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History of English Literature

Notes 16.8.2 The Influence of the Political Phase and the Military Phase

The political phase of the Revolution, which started with the fall of the Bastille, sent a wave of
thrill to every young heart in Europe. Wordsworth became crazy for joy, and along with him,
Southey and Coleridge caught the general contagion. All of them expressed themselves in pulsating
words. But such enthusiasm and rapture were not destined to continue for long. The Reign of
Terror and the emergence of Napoleon as an undisputed tyrant dashed the enthusiasm of romantic
poets to pieces. The beginning of the war between France and England completed their
disillusionment, and Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, who had started as wild radicals,
ended as well-domesticated Tories. The latter romantics dubbed them as renegades who had let
down the cause of the Revolution. Wordsworth, in particular, had to suffer much criticism down to
the days of Robert Browning who wrote a pejorative poem on him describing him as “the lost
leader.”

Wordsworth
As we have already said, Wordsworth’s theory and work as a poet were much influenced by the
teachings of Rousseau. It was under this powerful influence that he came out with his epoch-
making work (in collaboration with Coleridge), the Lyrical Ballads (1978), which, in the words of
Palgrave, “was a trumpet that heralded the dawn of a new era by making the prophecy that poetry,
an unlimited and unlimitable art of expressing man’s inner and deep-seated joys and sorrows,
would not be fettered by the narrow and rigid bonds of artificial conventions and make-believe
formalism.” The Lyrical Ballads led a revolt against the artificial sentiment and equally artificial
and mechanical poetic style of the eighteenth century, as also established he truth that poetry, if at
all it is to remain poetry, must express the feelings and joys and fears of common men and women
close to the soil, and interpret their day-to-day activities of life. Thus the sense of mystery which
led many persons to a remote past was believed by Wordsworth to be capable of satisfaction closer
at hand. Wordsworth found it-instead of the Middle Ages and Greek art-in the simplicities of
everyday life-an ordinary sunset, the fleecy clouds, a morning walk over the hills, a cottage girl,
the song of the nightingale and so forth. He turned for the subjects of his poetry to the life of the
unsophisticated village folk who lived away from the recognised centres of culture.
At the time of the Revolution (1789) Wordsworth was a young man of only nineteen. In The
Prelude he describes how thrilled he was by the occasion. He felt that Europe itself was thrilled
with joy, France standing at the top of golden hours, and human nature seeming born again. And
further:
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven.
He believed that in front of the Frenchmen
shone a glorious world,

Fresh as a banner bright unfurled
To music suddenly.
He visited the land of his dreams twice-in 1790 and 1791. But his youthful rapture came to an end
with the Reign of Terror and the emergence of Napoleon. This rude blow sent him reeling into the
arms of his first love-Nature. Thus Wordsworth passed through a mental and spiritual crisis, and
though he recovered himself finally yet the influence of the Revolution remained as vital
impression on his mind. Though he ultimately became a Tory yet he continues believing in the
dignity of man, and consequently, applying his poetic faculty to the commonest objects and the
lowest people. It is a noteworthy point that the best poetic work of Wordsworth was done during
the period of his revolutionary fervour.
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