초록보기
This thesis attempts to examine how Wordsworth`s theory of imagination is represented in his poems, chiefly The Prelude and some other poems. Basically he treats objective nature as the creative element of poetry. He was very interested in nature description but he tried to describe the inner world of nature, not the outer beauty of nature. In the course of writing his poems he always has his eyes open to nature through his excellent imagination. His imagination is related to the correspondence between mind and nature. He contacts the inner world and external world in "Communicate with Nature". In the course of "Communicate with Nature" he always uses the memory, recollection, spots of time, and specific experiences of past time to help his mind recoiled in tranquility. The poet is eager to forge the marriage of nature and man, that is, the marriage between the inner world and the external world. Wordsworth took emotion seriously, while on the other hand, he rejected reason. This opposition between emotion and reason played a very important role in 19th Century Romantic poetry. Sometimes, when writing poems, objective nature knocks on the door and penetrates into the poet`s mind through imagination. Here, I could say this process of producing a poem is something like when drops of water change color when viewed through a prism. The poet picks up specific meanings that wear a new dress, "transformation," and perceives the bare, pure life of objective nature. The poet then perceives the sublimity of objective nature and gains inspiration. Finally, he becomes of aware of an invisible world. As he meets with nature through the power of sympathy, his emotion reaches its climax, and he feels sublimations of nature. Automatically objective nature, wearing a new dress, is presented purified to his imagination. One of the poet`s most manifestative of these experiences is that of the snowy mountain in The Prelude. This impressive scene is very important material to understand in regards to the poet`s imagination. For Wordsworth, the snowy mountain is the supreme emblem of imagination. It is possible for the poet to perceive the specific meaning of such things in nature only through the pure human spirit reached through transcendental emotion. Imagination to the poet is a function of passing through objective nature into his pure mind; then it helps him perceive the living soul of things. Therefore I can say imagination plays an important role in connecting the poet`s inner world and external world. The poet transfers his feelings to nature and, as a result, nature becomes a living soul, and then he achieves a marriage of nature and man, a union with nature. With this union, at last the poet apprehends the reality of nature as the soul of the universe, as one life. It even seems that the ultimate desire of the poet is to make paradise on earth.
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