ENG308Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Lyrical Ballads, Apotheosis
ENG308 Oct 12
Michael: A Pastoral Poem
-Wordsworth’s belief that nature and mind were related
-the lake district, which was disappearing, said something to him about the types of
minds who created this nature
-poem is a reflection on: should I choose my son, or should I choose my land?
-Michael concludes the second volume of the lyrical ballads
-what kind of pastoral is this?
-labour seems to be a central quality
-wordsworth does see labour as being enfranchising
-Michael is working to free the land—work as a creative, useful identity that defines
who he is and what he can give to his son
-creative labour almost like artistry
-notions of land:
-land is passed from father to son: patriarchal model
-the purpose of the son is to transmit the land through time: the land stays
with you as you pass it through first born sons
-continuing a way of life through subsequent sons
-the whole model is one where ultimately the task of the father is to give the
land inheritance to the son
-in this poem, Michael is in danger of losing both
-if you don’t have a son, you have no one to give land to, and if you don’t have
land, you have nothing to give your son
-this is a very sedentary, traditional model between people and the land
-land doesn’t move, and people don’t move
-talks about rootedness of people in place
-you are the land you stand on, and the land reflects who you are
-a tablet upon which they are written
-objects of memory in a thousand instances where they otherwise would have been
forgotten
-this way of life is almost gone, people who think like Michael are fading
-land as a form of memory
-this is against the contemporary idea of land as a commodity, something which can
be bought and sold
-story of land being taken away from people who live on it and work it through
contracts and treaties
-Michael is making a kind of indigenous claim, a native claim, which is set against
another kind of claim that says you own land through contracts and legal titles
-in Michael’s world, you can’t own the land unless you live and work on the land
-in the new model, there is no inherent connection between the land and the people
who own it
-Michael can’t deal with the idea of a stranger owning the land
-his whole life has been in one place, and everything is familiar to him, everything is
local
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Document Summary
The lake district, which was disappearing, said something to him about the types of minds who created this nature. Michael concludes the second volume of the lyrical ballads. Wordsworth"s belief that nature and mind were related. Michael is working to free the land work as a creative, useful identity that defines who he is and what he can give to his son. Notions of land: with you as you pass it through first born sons land inheritance to the son land, you have nothing to give your son. This is a very sedentary, traditional model between people and the land. If you don"t have a son, you have no one to give land to, and if you don"t have. Continuing a way of life through subsequent sons. The whole model is one where ultimately the task of the father is to give the. Land is passed from father to son: patriarchal model.
