Class Blog Digest for Week 3 by Amber and Jeff

Blog Digest - Week Three

Bill

Work: Michael and Tintern Abbey

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Why does the narrator find the poem “delightful”? How does this color the interpretation of the unexplained destruction of the Evening Star cottage in “Michael”? Who is the intended audience for “Tintern Abbey”? Why should Wordsworth address his sister Dorothy, if she isn’t able to benefit from his advice?

Yuliana

Work: Preface, Tables Turned, Exposulation and Reply, Tintern Abbey

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Wordsworth sees poetry as most fitted to address the familiar elements of the daily life of the everyday man rather than the esoteric concerns of the “Poet”. Nature as teacher and poetry as the language of learning.

Jane

Work: “Ecocriticism in British Romantic Studies”, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Are human cognitive abilities, reason and logic, part of the larger classification of human nature?   The idea of “Vindication as a critical response to the deep ecology philosophy ‘in which the ecospheric whole is understood as a contextual extension of the human self’”.

Dimitrious

Work: “Poems on the Naming of Places”, “Green to the Very Door? The Natural Wordsworth”,

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Culture and Nature, perception and imagination, “understanding or consciousness emerges from a dynamic relationship between language/mind on the one hand and nature on the other.”

Jeff

Work: “Poems on the Naming of Places”, “Ecocriticism in British Romantic Studies”,

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Environmental Commodification, Is naming a mark of connection or appropriation/control?

Johnny

Work: Preface to the Lyrical Ballads  

Thematic Concerns/Questions: The Image of Man and Nature, How does Wordsworth use/ discuss rationality, structure and methodology in the preface to The Lyrical Ballads? Does the Poet write as a duty? And, if so, how do we reconcile the process of writing as both “pleasurable” and “mechanical”?

Amber

Work: "We are Seven" and “Anecdote for Fathers”

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Grown-Ups and Children, How does our experiential knowledge influence or shape our perceptions of Nature?

Zully

Work: “Poems on the Naming of Places” and “Green to the Very Door? The Natural Wordsworth”   

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Wordsworth Naming Places, How do we reconcile attempts by Wordsworth to break away from “common life” with the modern day concerns of encroachment by humans? 

Ryan

Work: “Ecocriticism in British Romantic Studies” and The Blank Slate

Thematic Concerns/Questions: A Brief Analysis of the Ethical Problems Suggested by the Ideology of Deep Ecocriticism, Is it possible to separate human nature from our natural environment? Do humans, alone, determine the value of nature?  

Scott

Work: “Poems on the Naming of Places” and Tintern Abbey

Thematic Concerns/Questions: The Writing on the Rock: Graffitti in Wordsworth's Nature, Is it possible to name places in nature and not take possession or ownership over them? Is a natural space cluttered with masses of visitors capable of allowing the transcendence of an individual?

Alfred

Work: Tintern Abbey

Thematic Concerns/Questions: ’Tis Her Privilege, For Wordsworth, “Only by growing up in the country can each person arrive at a sense of place and a sense of purpose.” Given this idea, is it possible to connect with nature and ourselves even in our modern world of crowded hiking trails and camping grounds littered with RVs? Is “perpetual renewal,” in both body and spirit possible without solitude?     

Rosanna

Work: “Ecocriticism in British Romantic Studies,” “Lines Written in Early Spring”

Thematic Concerns/Questions: Lines Written in Early Spring, Is it possible to separate humans and nature? Is it possible for humans to encroach and manipulate nature, but still have the potential for a connection? But, would it be a connection or a simple mastery over nature?

Trends: Is it possible to name places and not gain control or mastery over nature? How are we to differentiate manipulation/ control from a connection/ interaction with nature? Can we separate humans from nature? Is it still possible, in the modern world, to connect with a commoditized and manipulated version of nature? How does nature influence our perceptions of others (e.g. children, loved ones, ourselves)?