1 00:00:05,900 --> 00:00:07,960 Assalamualaikum and good morning everyone. Welcome 2 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:10,640 back to English poetry at the Islamic University 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:14,800 of Gaza. Today we move to a very interesting poet, 4 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,820 critic, and a modernist. When we started this 5 00:00:18,820 --> 00:00:22,680 course, I asked you for your favorite definition 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:26,500 of poetry, and most of you opted for the 7 00:00:26,500 --> 00:00:29,940 Wordsworthian definition, defining poetry as a 8 00:00:29,940 --> 00:00:35,680 spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. And I 9 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:38,720 think that many people would stop here, giving this 10 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,080 definition, and this actually falls short because 11 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:44,340 there is a second part; there's a significant 12 00:00:44,340 --> 00:00:48,000 part, actually 50% of what the definition is, 13 00:00:48,100 --> 00:00:52,370 which is "recollected in tranquility." This 14 00:00:52,370 --> 00:00:55,470 recollection, act of remembering and recalling 15 00:00:55,470 --> 00:00:58,350 memories, is significant. We're going to see this 16 00:00:58,350 --> 00:01:01,290 in a bit. Before we talk about the features which 17 00:01:01,290 --> 00:01:04,970 we, in a way or another, mentioned in the lectures 18 00:01:04,970 --> 00:01:10,380 on William Blake. Let's see this canonical text. 19 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:12,520 I'm sure you're already familiar with this. Some 20 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:15,460 of you must have studied this before, but it's 21 00:01:15,460 --> 00:01:18,620 always, always good to see how different people do 22 00:01:18,620 --> 00:01:24,040 different things. In my way of studying poetry and 23 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,160 literature in general, I like to focus on the 24 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:30,200 structure, on the form, on how the poets say what 25 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:34,110 they say, rather than what they actually say. Some 26 00:01:34,110 --> 00:01:39,050 critics would suggest that there are actually a 27 00:01:39,050 --> 00:01:42,390 handful of themes out there. All poetry, all 28 00:01:42,390 --> 00:01:44,930 literature, all writings can be summarized into a 29 00:01:44,930 --> 00:01:49,890 handful of issues. I'm happy, I'm sad, she likes 30 00:01:49,890 --> 00:01:52,830 me, she doesn't like me, life's good, life's bad. 31 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:58,060 And that's why we have poets, Arab poets, who 32 00:01:58,060 --> 00:02:01,080 suggested almost 2,000 years ago that whatever 33 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,360 they were doing was just repeating themselves and 34 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:08,160 intertexting or borrowing or quoting other poets. 35 00:02:08,340 --> 00:02:11,900 And this is 2,000 years ago. ما رأينا نقول إلاّ 36 00:02:11,900 --> 00:02:15,000 معروفا أو معروفا من لفظه مكرورا. And Antara 37 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:17,980 says, هل غدر الشُعراءُ و من مُتْرَدِّمِي. 38 00:02:18,460 --> 00:02:21,800 Opening his mu'allaqa, his long poem, saying that, 39 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,350 what should I write about? Everything I want to 40 00:02:25,350 --> 00:02:29,170 speak about has already been spoken about by other 41 00:02:29,170 --> 00:02:33,690 poets. But he doesn't just stop there and give us 42 00:02:33,690 --> 00:02:40,030 that one line, the opening, because he knows he is 43 00:02:40,030 --> 00:02:44,170 not, in a way, the idea is being repeated, but how 44 00:02:44,170 --> 00:02:46,110 he is doing his poetry is totally different. 45 00:02:46,330 --> 00:02:49,190 That's why every poem, every poet is a different 46 00:02:49,190 --> 00:02:51,390 experience. Even by the same poet, you'll 47 00:02:51,390 --> 00:02:55,820 experience different things. I have, like, 48 00:02:55,820 --> 00:02:57,480 when you study Tamim al-Barghouti, you'll find 49 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:00,580 that there are common features for his poetry, 50 00:03:01,340 --> 00:03:05,160 right? But once you get into each poem, it's a 51 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:11,560 microcosm of its own world. One guy said to a 52 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:16,140 critic, "I want to write poetry. I have so many 53 00:03:16,140 --> 00:03:19,320 ideas." I want to write poetry; we do this 54 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:23,580 sometimes. "I want to write poetry, I have so many 55 00:03:23,580 --> 00:03:28,000 ideas." And the critic, being a critic, said, "Poetry 56 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,940 my friend, is not made with ideas, but with words." 57 00:03:34,340 --> 00:03:37,400 What words to choose, how to use the words, how to 58 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,280 word the words, how to order the words, how to 59 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,520 play with the words, how to use and recruit 60 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,480 literary devices and metaphorical language, 61 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,680 figures of speech. And that's why, again, I like 62 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:57,020 Samuel Taylor Coleridge's definition probably more. He 63 00:03:57,020 --> 00:03:59,180 says, in a way, it sounds a stupid definition, but 64 00:03:59,180 --> 00:04:05,030 it's really deep. Poetry is the best words in the 65 00:04:05,030 --> 00:04:10,890 best order. Poetry is the best words in the best 66 00:04:10,890 --> 00:04:14,970 order, where he is focusing more on how the form 67 00:04:14,970 --> 00:04:18,170 and the language should say what they should say. 68 00:04:19,590 --> 00:04:21,350 Now, when we talk about William Wordsworth, we 69 00:04:21,350 --> 00:04:23,510 talk about one of the most, again, important poets 70 00:04:23,510 --> 00:04:27,450 of all time. We talk about the father or the 71 00:04:27,450 --> 00:04:30,610 founder or the co-founder of Romanticism. Along 72 00:04:30,610 --> 00:04:35,850 with Coleridge, they published what is known as 73 00:04:35,850 --> 00:04:42,360 *Lyrical Ballads* around 1798. And the book, in a 74 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:44,760 short time, sold out. There were no more copies 75 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,740 because, remember, we said neoclassicism was 76 00:04:47,740 --> 00:04:49,680 already in decline, and people were looking for 77 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,040 something different, something new. Coleridge 78 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:57,440 published only his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and 79 00:04:57,440 --> 00:04:59,560 Wordsworth published, like, I'm not sure how many 80 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:04,500 poems, but a bunch of them. Now, after two years, 81 00:05:04,500 --> 00:05:06,400 they said, "Okay, let's 82 00:05:08,900 --> 00:05:11,620 let's tell people what we're doing. Let's define 83 00:05:11,620 --> 00:05:14,640 poetry, define a poet, and tell them what kind of 84 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:17,240 language, what kind of sensibility we're employing 85 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:17,560 here." 86 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,540 Coleridge, probably you know this already, 87 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:29,800 Coleridge was a drug addict. He was an opium 88 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:33,080 addict. He was high all the time. Not climbing 89 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:39,270 trees, but high. He didn't participate in writing 90 00:05:39,270 --> 00:05:42,150 the introduction, which is now known as the 91 00:05:42,150 --> 00:05:44,750 preface to *Lyrical Ballads*. It was written; I'm 92 00:05:44,750 --> 00:05:47,230 saying this because some people think that the 93 00:05:47,230 --> 00:05:50,710 preface is what Romanticism is, and this is, to a 94 00:05:50,710 --> 00:05:53,910 large extent, yes, if you consider Wordsworth 95 00:05:53,910 --> 00:05:59,020 everything in Romanticism, and this is wrong. And 96 00:05:59,020 --> 00:06:02,000 I know many of you usually... I like feminism, I 97 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,680 like post-colonialism, I like romanticism. And 98 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:07,980 then later on you find, you realize that there are 99 00:06:07,980 --> 00:06:11,880 romanticisms, feminisms, and post-colonialisms. 100 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:15,860 Because when you study what Coleridge is going to 101 00:06:15,860 --> 00:06:18,880 be like, they share these common features, but 102 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,740 they're totally different. Look at Shelley, for 103 00:06:21,740 --> 00:06:26,180 example, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Lord Byron, Lord Byron, 104 00:06:27,670 --> 00:06:30,470 hates Coleridge and William Wordsworth. He keeps 105 00:06:30,470 --> 00:06:33,070 making fun of them all the time, mocking them. 106 00:06:34,190 --> 00:06:40,130 This is the second generation. Now, so William 107 00:06:40,130 --> 00:06:43,450 Wordsworth wrote the preface himself alone. This 108 00:06:43,450 --> 00:06:45,710 is good, again, and bad because we have now 109 00:06:45,710 --> 00:06:48,210 something, unlike the metaphysicals; they didn't 110 00:06:48,210 --> 00:06:50,290 write anything to define their poetry, what they 111 00:06:50,290 --> 00:06:52,390 were doing, to tell people about their new 112 00:06:52,390 --> 00:06:52,950 sensibility. 113 00:06:56,020 --> 00:06:58,000 But again, it's bad because some people think that 114 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,100 this is all what you need to know about 115 00:07:00,100 --> 00:07:02,820 romanticism. This is also good because later on 116 00:07:02,820 --> 00:07:06,760 Coleridge realized that, "Oh my God, I didn't 117 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:10,340 participate in this." And he wrote his own book 118 00:07:10,340 --> 00:07:14,480 known as *Biographia Literaria*, or *Literary 119 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,400 Biography*. So it's good that we have two books by 120 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:24,000 these two amazing poets and critics. This poem, 121 00:07:24,660 --> 00:07:28,740 some say, is the icon, the epitome of 122 00:07:28,740 --> 00:07:32,160 Romanticism. It contains 123 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,480 almost every feature, as if he wrote this poem 124 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:38,600 just to show people how to write poetry in terms 125 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:41,800 of form, of language, of subject matter, of the 126 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:46,240 new sensibility, of the feelings and emotions and 127 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:47,940 imagination, individuality, as opposed to 128 00:07:47,940 --> 00:07:53,120 everything that we had in neoclassical poetry. Okay, 129 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:57,400 so the poem is entitled "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," or *The Daffodils*. 130 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:01,580 Probably let's let's read the poem 131 00:08:01,580 --> 00:08:04,460 together. For the sake of time, just one stanza 132 00:08:04,460 --> 00:08:13,460 each, please. "I wandered lonely..." Okay, 133 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:18,220 can you say again and speak up. "I wandered lonely" 134 00:08:18,220 --> 00:08:22,840 as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills." 135 00:08:23,460 --> 00:08:27,160 "When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden 136 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:30,800 daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees, 137 00:08:31,220 --> 00:08:33,420 fluttering and dancing in the breeze." Thank you 138 00:08:33,420 --> 00:08:34,560 very much. One more, please. 139 00:08:49,970 --> 00:08:55,550 Thank you. Speak up. "The waves beside them danced, 140 00:08:55,710 --> 00:08:59,250 but they out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet 141 00:08:59,250 --> 00:09:03,130 could not but be gay, in such a jocund company:" I 142 00:09:03,130 --> 00:09:07,700 gazed—and gazed—but little thought what..." Thank you 143 00:09:07,700 --> 00:09:13,920 very much. One more, please. "On my couch." 144 00:09:23,020 --> 00:09:27,500 Very good. 145 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:33,780 Very good. Okay, so I'll go into a journey through 146 00:09:33,780 --> 00:09:36,880 this poem and show you how I like to usually do 147 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:41,240 things. But this is a poem that can be studied 148 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:43,020 from different ideas. You can start with the 149 00:09:43,020 --> 00:09:44,880 features, looking for them, et cetera. But let's 150 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,260 do a close reading, reading between the words and 151 00:09:48,260 --> 00:09:53,280 the lines. Now, the title itself, *Daffodils*, or 152 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:55,220 *I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud*, suggests that 153 00:09:58,220 --> 00:10:01,920 this is a poem that is rooted, or at least 154 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:06,600 inspired by nature. The daffodils, rather than 155 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:09,460 *Paradise Lost*, *Paradise Regained*, rather than any 156 00:10:09,460 --> 00:10:13,380 lofty subject matter, *The Fairy Queen*; they say, on 157 00:10:13,380 --> 00:10:16,560 criticism, they say, "On Man"—that's the daffodils. 158 00:10:16,860 --> 00:10:21,640 Totally different from the neoclassical poets 159 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:24,570 who were writing before this. When 160 00:10:24,570 --> 00:10:27,710 we read the poem, we realize that this is a poem 161 00:10:27,710 --> 00:10:31,870 that is overwhelmed by nature and natural 162 00:10:31,870 --> 00:10:36,990 elements. It's not a poem that uses nature as some 163 00:10:36,990 --> 00:10:39,350 kind of decoration for the poem. Because some of 164 00:10:39,350 --> 00:10:41,410 you will say, "Okay, Shakespeare used natural 165 00:10:41,410 --> 00:10:44,210 elements. Marlowe used natural elements in his 166 00:10:44,210 --> 00:10:46,730 poetry." What difference does it make? The 167 00:10:46,730 --> 00:10:48,030 difference is actually 168 00:10:51,260 --> 00:10:54,460 existential, not just superficial, because in this 169 00:10:54,460 --> 00:10:59,120 poem, in Wordsworth, nature *is* the poem. The poem 170 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:01,840 is *for* nature; nature inspires the poem; nature is 171 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:04,020 everything. Take nature from the poem, and you 172 00:11:04,020 --> 00:11:07,860 don't have a poem. But for Shakespeare, probably 173 00:11:07,860 --> 00:11:09,800 for Marlowe, if you take nature, you take the 174 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:11,820 decorations because he's saying, "Come live 175 00:11:11,820 --> 00:11:14,440 with me and be my love. I own everything around 176 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:16,980 me." He's not showing the relationship between him 177 00:11:16,980 --> 00:11:19,840 and nature and how nature is impacting him, his 178 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:24,700 psychology, his everything here. So nature here, 179 00:11:25,180 --> 00:11:27,160 this is about the impact of nature. The impact, 180 00:11:27,220 --> 00:11:30,110 and again, I don't like to talk about themes 181 00:11:30,110 --> 00:11:32,770 because sometimes they limit the meaning of the 182 00:11:32,770 --> 00:11:35,290 poem. But yeah, there is this thing about how 183 00:11:35,290 --> 00:11:37,810 nature is changing, is impacting him from one 184 00:11:37,810 --> 00:11:42,030 thing to the other. And then the second thing, we 185 00:11:42,030 --> 00:11:48,890 are struck with the "I." "I wandered lonely as a 186 00:11:48,890 --> 00:11:51,330 cloud." And actually, not only "I," we have "lonely," and 187 00:11:51,330 --> 00:11:57,170 we have the singularity of a cloud. "I wandered 188 00:11:57,170 --> 00:11:59,310 lonely..." as there is subjectivity here; there is 189 00:11:59,310 --> 00:12:02,740 individualism. For Romanticism, remember we said 190 00:12:02,740 --> 00:12:05,260 that neoclassical poetry was poetry of the 191 00:12:05,260 --> 00:12:08,600 collective, of everybody, for all—not for all 192 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:13,680 like in this sense where it talks, where it 193 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12 223 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:59,110 talk about this later on. And lonely, this is 224 00:13:59,110 --> 00:14:03,050 loneliness. We'll see at the end how he was not 225 00:14:03,050 --> 00:14:06,430 alone when he had this experience. But there's 226 00:14:06,430 --> 00:14:09,590 somebody he is totally eradicating and erasing 227 00:14:09,590 --> 00:14:12,530 from the poem. Is this anti-feminism? Is this? 228 00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:18,780 self-centeredness or is this and again emphasis on 229 00:14:18,780 --> 00:14:21,400 individuality rather than society and community 230 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:25,860 which is a romantic feature when he says as a 231 00:14:25,860 --> 00:14:29,560 cloud as is it's a simile, thank you. And a simile 232 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:35,220 is a metaphor where you use "as" or "like," just and in 233 00:14:35,220 --> 00:14:39,540 general, similes are easier than metaphors. If he 234 00:14:39,540 --> 00:14:46,980 said, "I wandered lonely" or "I floated lonely," we'll 235 00:14:46,980 --> 00:14:53,280 be asking, "What does he mean? Why is he floating? 236 00:14:53,500 --> 00:14:57,160 What is he? Is he a bird? Is he a duck? Is he what? 237 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:01,620 Because the possibilities are open, but he just 238 00:15:01,620 --> 00:15:04,060 closes the door here by saying that, "I wandered 239 00:15:04,060 --> 00:15:08,110 lonely as a cloud." That's the end of it. And this 240 00:15:08,110 --> 00:15:10,650 is something some people might be interested in 241 00:15:10,650 --> 00:15:14,070 doing research on. How, for example, the Nihilists 242 00:15:14,070 --> 00:15:17,090 were more into metaphors, you know, make things 243 00:15:17,090 --> 00:15:19,610 complex sometimes, elaborate. That's why we have 244 00:15:19,610 --> 00:15:23,630 the conceit and the Elizabethan conceit. But here, 245 00:15:23,950 --> 00:15:26,230 they go for the simple. We'll see this repeated 246 00:15:26,230 --> 00:15:30,870 again later on as the stars. And then again, a 247 00:15:30,870 --> 00:15:35,170 cloud, not clouds, emphasizing the singularity of 248 00:15:35,170 --> 00:15:43,620 it. But why a cloud? Yeah? Why a cloud? Not a 249 00:15:43,620 --> 00:15:51,160 tree, a bird, a cat, or a drone, or a plane, or a 250 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:56,640 kite, you know? A kite, a paper kite. What does it 251 00:15:56,640 --> 00:16:00,340 indicate possibly? Yeah? Maybe because it's up in 252 00:16:00,340 --> 00:16:02,840 the sky and it's hard to reach. Thank you very 253 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:07,120 much. It's up in the sky; it's high up above 254 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:13,200 everything; it has this bird's-eye view that it can 255 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:17,620 look at things below; it can see things from 256 00:16:17,620 --> 00:16:21,660 a comprehensive perspective; it's up above. That's 257 00:16:21,660 --> 00:16:24,480 one, and I think because it is moving slowly, so 258 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:27,140 he's in a state when he is staring at everything 259 00:16:27,140 --> 00:16:29,380 and imagining everything, so he couldn't be like 260 00:16:29,460 --> 00:16:32,120 But not necessarily; not all clouds move slowly, 261 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,180 but that could be part of it. Sometimes they move 262 00:16:34,180 --> 00:16:37,840 slowly. So this deliberate movement could be a 263 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:42,340 possible thing here. There is deliberation in the 264 00:16:42,340 --> 00:16:45,360 process. There could be another reason. Maybe to 265 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:47,740 show that it's like something that is delicate and 266 00:16:47,740 --> 00:16:51,660 soft. The delicacy of it, okay, the softness. I 267 00:16:51,660 --> 00:16:53,020 heard somebody say something here. 268 00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:59,940 Okay, it's also free; it has this kind of free 269 00:16:59,940 --> 00:17:03,280 will. It's not connected with anything; it just 270 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:10,020 moves at free will. So there could be these 271 00:17:10,020 --> 00:17:15,040 reasons for a cloud, one cloud, three. I love how 272 00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:18,220 when you examine our friend here, Wordsworth, 273 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,500 we'll see the second poem in a bit. He likes to 274 00:17:22,500 --> 00:17:24,640 position himself. Remember I said, try to 275 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,660 understand where the poet is, what he or she is 276 00:17:27,660 --> 00:17:29,560 doing now, at the moment the poem is being 277 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:33,460 written, right? Is he asleep? Is he walking? Is he 278 00:17:33,460 --> 00:17:37,320 eating? Is he in a class? Is he what? In a train, 279 00:17:37,460 --> 00:17:42,210 traveling? The man here positions himself up 280 00:17:42,210 --> 00:17:44,950 above. We see in the second poem, he does almost the 281 00:17:44,950 --> 00:17:50,170 same. He distances himself from things. That 282 00:17:50,170 --> 00:17:56,310 floats on high o'er vales and hills. Now, "o'er" is 283 00:17:56,310 --> 00:18:00,710 over, but "over" makes it two syllables, or one 284 00:18:00,710 --> 00:18:03,770 syllable. And again, look at nature. This is 285 00:18:03,770 --> 00:18:07,490 something. "When all at once I saw a crowd." If you 286 00:18:07,490 --> 00:18:10,330 look at the first two lines, I think there is some 287 00:18:10,330 --> 00:18:11,930 kind of deliberation. Somebody said "deliberate" 288 00:18:11,930 --> 00:18:15,910 here. They're musical, but they are a little bit 289 00:18:15,910 --> 00:18:19,910 slow. "I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on 290 00:18:19,910 --> 00:18:24,270 high o'er vales and hills." This line goes even 291 00:18:24,270 --> 00:18:27,850 quicker. "When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of 292 00:18:27,850 --> 00:18:32,590 golden daffodils." "When all at once," look at this 293 00:18:32,590 --> 00:18:37,470 suddenness here. "I saw a crowd." And the crowd 294 00:18:37,470 --> 00:18:42,050 refers to a bunch of daffodils he saw. He 295 00:18:42,050 --> 00:18:47,290 describes them as a crowd, doing something called a 296 00:18:47,290 --> 00:18:49,850 personification. Because a crowd of people, we 297 00:18:49,850 --> 00:18:52,610 say. But if "crowd" is negative, a little bit 298 00:18:52,610 --> 00:18:54,970 negative, because "crowd," you don't like crowds, 299 00:18:55,050 --> 00:18:56,850 you're like, "It's crowded; I'm not going to go 300 00:18:56,850 --> 00:19:01,290 there." He quickly follows it with "a host," which is 301 00:19:01,290 --> 00:19:05,610 more welcoming and more inviting. If you are a 302 00:19:05,610 --> 00:19:10,090 guest, the guy taking care of you is the host. And 303 00:19:10,090 --> 00:19:13,090 when you are a guest, somebody's guest, you just 304 00:19:13,090 --> 00:19:17,490 stay there, you enjoy food, you enjoy drinks, you 305 00:19:17,490 --> 00:19:22,290 enjoy, just relax, right? But it's the host that 306 00:19:22,290 --> 00:19:25,290 works hard to please you, to make you comfortable. 307 00:19:26,430 --> 00:19:29,030 I'm not sure what he's doing here, but is he 308 00:19:29,030 --> 00:19:31,730 suggesting that the closer you get, the more 309 00:19:31,730 --> 00:19:35,090 beautiful the scene becomes, the more involved you 310 00:19:35,090 --> 00:19:37,930 are, the more inviting and appealing it is, 311 00:19:37,930 --> 00:19:41,580 because it sounded like a crowd, and then they 312 00:19:41,580 --> 00:19:47,720 turn out to be a host, which also means a group of 313 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:51,060 golden daffodils. Now, the daffodils are golden. 314 00:19:51,140 --> 00:19:53,780 Why would you say "golden" if they are already 315 00:19:53,780 --> 00:19:56,060 there? So there could be some kind of significance 316 00:19:56,060 --> 00:19:59,440 for this color, this shiny color. Some people would 317 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,120 suggest that "gold," they're precious; they're gold. 318 00:20:03,140 --> 00:20:05,120 Referring to the color, but referring to their 319 00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:10,820 significance. "Where? Beneath the lake, beside the 320 00:20:10,820 --> 00:20:14,320 lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in 321 00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,120 the breeze." This is again more for the 322 00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:20,080 personification. They are fluttering like birds, 323 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,520 but also they are dancing like human beings. 324 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,120 That's a beautiful opening to a poem, very 325 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:33,480 ecstatic, very appealing. I'm not sure if this is 326 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,800 soothing to you, but he's inviting you to some, in 327 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:41,060 a way, to reconsider natural scenes, natural 328 00:20:41,060 --> 00:20:45,780 experiences. I hope you never see daffodils the 329 00:20:45,780 --> 00:20:50,380 same after this poem, or roses, or cats, or birds, 330 00:20:50,620 --> 00:20:55,640 or clouds. Now, I'm not sure what words you find 331 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,620 difficult here. "Fluttering," we already mentioned 332 00:20:58,620 --> 00:21:04,000 this before. Vale, vale, vale, vale, valley. 333 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:09,480 "Fluttering," you know, "breeze," "the sweet morning." 334 00:21:12,500 --> 00:21:15,560 What else? I don't think there are difficult words 335 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:17,840 here. Even the words you're not familiar with, you 336 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:22,380 still can guess. If you go to the rhyme scheme, 337 00:21:24,730 --> 00:21:29,150 Please. Thank you. Go. A, B, 338 00:21:29,930 --> 00:21:35,750 A, B. Are you sure? Yes. Yes. C, C. Are you sure? 339 00:21:35,910 --> 00:21:39,310 Yes. The letters are different. We have to count 340 00:21:39,310 --> 00:21:42,730 the sound. It's the sound that we care about. 341 00:21:43,090 --> 00:21:46,870 Perfect or? Perfect. Perfect. If you count, just 342 00:21:46,870 --> 00:21:48,670 to save you some time, if you count the syllables, 343 00:21:49,530 --> 00:21:53,990 each line has eight syllables, making four feet, 344 00:21:54,150 --> 00:21:56,110 mostly iambic tetrameter. 345 00:21:58,610 --> 00:22:01,430 You'll find that this time we're not going to find 346 00:22:01,430 --> 00:22:05,930 many poems going for the five-foot iambic 347 00:22:05,930 --> 00:22:06,570 pentameter. 348 00:22:10,090 --> 00:22:12,810 And then the second syllable goes for continuous 349 00:22:12,810 --> 00:22:19,070 as the stars that shine. Again, another simile: as 350 00:22:19,070 --> 00:22:22,630 the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way, 351 00:22:22,990 --> 00:22:26,690 they referring to? And look at this; this is by 352 00:22:26,690 --> 00:22:31,130 the way, this is now a modifying phrase. 353 00:22:33,390 --> 00:22:38,610 The sentence is originally, "because they are 354 00:22:38,610 --> 00:22:41,470 continuous, they stretched," or "they were 355 00:22:41,470 --> 00:22:46,500 continuous; they stretched." This is one of them is 356 00:22:46,500 --> 00:22:50,480 reduced. "Continuous as the stars that shine and 357 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,860 twinkle on the Milky Way, they stretched in a never- 358 00:22:53,860 --> 00:22:58,160 ending line." Grammatically, it's a never-ending 359 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,500 line because "line" is one. So there is, again, 360 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,920 because many people still say there's no such 361 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,340 thing as spontaneous overflow of powerful 362 00:23:07,340 --> 00:23:11,090 emotions; there's always a conscious attempt, a 363 00:23:11,330 --> 00:23:15,650 deliberate attempt to write poetry. So if this is 364 00:23:15,650 --> 00:23:17,650 a poem with a perfect rhyme scheme and a perfect, 365 00:23:17,930 --> 00:23:21,690 you know, same number of syllables, yes, great 366 00:23:21,690 --> 00:23:24,750 poets don't stop and count; they feel the beat, 367 00:23:24,850 --> 00:23:28,940 they feel the rhythm. But here, he's deleting the 368 00:23:28,940 --> 00:23:33,080 "أ" just to make it fit the eight syllables, the 369 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:37,340 four feet. "Along the margin of a bay, ten thousand 370 00:23:37,340 --> 00:23:39,420 I saw at once." Look at this. Again, 371 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:43,460 grammatically, this is called fronting. Fronting, 372 00:23:44,060 --> 00:23:47,120 when you bring something in front. تقديم in 373 00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:52,700 Arabic. It should be "I saw ten thousand" subject 374 00:23:52,700 --> 00:23:58,060 verb at a glance. But why is he doing this? Why 375 00:23:58,060 --> 00:24:01,520 is he starting with "ten thousand" and then delaying 376 00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:05,860 the subject? The door, the eye? Because the scene 377 00:24:05,860 --> 00:24:09,820 is more important 378 00:24:09,820 --> 00:24:12,200 than the person himself. What kind of scene do we 379 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,680 have here? The daffodils. Very good. So the 380 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,740 daffodils, the scene, thank you, nature is more 381 00:24:17,740 --> 00:24:18,840 significant than he is. 382 00:24:21,740 --> 00:24:23,660 He's bringing nature before, and of course we 383 00:24:23,660 --> 00:24:26,320 don't, how did he know that this is 10,000 384 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,160 daffodils? 385 00:24:30,140 --> 00:24:34,360 Just, it's again, this is possible; it is possible 386 00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:36,660 that this is an exaggeration, but you could see in 387 00:24:36,660 --> 00:24:41,160 fields, you could see 10,000 roses or flowers in 388 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,280 a particular natural scene. 389 00:24:46,530 --> 00:24:49,410 If you, I'm sure you've seen many pictures online, 390 00:24:49,910 --> 00:24:52,970 you will find sometimes actually none in, you look 391 00:24:52,970 --> 00:24:55,590 to the horizon; everywhere you'll be surrounded 392 00:24:55,590 --> 00:25:00,210 with, but yeah, it could be, could be he's just 393 00:25:00,210 --> 00:25:05,300 creating this perfect ecstatic image. "Ten thousand I saw 394 00:25:05,300 --> 00:25:08,320 at a glance," again extending the personification 395 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:11,920 here, the metaphor, "tossing their heads, like 396 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:16,020 moving their heads in a sprightly dance." They're 397 00:25:16,020 --> 00:25:18,420 still dancing. They're dancing here; they're 398 00:25:18,420 --> 00:25:20,820 dancing in the second stanza; in the second 399 00:25:20,820 --> 00:25:24,760 stanza. Dancing and dancing. They're happy; they 400 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:29,000 inspire joy, inspire happiness, beauty. If you look 401 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:34,400 at, again, same eight, eight, eight; four feet each. The 402 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,200 rhyme scheme is, remember you could continue with 403 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,820 the letters. But my advice is when you begin a new 404 00:25:39,820 --> 00:25:43,520 stanza, go back to the alphabet to do this. 405 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:49,240 Please, A, B, A, B, 406 00:25:51,650 --> 00:25:55,050 C and D, also perfect rhyme. So it's the same, A, 407 00:25:55,150 --> 00:25:59,830 B, A, B, C, C, A, B, A, B, C, C, creating this 408 00:25:59,830 --> 00:26:06,830 perfect world, world, natural element. And then, 409 00:26:07,370 --> 00:26:15,090 stanza three, which I love very much. 41 445 00:28:42,470 --> 00:28:50,010 but to be gay in such joking company. I gazed. And 446 00:28:50,010 --> 00:28:54,070 gaze. He could have said, I gazed a lot. Right? We 447 00:28:54,070 --> 00:28:58,350 do this. I gazed a lot. And that's it. I gazed. 448 00:28:58,610 --> 00:29:04,070 This is how he reacts. He just stands there. Once 449 00:29:04,070 --> 00:29:07,350 he was suggesting this beautiful thing, submissive 450 00:29:07,350 --> 00:29:12,650 to nature. You know? Like how the cloud is 451 00:29:12,650 --> 00:29:15,510 submissive to nature, to the wind blowing it here 452 00:29:15,510 --> 00:29:18,860 and there at free will. Because it doesn't control 453 00:29:18,860 --> 00:29:21,560 it. He is exactly like this. He's just standing 454 00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:24,880 there absorbing. You know, absorbing like a sponge? 455 00:29:25,100 --> 00:29:28,000 It absorbs water. He's trying to absorb this 456 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:33,860 beauty, this never-ending beauty. I gaze and gaze. 457 00:29:33,900 --> 00:29:36,440 Look at how he's emphasizing feelings and emotions 458 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:38,940 over thinking. 459 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:44,760 But little thought. Not never. Same thing, two 460 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:47,180 syllables. But little thought. 461 00:29:49,730 --> 00:29:52,790 This is unlike the Age of Reason, the Augustan 462 00:29:52,790 --> 00:29:57,050 Age, where thinking and logic are more important 463 00:29:57,050 --> 00:30:01,630 than feelings and emotions. I gazed, I just kept 464 00:30:01,630 --> 00:30:04,570 looking and looking. And I found this very 465 00:30:04,570 --> 00:30:06,590 beautiful, one of the most fascinating lines. 466 00:30:06,950 --> 00:30:09,030 Because nowadays what we would be doing is just 467 00:30:09,030 --> 00:30:11,290 again, take our mobile phones and just snap 468 00:30:11,290 --> 00:30:15,190 pictures just to show off on social media. You 469 00:30:15,190 --> 00:30:20,450 care more about the picture than just enjoying the 470 00:30:20,450 --> 00:30:24,770 scene. Submitting yourself to the scene. What 471 00:30:24,770 --> 00:30:27,270 wealth the show to me had brought. There's wealth 472 00:30:27,270 --> 00:30:30,390 here. This is not a businessman looking, wow, I'm 473 00:30:30,390 --> 00:30:34,050 going to make a lot of money because he said gold 474 00:30:34,050 --> 00:30:38,570 before. So we'll come back after a very, very 475 00:30:38,570 --> 00:30:42,130 short break. So I'm saying here that there's 476 00:30:42,130 --> 00:30:44,250 wealth here, but that's not the financial 477 00:30:44,250 --> 00:30:47,790 materialistic wealth. This is the spiritual, 478 00:30:48,210 --> 00:30:52,470 natural kind of wealth that the romantics look 479 00:30:52,470 --> 00:30:57,490 forward to. Now, I find this very interesting as a 480 00:30:57,490 --> 00:30:59,570 stanza. I think this is the core of the whole 481 00:30:59,570 --> 00:30:59,850 poem. 482 00:31:02,660 --> 00:31:05,480 If we start with the rhyme scheme, can somebody 483 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:13,920 help me with the rhyme scheme, please? A, B, A, C, 484 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:22,380 D, D, D. Possible? Possible? But do you have 485 00:31:22,380 --> 00:31:27,320 another suggestion, somebody? Please? Say again? 486 00:31:27,940 --> 00:31:35,230 Okay, begin again. A, B, A, another B, but does 487 00:31:35,230 --> 00:31:41,310 "company" and "glee" rhyme? This is "glee" and this is 488 00:31:41,310 --> 00:31:41,830 "company". 489 00:31:44,870 --> 00:31:50,210 Long, short. Okay, so we go for an imperfect rhyme 490 00:31:50,210 --> 00:31:51,950 here, although I find this possible. 491 00:31:55,630 --> 00:31:58,830 And the fact that we differ here, that the first 492 00:31:58,830 --> 00:32:01,310 two sentences were beautiful and perfect. We're 493 00:32:01,310 --> 00:32:03,410 fine with that. But all of a sudden there's 494 00:32:03,410 --> 00:32:05,510 something, there's something that doesn't add up, 495 00:32:05,610 --> 00:32:07,210 something that is imperfect, something that is 496 00:32:07,210 --> 00:32:10,050 making us disagree. The first two sentences made 497 00:32:10,050 --> 00:32:15,410 all of us like, you know, nodding. But here, they, 498 00:32:15,650 --> 00:32:21,800 again, A, B, A, B, Nobody does this, the A, the S, 499 00:32:21,940 --> 00:32:25,040 the B small thing, but I like to do it to indicate 500 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,200 an imperfect rhyme. And then another C, another 501 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:33,480 C. If we just do the last one and come back to 502 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:37,620 this, it's going to also be A, B. 503 00:32:40,180 --> 00:32:44,260 Perfect? So the only stanza with an imperfection 504 00:32:44,260 --> 00:32:47,120 is stanza number three. That's number one. I was 505 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,460 counting the syllables the other day and I 506 00:32:49,460 --> 00:32:55,300 realized the only line that has an 507 00:32:55,300 --> 00:32:56,960 extra syllable was this one. 508 00:32:59,540 --> 00:33:04,840 Is it this one? One, two, three, four, five, six, 509 00:33:05,220 --> 00:33:07,800 seven, eight. No, which one? Which one was that? 510 00:33:09,660 --> 00:33:11,840 Not this one. I think this one is perfect. Where's 511 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:16,290 the eraser? This one is also eight syllables. I must 512 00:33:16,290 --> 00:33:21,090 have mixed this up with another one. Okay. The 513 00:33:21,090 --> 00:33:25,690 thing I noticed, if you look at this, is that the 514 00:33:25,690 --> 00:33:27,670 poet here, remember this is a first, if this is a 515 00:33:27,670 --> 00:33:30,990 story, this is a first-person narrator. I 516 00:33:30,990 --> 00:33:36,530 wondered, saw I at once, I gazed and gazed. And 517 00:33:36,530 --> 00:33:42,730 then all of a sudden, he shifts. He shifts from I 518 00:33:42,730 --> 00:33:50,770 to He or she, a poet. A poet could not but be gay. 519 00:33:50,990 --> 00:33:59,230 He doesn't say I was nothing but gay. Why didn't 520 00:33:59,230 --> 00:34:03,750 he say I was gay, I was happy? Definitely he 521 00:34:03,750 --> 00:34:08,910 didn't care about coming out and people saying 522 00:34:08,910 --> 00:34:12,920 he's gay because it meant happy here. A poet could 523 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:16,840 not but be gay. Poets should be happy, would be 524 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,580 happy. Can be nothing but happy when they come 525 00:34:20,580 --> 00:34:24,180 face to face with this fascinating scene here. A 526 00:34:24,180 --> 00:34:26,760 poet could not but be gay in such joking 527 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:30,500 company. And there is another indication here. I 528 00:34:30,500 --> 00:34:33,960 gazed and gazed. But little thought. The binary, 529 00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,200 the opposites. So I gazed, some would be 530 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,860 thinking. I wandered lonely, I gazed and some 531 00:34:41,860 --> 00:34:47,780 might just be happy. What wealth does he show? He 532 00:34:47,780 --> 00:34:53,470 didn't care about even this kind of wealth. In 533 00:34:53,470 --> 00:34:56,730 other words, he didn't react instantly to the 534 00:34:56,730 --> 00:35:00,170 poem, to the scene here. And we'll talk about two 535 00:35:00,170 --> 00:35:03,490 types of imagination here. There is primary 536 00:35:03,490 --> 00:35:06,030 imagination and there is secondary imagination. 537 00:35:06,170 --> 00:35:09,150 The primary imagination is the instant reaction to 538 00:35:09,150 --> 00:35:11,710 beauty, to nature. You see something beautiful, 539 00:35:11,790 --> 00:35:14,270 you say, wow, and that's it. Or you take a picture 540 00:35:14,270 --> 00:35:18,070 and you just go on. But for the romantics, they 541 00:35:18,070 --> 00:35:22,750 like to absorb, to put it there in their heart and 542 00:35:22,750 --> 00:35:27,650 mind and everything. And later on, two years 543 00:35:27,650 --> 00:35:30,030 later, a day later, one month later, two months 544 00:35:30,030 --> 00:35:32,250 later, they would be reflecting on this. 545 00:35:33,490 --> 00:35:34,970 Recalling, that's why the second part of the 546 00:35:34,970 --> 00:35:37,450 definition is as important. Recollected in 547 00:35:37,450 --> 00:35:41,870 tranquility. But why would the poet shift from, 548 00:35:42,170 --> 00:35:44,390 why is he distancing himself from this experience? 549 00:35:45,770 --> 00:35:50,060 He's not saying, I was happy, right? He's saying a 550 00:35:50,060 --> 00:35:58,500 poet could not but be gay. Yeah, please. Thank you 551 00:35:58,500 --> 00:36:01,660 very much. This could suggest that not only words 552 00:36:01,660 --> 00:36:04,980 worth, but also all poets. That's very good. 553 00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:10,420 That's possible. More. Please. It's also maybe 554 00:36:10,420 --> 00:36:14,760 an attack or talking about the previous poet. Not 555 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:18,420 the, not the, the neo-classical maybe, or the poet 556 00:36:18,420 --> 00:36:22,980 that they prefer him. How's that? Because they 557 00:36:22,980 --> 00:36:27,640 maybe don't appreciate nature as, as he does. 558 00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,040 But, but he's saying the poet is happy. Could not 559 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,380 but be. Please. It might be an advice, or advice. 560 00:36:38,470 --> 00:36:40,830 So this is for all poets, but why poets in 561 00:36:40,830 --> 00:36:42,190 particular? Why not everybody? Remember the 562 00:36:42,190 --> 00:36:45,410 romantics believe that a poet is an ordinary man 563 00:36:45,410 --> 00:36:49,390 endowed with comprehensive sensibility. 564 00:36:53,590 --> 00:36:57,790 You're not a poet, but poets don't only write 565 00:36:57,790 --> 00:36:58,990 about happiness, right? 566 00:37:02,350 --> 00:37:05,130 Okay, yeah, like if nature doesn't inspire 567 00:37:05,130 --> 00:37:08,410 happiness and pleasure and beauty, you're not a 568 00:37:08,410 --> 00:37:10,530 poet or you're not a romantic poet. 569 00:37:25,980 --> 00:37:29,680 So when he says a poet, he means that a poet will 570 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,800 see this as being something much more than any normal 571 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,260 or ordinary person would see. And this would make 572 00:37:35,260 --> 00:37:37,740 him happy? That would make him happy. 573 00:37:40,910 --> 00:37:45,570 Okay. Thank you very much. Want somebody here? I 574 00:37:45,570 --> 00:37:49,070 think he's here distancing himself from this term 575 00:37:49,070 --> 00:37:52,370 of "the poet". Like he's putting himself above this 576 00:37:52,370 --> 00:37:55,570 word. He's considering himself more than just a 577 00:37:55,570 --> 00:37:58,570 poet. Because any other poet would just see the 578 00:37:58,570 --> 00:38:01,590 scenery and be happy and react momentarily to it. 579 00:38:01,650 --> 00:38:04,150 But he sees himself as something more than this. So 580 00:38:04,150 --> 00:38:06,390 he is in a way challenging the neo-classical 581 00:38:06,390 --> 00:38:10,980 people. What's wrong with this? What's wrong with 582 00:38:10,980 --> 00:38:11,720 being happy? 583 00:38:14,820 --> 00:38:17,620 Okay, that's good. Connecting this with the 584 00:38:17,620 --> 00:38:18,720 primary and secondary. 585 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:26,500 Some kind 586 00:38:26,500 --> 00:38:28,680 of discipline and that, you know, the idea of 587 00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,640 spontaneity could be challenged here. 588 00:38:40,690 --> 00:38:41,250 Okay, 589 00:38:44,570 --> 00:38:48,270 so you agree there with Rahaf that the ability to 590 00:38:48,270 --> 00:38:50,830 express this, although not all people can express, 591 00:38:50,950 --> 00:38:52,530 at least they can feel it inside. 592 00:38:57,770 --> 00:39:00,670 Not all poets, remember. Romantic poets. 593 00:39:20,860 --> 00:39:24,500 But what's wrong with being happy? Isn't that 594 00:39:24,500 --> 00:39:24,800 good? 595 00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:40,060 But clearly this poet is expressing himself or 596 00:39:40,060 --> 00:39:46,240 herself by being happy, by being gay. Okay, so 597 00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:50,420 you're taking happiness as just again some kind of 598 00:39:50,420 --> 00:39:54,320 an instant, momentary reaction to this, but for the 599 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,040 romantics, a primary reaction, for the romantics 600 00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:05,320 it's much more. Okay, sorry? He's beyond, he 601 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:07,940 doesn't find this... I think I agree with those who 602 00:40:07,940 --> 00:40:10,080 suggested that this could include some kind of 603 00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:12,820 parody, clearly when he said "but little thought," 604 00:40:12,820 --> 00:40:15,340 again he's putting himself as opposed to the other 605 00:40:15,340 --> 00:40:18,500 Augustan poets. "I'm different from those people," 606 00:40:18,500 --> 00:40:22,150 which is a poet... he's suggesting an ordinary poet, 607 00:40:22,450 --> 00:40:25,410 this is, yes, this emphasizes here "couldn't but," 608 00:40:26,010 --> 00:40:28,650 but it includes some negativity, the negative of "not" 609 00:40:28,650 --> 00:40:31,750 here. And the distance, the shift from the "I" to "he" 610 00:40:31,750 --> 00:40:34,770 or "she," the third-person pronoun, suggests that 611 00:40:34,770 --> 00:40:36,770 the poet is distancing himself from this 612 00:40:36,770 --> 00:40:40,210 momentarily artificial reaction to nature. He's 613 00:40:40,210 --> 00:40:45,170 saying an Augustan poet, an ordinary poet, would 614 00:40:45,170 --> 00:40:48,770 just be happy and that's it, bye bye. But I am 615 00:40:48,770 --> 00:40:51,470 different, I am not an ordinary poet, I'm a 616 00:40:51,470 --> 00:40:54,630 romantic poet. Remember the romantics did not call 617 00:40:54,630 --> 00:40:57,670 themselves romantic poets, later critics called 618 00:40:57,670 --> 00:41:01,230 them the romantics or romanticism. Because for him 619 00:41:01,230 --> 00:41:05,270 it's much more than just being happy, than just 620 00:41:05,270 --> 00:41:08,510 the instant reaction to nature. It's about, 621 00:41:08,590 --> 00:41:13,070 remember, absorbing, living the experience, making 622 00:41:13,070 --> 00:41:15,970 it overwhelm you, submitting yourself to this. 623 00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:18,860 Making it change your life radically altogether, 624 00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,940 as we're going to see in the second, in the last 625 00:41:21,940 --> 00:41:26,800 stanza, in stanza number four. So this, again, 626 00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:29,020 stanza in particular, has this imperfection, which 627 00:41:29,020 --> 00:41:31,000 creates tension, tells us, wait a minute, there's 628 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:37,580 something there, and then we find the shift from "I" 629 00:41:37,580 --> 00:41:39,980 to "he" or "she," and then the negative here, 630 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:42,260 indicating that there's something, a poet is 631 00:41:42,260 --> 00:41:46,020 telling us, calm down, wait a minute, pay 632 00:41:46,020 --> 00:41:48,060 attention, I'm doing something here. I'm raising a 633 00:41:48,060 --> 00:41:54,360 point that is deeper than probably other ideas. 634 00:41:54,660 --> 00:41:57,160 Some might read this and just keep going. But 635 00:41:57,160 --> 0 667 00:44:09,410 --> 00:44:12,410 Pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils. I 668 00:44:12,410 --> 00:44:14,790 love how he, at the beginning, personified nature 669 00:44:14,790 --> 00:44:19,150 and now he's objectifying himself. He's not 670 00:44:19,150 --> 00:44:21,210 uniting with nature. He's submitting himself to 671 00:44:21,210 --> 00:44:23,930 nature. He's allowing nature to control him. He's 672 00:44:23,930 --> 00:44:28,930 becoming part of nature, Mother Nature. I return 673 00:44:28,930 --> 00:44:32,290 to nature as a romantic feature. 674 00:44:33,690 --> 00:44:36,170 So the shift from the past simple tense to the 675 00:44:36,170 --> 00:44:39,960 present simple tense is a very interesting thing 676 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,240 because he is reliving. This is the secondary 677 00:44:44,240 --> 00:44:46,980 imagination we talk about. Later on, I'm not sure 678 00:44:46,980 --> 00:44:49,740 how long after the original experience he's 679 00:44:49,740 --> 00:44:52,440 writing this, but he's using the present 680 00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,480 simple tense to express that this happens to him all 681 00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:56,640 the time. Every time he's in a vacant or pensive 682 00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:00,300 mood, what does he do? He recollects, he recalls, 683 00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:03,580 he remembers that experience. And every time he 684 00:45:03,580 --> 00:45:05,820 does so, this is again, remember, the baby-like 685 00:45:05,820 --> 00:45:09,380 experience. Experiencing it every time, 686 00:45:10,180 --> 00:45:12,780 everything as if it's the first time you've ever 687 00:45:12,780 --> 00:45:15,740 seen this. Reliving it again and again and again. 688 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:19,300 Every time being awestruck by this. This sense of 689 00:45:19,300 --> 00:45:22,800 awe. Sense of wonder. Everything is a miracle. 690 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:28,210 Everything is a blessing. So this present 691 00:45:28,210 --> 00:45:32,070 continuous tense gives it continuity, but also it 692 00:45:32,070 --> 00:45:35,230 indicates how the poet is reliving this experience 693 00:45:35,230 --> 00:45:39,450 now. One last thing I find interesting about this 694 00:45:39,450 --> 00:45:44,490 poem is the last couplet, if you want to call it a 695 00:45:44,490 --> 00:45:46,450 couplet. I don't like to call it a couplet here, 696 00:45:46,530 --> 00:45:56,450 but okay. The last line: If you do the scansion, 697 00:45:56,510 --> 00:46:00,650 if you scan the meter here, it should be like this: 698 00:46:00,650 --> 00:46:09,350 and it says, "with the daffodils." 699 00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,020 Okay, so weak, strong, stressed, unstressed, 700 00:46:25,220 --> 00:46:28,480 stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, and 701 00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:34,120 then stressed. But this way, and you should be 702 00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:38,800 reading it, "and dances with the daffodils." And 703 00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,960 then, "my heart with pleasure fills and dances with 704 00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,540 the daffodils," without stress on "with." And then my 705 00:46:45,540 --> 00:46:48,460 heart with pleasure fills and dances with the 706 00:46:48,460 --> 00:46:54,710 daffodils. Which is okay, again. But I think this 707 00:46:54,710 --> 00:47:00,050 should be going back because "with" is a preposition; 708 00:47:00,050 --> 00:47:03,330 remember determiners, articles, prepositions, even 709 00:47:03,330 --> 00:47:07,410 auxiliaries are unstressed generally because it's 710 00:47:07,410 --> 00:47:10,570 something you add to the syllable, to the word, to 711 00:47:10,570 --> 00:47:12,650 the main syllable, so unstressed; and then "with" 712 00:47:12,650 --> 00:47:17,490 unstressed, with two weak syllables here, a weak 713 00:47:17,490 --> 00:47:21,900 thought, "and dances with the daffodils." But it 714 00:47:21,900 --> 00:47:26,540 should be read otherwise, with "with" being stressed. And 715 00:47:26,540 --> 00:47:31,200 I find this beautiful and again deliberate, with a 716 00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:33,580 spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions stirred 717 00:47:33,580 --> 00:47:37,740 word for word. In this sense, we emphasize the 718 00:47:37,740 --> 00:47:42,900 idea of "withness" with nature. And then my heart 719 00:47:42,900 --> 00:47:46,080 with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils. 720 00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:52,770 Emphasizing this "with" is... not only gaining unity, like you 721 00:47:52,770 --> 00:47:55,350 could say unity, I accept that, but this is nature 722 00:47:55,350 --> 00:47:58,450 is overwhelming. He's submitting himself to 723 00:47:58,450 --> 00:48:02,010 nature. He's emphasizing the idea of "withness" with 724 00:48:02,010 --> 00:48:05,910 nature, unity with nature, going back, a return to 725 00:48:05,910 --> 00:48:10,210 nature, to Mother Nature, like I said. So I could 726 00:48:10,210 --> 00:48:13,670 ask you a question, for example, why should "with" 727 00:48:13,670 --> 00:48:16,450 in the last line, "with the daffodils," be stressed? 728 00:48:17,090 --> 00:48:22,020 Please, don't say "to emphasize." "To emphasize" is 729 00:48:22,020 --> 00:48:25,700 not the answer. That's why I'd be asking you this 730 00:48:25,700 --> 00:48:30,100 question, why is he emphasizing "with"? So the 731 00:48:30,100 --> 00:48:32,740 emphasis here is to indicate this unity, this 732 00:48:32,740 --> 00:48:34,960 total submission to nature. 733 00:48:38,140 --> 00:48:43,520 What a beautiful poem! A critic says, many critics 734 00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:47,600 say, this man was the poet who taught us how to 735 00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:51,500 remember. Because this is about remembering 736 00:48:51,500 --> 00:48:52,380 things. 737 00:48:56,260 --> 00:49:00,220 Now, you could see all the features of Romanticism 738 00:49:00,220 --> 00:49:02,620 here. Maybe I forgot something. There's a return 739 00:49:02,620 --> 00:49:04,020 to nature, imagination, 740 00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:10,000 individuality, simplicity of language, anti- 741 00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:14,220 mainstream, rejection of artistic conventions, and 742 00:49:14,220 --> 00:49:17,160 the form is the content; how in the third stanza 743 00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:20,700 when he wanted to make a point, he just created 744 00:49:20,700 --> 00:49:23,240 this tension and conflict; memory, feelings, and 745 00:49:23,240 --> 00:49:28,380 emotions as opposed to reason. There are questions 746 00:49:28,380 --> 00:49:30,840 here; I'll be posting one of them online so we can 747 00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:31,920 continue the discussion. 748 00:49:36,330 --> 00:49:37,690 Probably you mentioned some of them. 749 00:49:41,110 --> 00:49:48,010 Look at this, number five. In real life, by the 750 00:49:48,010 --> 00:49:52,210 way, it was Dorothy who had this entry, this 751 00:49:52,210 --> 00:49:56,330 experience in her diaries. She's totally not 752 00:49:56,330 --> 00:50:00,990 there. So I'm saying here that what is, why is 753 00:50:00,990 --> 00:50:03,910 she—should be "why"—why is she erased from the 754 00:50:03,910 --> 00:50:07,090 poem? We can continue this discussion online. Is 755 00:50:07,090 --> 00:50:10,210 she erased because he hates her, because he's anti- 756 00:50:10,210 --> 00:50:15,750 feminist, because women are not good enough? Or 757 00:50:15,750 --> 00:50:20,010 is this more to do with the fact that this is a 758 00:50:20,010 --> 00:50:24,910 romantic poem and individuality? Think about this. 759 00:50:25,750 --> 00:50:28,090 But the last question is more important to me. 760 00:50:28,350 --> 00:50:30,630 It's not showing here; I have to show it to you 761 00:50:30,630 --> 00:50:34,350 because it's important. I love this question. 762 00:50:38,140 --> 00:50:41,460 The question says—I'm quoting somebody. 763 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:49,140 It says, "a trivial subject matter," okay? The 764 00:50:49,140 --> 00:50:52,940 question says, "a trivial subject matter, as Anne 765 00:50:52,940 --> 00:50:58,780 Seward says or thought a daffodil to be, does not 766 00:50:58,780 --> 00:51:04,140 deserve the ecstatic diction of 'vacant,' 'pensive,' 767 00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:07,880 and 'bliss.' Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is 768 00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,900 just a daffodil, a bunch of daffodils. You don't 769 00:51:10,900 --> 00:51:18,000 write this fascinating poem to react to just a 770 00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:23,600 bunch of daffodils. That's too much. You use this 771 00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:28,260 language and this beautiful reaction, what, to 772 00:51:28,260 --> 00:51:33,050 write about the queen, about more significant 773 00:51:33,050 --> 00:51:36,230 issues. How would you react? How would you reply 774 00:51:36,230 --> 00:51:39,750 to this critic? Clearly, she's trashing the 775 00:51:39,750 --> 00:51:43,850 Romantics. Clearly, she is not happy with what the 776 00:51:43,850 --> 00:51:46,870 Romantics are doing. This will be our question to 777 00:51:46,870 --> 00:51:49,910 discuss online. Would you agree that, yes, this is a 778 00:51:49,910 --> 00:51:53,930 trivial matter? You're causing us a headache with 779 00:51:53,930 --> 00:51:57,830 this "just daffodil," "just a rose." Why are people 780 00:51:57,830 --> 00:52:03,150 reacting to the poem this way? Now, in the 781 00:52:03,150 --> 00:52:05,630 remaining time, we need to study this again, a 782 00:52:05,630 --> 00:52:08,370 poem by William Wordsworth. I'm sure I'm shifting 783 00:52:08,370 --> 00:52:08,850 quickly. 784 00:52:11,430 --> 00:52:14,630 "Upon Westminster Bridge." If you know London, 785 00:52:15,290 --> 00:52:20,290 Westminster Bridge is a famous, famous bridge in 786 00:52:20,290 --> 00:52:22,250 London, probably the most famous bridge in London, 787 00:52:22,430 --> 00:52:22,670 Westminster. 788 00:52:28,230 --> 00:52:31,370 Remember, this is a poet of nature. What on earth 789 00:52:31,370 --> 00:52:38,850 is he doing in London? If you reject London and 790 00:52:38,850 --> 00:52:42,770 its corruption and its society, why are you there? 791 00:52:44,270 --> 00:52:46,670 And again, let's examine where he positions 792 00:52:46,670 --> 00:52:50,770 himself in time and in place. Please read the poem 793 00:52:50,770 --> 00:52:54,830 very quickly. "Earth hath not anything to show more fair: 794 00:52:55,370 --> 00:52:59,020 Dull would he be of soul who could pass by 795 00:52:59,020 --> 00:53:04,040 A sight so touching in its majesty: This 796 00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:08,520 City now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of 797 00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:14,700 the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, 798 00:53:15,460 --> 00:53:20,980 Theaters, and temples lie open unto the fields, and to 799 00:53:20,980 --> 00:53:24,250 the sky; All bright and glittering in the 800 00:53:24,250 --> 00:53:27,690 smokeless air; Never did the sun more beautifully 801 00:53:27,690 --> 00:53:33,330 steep In his first splendor, valley, bronze 802 00:53:33,330 --> 00:53:38,670 overhead; Never saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! 803 00:53:39,450 --> 00:53:44,030 The river glideth at his own sweet will: Dear God! 804 00:53:44,450 --> 00:53:48,510 the very houses seem asleep; And all that mighty 805 00:53:48,510 --> 00:53:52,850 heart is lying still." Okay, beautiful reading. 806 00:53:53,470 --> 00:53:57,770 Thank you for this recitation. What do you notice 807 00:53:57,770 --> 00:54:00,410 the first thing before we talk about it? Please. 808 00:54:01,370 --> 00:54:05,790 Fourteen lines, so this is a sonnet. Ah, he's not 809 00:54:05,790 --> 00:54:10,500 only in London; he's also restricting himself. 810 00:54:10,700 --> 00:54:12,540 Where is the spontaneity, the spontaneous 811 00:54:12,540 --> 00:54:14,580 overflow? Remember I told you never believe 812 00:54:14,580 --> 00:54:18,300 critics and teachers. This is where you should 813 00:54:18,300 --> 00:54:20,380 listen to my advice, unless you don't want to 814 00:54:20,380 --> 00:54:23,740 listen to me as being a teacher. So this is a 14- 815 00:54:23,740 --> 00:54:29,920 line poem. It's a sonnet. Remember a sonnet is 816 00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:34,240 very rigid. It's like, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." 817 00:54:34,420 --> 00:54:38,250 So he's doing the same as the Romans. Thank you. You 818 00:54:38,250 --> 00:54:43,310 know, putting himself in this cage. So it's a 819 00:54:43,310 --> 00:54:45,830 sonnet, thank you very much. 14 lines, thank you 820 00:54:45,830 --> 00:54:50,010 very much. And what about the rhyme scheme? Could 821 00:54:50,010 --> 00:54:51,570 somebody do it very quickly, the rhyme scheme, 822 00:54:52,110 --> 00:54:56,550 please? A, B, B, 823 00:54:58,750 --> 00:55:06,650 A, leave her alone, yeah? A, B, 824 00:55:09,690 --> 00:55:15,830 B, A. Thank you. C, D, 825 00:55:18,750 --> 00:55:22,130 deep and 826 00:55:22,130 --> 00:55:35,570 deep. C, Well. D, Asleep. C. And then? That's a 827 00:55:35,570 --> 00:55:37,910 Petrarchan sonnet, not a Shakespearean sonnet. He 828 00:55:37,910 --> 00:55:42,970 doesn't like Shakespeare, clearly. Listen, the 829 00:55:42,970 --> 00:55:46,410 Romantics were called Romantics because 830 00:55:46,410 --> 00:55:48,750 Romanticism, the word "Romantic," was used to 831 00:55:48,750 --> 00:55:52,030 describe the Middle Ages, the medieval times, when 832 00:55:52,030 --> 00:55:56,510 nature was unregulated, uncivilized, uncontrolled 833 00:55:56,510 --> 00:56:01,110 by man. When nature was, when life was as simple 834 00:56:01,110 --> 00:56:06,680 as it could be in a way. So he's leaving, jumping over 835 00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:09,940 all the poets, the giants, the Romantic, the 836 00:56:09,940 --> 00:56:13,440 Neoclassicists, those poets, and he's going back 837 00:56:13,440 --> 00:56:18,580 to the origin, the origin of things. So I think 838 00:56:18,580 --> 00:56:21,800 this is a deliberate, again, attempt to distance 839 00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:25,220 himself from Shakespeare. I also think that it's a 840 00:56:25,220 --> 00:56:28,120 way of defining critics. Like, if you say, "I'm not 841 00:56:28,120 --> 00:56:30,480 a poet, I can write upon it just as well," I can, 842 00:56:30,560 --> 00:56:33,610 it could be, yeah. But also it says that the idea 843 00:56:33,610 --> 00:56:36,910 of spontaneity in poetry and writing is a myth. 844 00:56:37,830 --> 00:56:39,890 It's not always true. Sahya, you're right, you 845 00:56:39,890 --> 00:56:43,170 react instantly sometimes. I'm sure you started 846 00:56:43,170 --> 00:56:44,810 writing poetry, some of you. Sometimes you just 847 00:56:44,810 --> 00:56:47,590 get the inspiration and you write a poem and it's 848 00:56:47,590 --> 00:56:50,310 a beautiful poem. But sometimes you go back to 849 00:56:50,310 --> 00:56:53,370 check, you know, on language and diction and 850 00:56:53,370 --> 00:56:57,310 poetic language and everything. Some of you 851 00:56:57,310 --> 00:57:00,070 protested something here. I agree that this is... 852 00:57:00,650 --> 00:57:03,730 Okay, an imperfect rhyme. At the time when he's 853 00:57:03,730 --> 00:57:08,410 talking about the majesty, the "majesty" here, by 854 00:57:08,410 --> 00:57:10,490 and "majesty," there is an imperfect rhyme. Again, 855 00:57:10,570 --> 00:57:12,990 creating some kind of conflict. There is something 856 00:57:12,990 --> 00:57 889 00:59:28,190 --> 00:59:33,850 as an escapist, as 890 00:59:36,710 --> 00:59:41,290 He's doing nothing. For many people, he is running 891 00:59:41,290 --> 00:59:44,230 away, but for others, the act of writing poetry 892 00:59:44,230 --> 00:59:50,450 itself is how he avoids corruption. And for this, you 893 00:59:50,450 --> 00:59:52,230 will be surprised by the way, when the second 894 00:59:52,230 --> 00:59:56,850 generation was writing, Shelley, Keats, and Byron, 895 00:59:58,090 --> 01:00:00,130 this man was still alive because he lived like a 896 01:00:00,130 --> 01:00:03,700 hundred years. I'm not sure how old, but he was 897 01:00:03,700 --> 01:00:06,320 very old. But again, the second generation was 898 01:00:06,320 --> 01:00:11,180 taking control. And those people, Chile, you are 899 01:00:11,180 --> 01:00:14,240 many, they are few. He was clearly calling for 900 01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:17,100 revolution, for an actual revolution. And that's 901 01:00:17,100 --> 01:00:20,300 probably one reason why I love him the most, 902 01:00:20,780 --> 01:00:26,620 Chile. He was anti-authoritarian, anti-everything. 903 01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:33,540 So the poem here, Upon Westminster Bridge, shows 904 01:00:33,540 --> 01:00:35,700 how this Romantic poet would choose a 905 01:00:35,700 --> 01:00:37,820 particular timing and a particular place, again 906 01:00:37,820 --> 01:00:40,960 just to be himself. If you read the poem, I'll 907 01:00:40,960 --> 01:00:43,200 just do some commentary very quickly before we 908 01:00:43,200 --> 01:00:49,000 leave. "Earth has nothing," again this is starting 909 01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:53,530 with a stressed syllable. "Earth has nothing." Has 910 01:00:53,530 --> 01:00:59,450 not anything to show more fair. What? You just 911 01:00:59,450 --> 01:01:02,530 said the daffodils are the most beautiful thing. 912 01:01:04,990 --> 01:01:10,110 "Dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sight" 913 01:01:10,110 --> 01:01:13,130 "so touching in its majesty." 914 01:01:15,710 --> 01:01:17,970 You'd be dull if you don't react to the beauty 915 01:01:17,970 --> 01:01:24,300 here. "The city now doth," I love him using the word 916 01:01:24,300 --> 01:01:27,080 the old English/Middle English "doth" rather than 917 01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:31,340 "does," because again he's taking London 300 years 918 01:01:31,340 --> 01:01:34,580 before, 200 years before the Industrial 919 01:01:34,580 --> 01:01:36,160 Revolution and the factories and the corruption 920 01:01:37,380 --> 01:01:40,780 "Doth like a garment wear," and sadly this is only a 921 01:01:40,780 --> 01:01:43,880 garment; he knows this; it's only something the 922 01:01:43,880 --> 01:01:48,080 city will shed, will take off in minutes 923 01:01:48,080 --> 01:01:53,540 or in an hour or so; a garment like a dress; the 924 01:01:53,540 --> 01:01:59,260 beauty of the morning silent, bare; the silence here, 925 01:01:59,260 --> 01:02:01,160 the lack of people, the fact that there are no 926 01:02:01,160 --> 01:02:09,160 people; and there ships, towers, domes, theaters, 927 01:02:10,160 --> 01:02:13,660 temples, lie. And I think there could be a pun 928 01:02:13,660 --> 01:02:17,160 here. "Lie," they're just lying asleep out there, 929 01:02:17,540 --> 01:02:21,600 but the scene lies. It's deceptive. Now it's 930 01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:24,900 beautiful and romantic. In an hour or so, it's 931 01:02:24,900 --> 01:02:29,700 going to be hell breaking loose. "Upon 932 01:02:31,510 --> 01:02:35,530 open onto the fields and to the sky," how it's just 933 01:02:35,530 --> 01:02:38,670 one painting, one image, all bright and glittering 934 01:02:38,670 --> 01:02:42,730 in the smokeless air. I think this is where I mix 935 01:02:42,730 --> 01:02:45,810 things up. This is; every line is 10 syllables. 936 01:02:46,230 --> 01:02:49,390 It's basically Iambic Pentameter, but he does 937 01:02:49,390 --> 01:02:54,340 experiment more. He's just not as symmetrical as 938 01:02:54,340 --> 01:02:57,740 others. This is the only line that has an extra 939 01:02:57,740 --> 01:03:01,180 syllable unless you want to delete the schwa in "glittering." If you go for "glitter," it's 10; if you 940 01:03:01,180 --> 01:03:04,380 go for "glittering," it's just 8; it's 941 01:03:04,380 --> 01:03:07,760 already 11. "All bright and glittering in the 942 01:03:07,760 --> 01:03:11,660 smokeless air." Look at this: "smokeless." People is 943 01:03:11,660 --> 01:03:16,100 what else does he go for; list. How many instances do 944 01:03:16,100 --> 01:03:18,280 we have? Two or more? 945 01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:20,760 "Smokeless," just one. So, "glittering in the 946 01:03:24,020 --> 01:03:26,580 smokeless air," "never did sun." It should be "the sun" 947 01:03:26,580 --> 01:03:31,760 because there's just one sun, right? Or is he considering 948 01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:34,700 it the "son of nature," son of this? But he doesn't go 949 01:03:34,700 --> 01:03:37,520 for "the sun"; he's going to break... See my point 950 01:03:37,520 --> 01:03:40,670 here? Grammatically, it should be "the sun," which is 951 01:03:40,670 --> 01:03:44,050 going to add an extra syllable. But why did he 952 01:03:44,050 --> 01:03:46,130 add an extra syllable here? I didn't want to add 953 01:03:46,130 --> 01:03:49,790 one here because there is a message he's sending 954 01:03:49,790 --> 01:03:52,070 here. If you dig deeper, you'll find it. 955 01:03:52,070 --> 01:03:54,590 If you dig deeper, you'll find it. 956 01:04:00,160 --> 01:04:02,300 Possible, but I'm not sure whether, because 957 01:04:02,300 --> 01:04:04,840 sometimes you have different texts, I try to look 958 01:04:04,840 --> 01:04:07,280 for the original text; I couldn't find one, just 959 01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:10,440 to see whether it's "glittering" or "glitter," 960 01:04:10,500 --> 01:04:14,220 right? And yeah, you look at texts; if this is the 961 01:04:14,220 --> 01:04:16,140 original text, this is how he wrote it, why is 962 01:04:16,140 --> 01:04:22,020 this capitalized, but not this? Or is this where 963 01:04:22,020 --> 01:04:26,060 society and civilization control overwhelm and 964 01:04:26,060 --> 01:04:30,950 subdue nature, which is not good? "Never did sun" 965 01:04:30,950 --> 01:04:34,810 more beautifully steep in this first, in his first 966 01:04:34,810 --> 01:04:39,410 remember his—refers to the sun—his first splendor 967 01:04:39,410 --> 01:04:43,850 valley, rock, or hell, no, so I again, never two 968 01:04:43,850 --> 01:04:47,470 syllables, "no, so I again," the fronting here, "I never" 969 01:04:47,470 --> 01:04:53,470 saw; I never saw; never felt; there's a lot of 970 01:04:53,470 --> 01:04:57,560 negativity; we'll see this in a bit. "A calm so deep," 971 01:04:57,940 --> 01:05:00,120 a calm beauty, a silence. 972 01:05:03,590 --> 01:05:08,490 "The river glides," he goes again for, not "glides," 973 01:05:09,810 --> 01:05:13,810 going for old English because he's situating 974 01:05:13,810 --> 01:05:16,430 himself in a different place. Remember this is the 975 01:05:16,430 --> 01:05:19,950 relativity of time and issues of time and shapes 976 01:05:19,950 --> 01:05:22,370 of time Dr. Lyman mentioned before; you could use 977 01:05:22,370 --> 01:05:25,970 this as an example. "The river glides at his own 978 01:05:25,970 --> 01:05:27,150 sweet will." 979 01:05:30,520 --> 01:05:32,440 I don't think this is religious; "dear God," some 980 01:05:32,440 --> 01:05:34,400 people would take it as a religious thing. It's 981 01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:40,820 just, "dear God, the very houses seem asleep." This 982 01:05:40,820 --> 01:05:43,500 is another personification. People are asleep; 983 01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:50,020 everything is asleep. "And all that mighty heart is 984 01:05:50,020 --> 01:05:54,820 lying still." The mighty heart, London. Is he just 985 01:05:54,820 --> 01:05:57,760 referring to London as a whole? Or the factories? 986 01:05:58,040 --> 01:06:02,260 Or the machines? Remember this is momentarily; 987 01:06:02,500 --> 01:06:06,580 it's going to change. I find the imperfect rhyme, 988 01:06:06,960 --> 01:06:08,780 the extra syllable, and thank you; somebody said 989 01:06:08,780 --> 01:06:11,160 the repetition of "never," "never," and "not," 990 01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:15,120 "not." Things that create tension that tell us that 991 01:06:15,120 --> 01:06:18,460 this is not going to last forever. Because it's 992 01:06:18,460 --> 01:06:21,640 only, and he admits this; he's not deceiving us or 993 01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:25,480 himself. This is a garment; it's just a gown you 994 01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:31,380 put on at night. And soon it will be taken off and 995 01:06:31,380 --> 01:06:40,040 a garment of corruption, sins, pollution, smoke. 996 01:06:40,940 --> 01:06:46,660 Smoke will overwhelm, will take over. Such a 997 01:06:46,660 --> 01:06:48,800 beautiful poem. One of the most, again, 998 01:06:49,360 --> 01:06:52,920 interesting poems of all times. But again, he's 999 01:06:52,920 --> 01:06:55,360 not going for Shakespeare. He's jumping over 1000 01:06:55,360 --> 01:07:00,020 Shakespeare. That's the term: "frog leaping," or you 1001 01:07:00,020 --> 01:07:04,220 know, it's going back to Petrarch. I think the 1002 01:07:04,220 --> 01:07:07,520 word "garment" works entirely with the whole 1003 01:07:07,520 --> 01:07:11,460 time idea of "lie" and "lying." The garment? Possibly, 1004 01:07:11,540 --> 01:07:16,480 it's momentary. It's now this 1005 01:07:16,480 --> 01:07:19,600 beautiful and silent and bare, but in a moment 1006 01:07:19,600 --> 01:07:21,500 it's going to be different. 1007 01:07:24,160 --> 01:07:26,700 More? Please. 1008 01:07:36,530 --> 01:07:38,870 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but look at 1009 01:07:38,870 --> 01:07:42,390 what timing he chooses, what place he places 1010 01:07:42,390 --> 01:07:46,430 himself. That's a Romantic concept. If you look at 1011 01:07:46,430 --> 01:07:50,750 these questions, they are very interesting things 1012 01:07:50,750 --> 01:07:53,770 to look into in this poem. I'll stop here. If you 1013 01:07:53,770 --> 01:07:57,190 have questions, please stay behind.