A Study Of The Religious Attitudes In William Wordsworth's Poetry

Wordsworth is one of the greatest poets in the late 18th century and early 19th century. His collaboration of Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge, published in 1798, marked the beginning of the Romantic revival in England. Wordsworth's central work The Prelude is a long philosophical poem, recording the growth of the poet's mind. His poetry has profound thoughts on man, God, and the world. Wordsworth's religious attitudes and their presentation in poetry have long been the hot issue to which critics have paid great attention.However, difficulties lie in the nature of the poetry itself. Wordsworth never composes a poetry providing an overt account of religious motifs or doctrines; he generally avoids the use of religious diction or imagery in most of his works, especially in his early poetry; he strategically incorporates Christian motifs into other issues, leaving his beliefs implicitly expressed in the lines of his poetry. This ambiguity of religious language results in various interpretations of Wordsworth's philosophy and religion. Many critics have debated on the issue whether he is a religious poet. However, this thesis is not to focus on this issue. It argues that Wordsworth can incorporate or reconcile opposite qualities. It suggests that it be better to put aside the question of his skepticism and just to probe the ideas expressed in his poetry which would disclose the significant religious implications he wants to convey.Wordsworth grew up in the second half of the 18th century, which was still affected by the scientific revolution and adhered to the principles of the age of Reason. The age in which Wordsworth was living experienced the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. It was turbulent and everything was in dispute, so the influences of such historical background were inevitable to form into his religious attitudes. Wordsworth was open to various minds, such as John Locke, Jacques Rousseau, William Godwin, and at the same time he absorbed ideas after much meditation, incorporated influences from his predecessors and his contemporaries with modifications, and thus he formed his own individual philosophy and religion.Wordsworth's poetry is expressing two great themes—Nature and humanity. In his poetry of Nature, the poet takes a pantheist position. Wordsworth believes Nature itself to be divine, and explores his conviction that God is ever-present in the world. Wordsworth's Nature poetry also discloses the moral implications of divine Nature—it is the guardian of human heart and soul; direct communion with the Godhead in Nature has its moral effect; the love of Nature leads to the love of man. Wordsworth's poetry on human beings demonstrates his humanitarian tendency. The religions implications of his humanitarian poetry lie in—there is a happiness through human suffering; human beings need to change the heart radically, and reject completely contemporary assumptions and habits of thought in a corrupted, urbanized society; the existence of the figures such as the beggars, the waifs in Wordsworth's poetry represents other kinds of existence—the native and naked dignity of man, different from economic man in industrial society; and there are ways of living that allow the fuller development of the mind and heart—living in Nature.Christian dictions, imageries, and Christian associations are repeatedly used in Wordsworth's later poetry. It shows the poet's change of course towards religion. His religious belief in his later years reveals two tendencies, that is, his increasing Christian conventionality and, his preoccupation with death and the soul, which confirms once again his turn to conventionally orthodox religion.Probing Wordsworth's poetry, this thesis identifies significant aspects of Wordsworth's religious attitudes expressed in his poetry and points out that Wordsworth's religious belief is an evolving process, which strategically mixes tradition and innovation.