Charles wrote: My unironic belief is that there is
much more than a hint of Wordsworth in Shade's poem.
"There was a time when meadow, grove and hill"
comes from Intimations of Immortality (which, imho, is a great poem.).
Yes, Charles, we find WW on and off in
PF.
Further links ( NB: the mention of Wye has already been
studied in our List and in Pinchon's ):
Composed a few miles
above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour.
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to
thee,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the
woods,
How often has my spirit turned to
thee!
And now, with gleams of
half-extinguished thought,
With many
recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a
sad
perplexity,
An internet source
informs that "Wordsworth's The Prelude is literally the autobiography of an
orphan. It records in its way the death of the poet's mother when Wordsworth
himself is almost eight, and that of his father when he is thirteen. It is
specified 'in its way' because, as many readers have noted, even though the poet
tells of his mental growth, oddly, the deaths of his parents are barely
mentioned at all...."
There is a hint of something similar when we
succintly learn from Shade's "autobiographical poem" ( as I read it being
described somewhere, perhaps by Kinbote?) that his ornithologist parents died
while he was still young.
The same source observed hints of oedipal dreams in
WW:
"The sublime in Nature is 'masculine', and
connected with the memory of the poet's father. The beautiful is 'feminine', and
connected with the mother. But the most significant thing about this matrix, it
is here maintained, has to do with Wordsworth's insisting in his poem that, with
regard to his 'fostering', he feels himself to have been 'A favored being'
(I.364). The poet speaks of himself in this light as 'a chosen son . . . I was a
freeman, in the purest sense / Was free, and to majestic ends was strong'
(III.82-90).
Here I saw a reference that interprets gender
like you did in a former posting, when you wrote:
The moon is the scholar (masculine, until the modern C20th liberation
of woman) gravely tethered by academic tenure to the earth, and only shining by
light reflected from the female sun, Das Ewig-weibliche, round which the earth,
and Life as we know it...
[ Modern views following Lacan also indicate that "there is no
Ewig-weibliche" for "A Woman" doesn't exist - and Man is only its
metaphor,they quickly add. This is a consequence from the conclusion that
"women are always plural or...serial."]
The lines I had in mind, actually, didn't
come from Tintern Abbey ( my first acquaintance with it came through a movie
with Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood with the title "Splendor in the
Grass" and I love these lines almost half a century later). As you
suggested, they are from WW's own autobiographical lines in "The
Prelude"
There was a time when whatsoe'er is
feigned
Of
airy palaces, and gardens
built
By Genii of
romance; or hath in
grave
Authentic
history been set forth of
/Rome,
80
Alcairo, Babylon,
or Persepolis;
Or
given upon report by pilgrim
friars,
Of golden
cities ten months' journey deep
I agree with your additional observation: " I do find The Prelude
prosaic. If one admires The Prelude one may well admire Shade's poem. It is not
a parody, but it is a pastiche. Edsel Ford's poem, or the little bit that has
been quoted, strikes me as very much a pastiche of The Prelude." Pastiche of pastiche, though,
add up to inspired bit of verse and poetry, no?
Jansy