The Feeling of Nostalgia in Wordsworth Poetry

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Poetic Nostalgia in Wordsworth Poetry
William Wordsworth is a poet from the era of romanticism when arts and literature narrowed at world view, and individual emotion experienced the freedom of expression in art with the extolment of the past. At that age, he came with his poetic nostalgia as a response to place and time, using characterization as his major device for incorporating nostalgic themes in his several poems. Reading his poetry, the reader can detect his association with the general or specific past, driving the emotions of pleasure or sadness as experienced by the poet. Wordsworth is drawn toward the emotions and feelings of nostalgia in his poetry, which can clearly be sensed while referring to his two of the most nostalgically rich poems, “Lucy Gray” and “We Are Seven.”
What is Poetic Nostalgia of William Wordsworth?
To comprehend the running theme of association with the past in Wordsworth’s poetry, it is important to grip the concept of poetic nostalgia. Most commonly, it is connected with positively recalling the past events in literature. These memories can be poignant while arousing deep images of past activities, characters, and experiences. The composition of a nostalgic verse catches its influence from the strength of the past moments and sentiments of the poet on recalling them. Writing this type of poetry implies channeling that stress in the poet’s mind in something sustainable like words, which can always remind the reader of the value of the past for human beings and how people can be happy or melancholic with the strong effect of the incidents or relationships from the past like victory, love, death or failure. Wordsworth’s poetry takes the reader into the past, moving his heart by the experiences of the poet, like the death of his son and daughter, which keeps him haunting throughout his poetry.
Poetic Nostalgia in Lucy Gray
Lucy Gray is one of the best examples of how Wordsworth paints the theme of poetic nostalgia in his poetry. In this poem, like many others, he uses characterization to integrate the feelings of melancholy deeply associated with his past and develops an already recognizable character in his poem ‘Lucy.’ In this poem, Wordsworth portrays her as a little, pretty and innocent child with fatherly affection, which clearly indicates his suffering on the loss of his daughter in the past. From the beginning of the poem, he refers to Lucy Gray as “the sweetest thing that ever grew…”, which makes the reader understand the fatherly emotions of the poet for his lost child because the following stanza throws curiosity about the fate of the girl, “But the sweetest face of Lucy Gray will never more be seen.” After this, the poet relates the story of Lucy Gray before her disappearance while hinting again and again to her innocence, like her playing with “powdery snow” and “footmarks small.” In other words, the poet’s nostalgia keeps the features and activities of his dead daughter alive in his brain after so many years, such ...