What to do for Thursday, January 15th:
Read one poem by William Wordsworth: “Tintern Abbey” (called “Lines” in the book: pp. 235-238). I suggest that you 1) read it slowly; 2) read it more than once; and 3) read it out loud. Then answer these questions below (free-written, messy answers are fine; it’s all about you connecting with the literature. I may collect these or I might just check you off at the start of the class.)
It’s a gorgeous poem, and one of my top five
favorites—in case anyone cares. In it, Wordsworth returns to a place of
tranquility in nature after having lived in London for five years. It’s a
place whose memory has helped him through the tough, city times. (Question:
What is your piece of nature that brings you peace—either in memory or as a
place you return to in order to restore yourself? Draw it, and include in it
some indication through color and shape your emotional connection to it.)
(Question: Can nature make you a nicer person?)
He also talks about how his experience in nature has
changed over the years: as a child he ran wildly through the forest, and as an
adult he’s more contemplative, more apt to move slowly and have his soul fed. Question:
How has your relationship to nature changed over the years, from childhood to
maturity?
He revisits the river with his younger sister, Dorothy,
whose childish enthusiasm for nature reminds him of his own enthusiasm. Question:
What have you observed little kids doing out in nature?
Question: So, what do you think of the poem?
Celebrate the language of this poem. Note your favorite lines and be ready to read them to us. What is it about those lines that moves you? And here’s a tougher question: What does he do to create emotion in his poetry—an energy, a spontaneity, an exuberance?
Any final overall things you want to write? Any specific things that deserve mentioning?
At some point go outside and let nature invade you. Then scream.
For Thursday, dress warmly enough to go outside. I think we need to walk on the running path to replicate our own “Tintern Abbey.”