of appearance, not
the real world. In his childhood, Wordsworth had a similar platonic feeling of
the illusory nature of the material world. And this feeling of doubt about the
solidity of the world might be Wordsworth’s
own, not everybody’s. Because an average reader has every doubt whether a child
has any such doubt and confusion about the solidity of the world around him. To
him, the world about him is absolutely concrete.
Wordsworth
claims that a human child having a fresh memory of heavenly life is an
integral part of eternity and has a profound intuitive vision of things and then
gives an exaggerated description of a child. He idealizes childhood like
anything when he welcomes a child “The best philosopher” “Then Eye among the
blind”, mightily prophet! Seer blest!” The epithets that Wordsworth has showered upon a child here just in view of the
purity and innocence of childhood can better be lavished upon the great ancient
philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The poet's address to a child
has all the depth of sincerity and the warmth of feeling but there is hardly
any reality about it. He is carried away with his idealization of childhood and
that is why he has been criticized by Plato
and Aristotle. The poet's address to
a child has all the depth of sincerity and the warmth of feeling but there is
hardly any reality about it. He is carried away with his idealization of childhood
and that is why he has been criticized by many even by his learned friend Coleridge.
Then there is the
poet’s idea of a child as an actor spending his whole time in senseless
imitation of whatever he sees around like a wedding, a festival, a mourning
even an old man suffering from patsy. And as he imitates things related to business,
love, strife, and a funeral, he is simply at war with his inner blessedness, his
inner divine self, thus intimating the roles of different people, their actions
and speeches, the child invites maturity to come fast upon him with all its
responsibilities, trials and tribulations hardships, and harassment. This
analysis of the poets regarding the imitative nature of a child and the consequent decline in imaginative vision is psychologically convincing.
Wordsworth, however,
claims that his “Immortality Ode”
hinges upon these ideas and they “have sufficient foundation in humanity” and
the has made the best use of them as a poet in the fashion of the 17th century platonic
poet Henry Vaughan who made use of one of these ideas, namely the idea of
prenatal heavenly existence in his famous poem “The Retreat” That is,
Wordsworth wants to suggest that these ideas have their roots in the feelings and
emotions of the average human being and are, therefore, appealing to them. As
a matter of fact the poet is claiming too much because average people don’t
feel these feelings, think these thoughts, and understand these theories. Hover,
these thoughts and ideas have some appeal to a coterie of people with a profoundly
philosophic, meditative, or reflective bent of mind. But on average people they
are most likely to fall flat.
Read More About William Wordsworth a poet of Nature and Masterclass of Romanticism.
“The Immortality Ode” centers on the theme of loss and gain. The
loss is the gradual decline in the powers of sensitivity and responsiveness and
the keenness of imagination as a man passes from childhood to maturity. But if
the loss is great, the gain or recompense is greater. And the poet feels
revitalized by the ample recompense that he has received in the form of new
powers. Now he has greater sensitivity and responsiveness, greater power to
think and feel than ever before. Now he feels a greater sympathy for the
suffering humanity, a greater faith in life after death. Now he has gained a
more mature and profound philosophic insight into things and beings around. Now
his love for the world of nature, the world of sense has deepened rather than declined.
Now he feels a greater bond of sympathy between man and nature and thinks “the
soothing thoughts that spring out of human suffering.” Now the most commonplace
object of nature radiates a deeper meaning and significance to his higher
philosophic outlook. Having witnessed the tragic sufferings of life, he has now
become more meditative and reflective; he now sees things in their true perspective.
Now he expresses a feeling
of “thanks to the human heart by which we live” and also a feeling of “thanks
to its tenderness, its joys, and fears” Now humanity which with all its capacity
of feelings sympathy, joy and fear make life worth living. The clouds
gathering around the setting sum now “take a sober colouring” from his eyes and
the humblest flower that blows can arise in him profound thoughts “too deep for
tears”, that is thoughts which even tears can’t express. Now even the most ordinary
objects of nature convey a deeper meaning to him. He finds them all pervaded by a divine spirit and therefore adorable and worthy of being worshiped. All the
various objects of the flora and fauna currently stand resolute to be the embodiment of the eternal spirit of God and encourage in him a train of
profound thoughts.
Thus the “Immortality
Ode” begins with a sense of loss of some powers begins with deep meditation
and a sense of gain—a gain of some new powers. So, fear from being a conscious
farewell to art or a dirge sung over some departing powers, the “Immortality
Ode” is a dedication to some new creative powers. Lionel Trilling is very much
apt when he says that the “Immortality Ode” is a poem about growing up, not a
poem about growing old”. Actually, the poet has glorious childhood in the poem.