Wordsworth-Larkin

Niuniu Zhu, Angus Ning, Henry Fagg, John Lo

Larkin Larkin Larkin
 * || **William Wordsworth** || **Similarities** || **Philip Larkin** ||
 * **Subject** || * Themes that appeared in later poetry include nature (sights and scenes of the Lake Country where he spent most of mature life), children, the poor & common people.
 * Some poems take a political turn
 * Most poems contain elements of nature, occasionally mixed with other subjects, such as politics, loss, death.
 * Often refers to religious elements and identities || Wordsworth
 * Themes that characterise early poetry include loss, death, endurance, seperation & abandonment.
 * Death-oriented/fatalism & human failings were recurring themes often written from perspective of an observer. || Often wrote about the irony found in the human condition. ||
 * **Style** || * Displayed high seriousness, but simple.
 * Often refers to God.
 * Highly detailed imagery
 * Tendency to personify and humanize nature
 * Traditional
 * Rhyme scheme ||  || * Early works shows influences of Eliot, Auden & Yeats. Mature identity emerged with the growing influence of Thomas Hardy.
 * Assumes highly pessimistic tone in virtually all works
 * Critical attitude
 * Compounds his cynical themes through straightforward language and other literary features that result in simple, precise, and extremely effective poems. ||
 * **Structure** || * Generally conventional structure (4-line stanzas)
 * Often writes Italian sonnets.
 * Used frequent and consistent rhyming schemes throughout all of his poems ||  || * Highly formalized; however, still flexible.
 * Extremely long poems
 * Adds and alters traditional poetry rules (e.g. rhyme scheme, rhyming words, number of lines/stanza) - represents his "rebellion" against conventional structures
 * All his poems seem to have a consistent, predictable structure (even though he may add in details that do not reflect traditional poetry conventions at that time) that usually tend to reflect the themes of the poem. ||
 * **Movement** || * English Romantic Movement ||  || "The Movement" as they called themselves during the post-war peroid in Britain ||
 * **Language** || * Often employs metaphors
 * Descriptive
 * Evokes personal feelings || Wordsworth
 * Uses simple diction
 * Known for use of informal language, and traditional word choice. || Used very straightforward, colloqial language. ||
 * **Distinctive features** || * Heavy uses of capitalization and consistent rhyming schemes ||  || * Use of enjambment & rhyme. ||
 * **Biographical details** || * Help launch English Romantic movement which disassociated from Enlightenment & industrialization.
 * Joint published "Lyrical Ballads" with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
 * As he grew older his poetry became less inspired and he began to take a new interest in Politics rather than Nature. || Wordsworth
 * Started writing during studies at Cambridge (college), published in The European Magazine.
 * Started writing when attending King Henry VII School 1930-1940(age 8-18), published in school magazine The Coventrian || * Rebellious through his movement; however, presented realistic (albeit pssimistic) views.
 * Reputation suffered after publication of letters involving right-wing opinions.
 * Lived through the Second World War and that greatly influenced his view of humanity and greatly influenced the themes of many of his poems. ||
 * **Time period**** || * Born: 1770
 * Died: 1850 ||  || * Born: 1922
 * Died: 1985 ||

Wordsworth was a card-carrying member of the English Romantic movement which disassociated itself from the Enlightenment and industrialization of its time whereas Larkin, while rebellious through his own Movement, presented his realistic (albeit pessimistic) views in formalized structure.

Both were never married. <== NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE!


 * NOTE*: I am horrendous at fomatting this thing. -Angus