Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”

Letteratura Inglese II e IIIA

Prof. Elisabetta Marino
marino@lettere.uniroma2.it

Fuseli, The Nightmare (1781)

“Fonthill Abbey” (1796-1813),

costruita nel Wiltshire per
William Beckford e “Beckford
Tower”, alta torre costruita
successivamente a Bath (1827).

Il Gotico
Piranesi, Le Carceri
d’Invenzione (1749-50)

Salvator Rosa
Anchorites Tempted by Demons
1660-65

Strawberry Hill, 1747,

dimora di Horace Walpole

Anno accademico 2022-23 6

 Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”
Letteratura Inglese II e IIIA
Prof. Elisabetta Marino
marino@lettere.uniroma2.it

Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful: with an
Introductory Discourse concerning Taste (published in its first form in 1756, and in its enlarged form in 1757) by
Edmund Burke

ELEMENTS OF THE SUBLIME

ASTONISHMENT
The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature is astonishment, and astonishment is that state of the soul in
which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. The mind is so entirely filled with its object that it
cannot entertain any other, nor reason on that object which fills it.
DARKNESS
To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary, for a great deal of apprehension vanishes
when we are able to see the full extent of any danger. (…) Darkness is more sublime than light.
POWER
Sublimity includes, besides the idea of danger, the idea of power also. (…) Strength, violence, pain and terror are
therefore ideas which occupy the mind together. The sublimity of wild animals is due to their power; and the power of
princes is not unmixed with terror, so that we address them as 'dread majesty.'
PRIVATIONS
All general privations are great, because they are all terrible--vacuity, darkness, solitude and silence.
DIMENSIONS
Again, vastness, or greatness of dimension, is a powerful cause of the sublime; and of the three measures of extension,
length strikes us least, and height is less grand than depth. The effects of a rugged, broken surface are stronger than
those of a polished one. (…) The last extreme of littleness is sublime also, because division, as well as addition, is
infinite. [Making reference to Milton’s descriptions] O'er many a dark and dreary vale They passed, and many a region
dolorous; O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp; Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, A universe
of death.
PHYSICAL REACTION: TENSION
The sense of the sublime, then, has its source in an unnatural tension of the nerves, such as is produced both by fear
and by pain, and may even be aroused in some degree by mimicking the facial and bodily expressions of fear and pain.

ELEMENTS OF BEAUTIFUL
DIMENSIONS
In the first place, beautiful objects are small.
SMOOTHNESS
The next property constantly observable in objects of love is smoothness; I can recollect nothing beautiful that is not
smooth. Smooth leaves in trees, smooth slopes in gardens, smooth streams in the landscape, smooth coats of birds and
beasts, smooth skins in fine women, and smooth surfaces in ornamental furniture.
DELICACY
Further, an air of robustness and strength is very prejudicial to beauty; an appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility,
is almost essential to it.
COLOURS
Of the colours of beautiful objects we note that they must not be dusky or muddy, but clean and fair.
PHYSICAL REACTION: RELAXATION
When we have before us objects of love and complacency the whole body is composed, and the hands fall idly to the
sides; and all this is accompanied by an inward sense of languor. It is impossible not to conclude that beauty acts by
relaxing the whole system.
---------------
A COMPARISON
ON closing this general view of beauty, it naturally occurs, that we should compare it with the sublime; and in this
comparison there appears a remarkable contrast. For sublime objects are vast in their dimensions, beautiful ones
comparatively small: beauty should be smooth and polished; the great, rugged and negligent; beauty should shun the
right line, yet deviate from it insensibly; the great in many cases loves the right line, and when it deviates it often makes
a strong deviation: beauty should not be obscure; the great ought to be dark and gloomy: beauty should be light and
delicate; the great ought to be solid, and even massive. They are indeed ideas of a very different nature, one being
founded on pain, the other on pleasure.

Anno accademico 2022-23 7

 Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”
Letteratura Inglese II e IIIA
marino@lettere.uniroma2.it
William Blake (1757-1827) from Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794)
Britannia was the original name given
by the Romans to their newly conquered
province.
Britannia became a popular figure in
1707 when Scotland, Wales and
England were finally united to form
Great Britain. She was immortalised in
1740 when the poem “Rule Britannia”
by James Thompson was put to music
by Thomas Augustine Arne.
"Rule Britannia" became an unofficial
national anthem
http://www.soundofthebaskervilles.com/jul03
-3.htmlns
Anno accademico 2022-23
Prof. Elisabetta Marino
London
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does
flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage
hearse.
Rule Britannia
a poem by James Thompson
When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian Angels sung this strain:
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.
The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall:
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all. […]
BRITANNIA
8
 Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”
Letteratura Inglese II e IIIA
Prof. Elisabetta Marino
marino@lettere.uniroma2.it

Frasi significative dell’Advertisement (LYRICAL BALLADS, 1798)

POESIA come ESPERIMENTO

The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a
view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is
adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure. Readers accustomed to the gaudiness and inane phraseology of
many modern writers, if they persist in reading this book to its conclusion, will perhaps frequently have to
struggle with feelings of strangeness and awkwardness: they will look round for poetry, and will be induced
to enquire by what species of courtesy these attempts can be permitted to assume that title.

Lo STILE INNOVATIVO
Readers of superior judgment may disapprove of the style in which many of these pieces are executed it
must be expected that many lines and phrases will not exactly suit their taste. It will perhaps appear to them,
that wishing to avoid the prevalent fault of the day, the author has sometimes descended too low, and that
many of his expressions are too familiar, and not of sufficient dignity.

RIFERIMENTO AMBIGUO A REYNOLDS

An accurate taste in poetry, and in all the other arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed, is an acquired
talent, which can only be produced by severe thought, and a long continued intercourse with the best
models of composition. This is mentioned […] to suggest that if poetry be a subject on which much time
has not been bestowed, the judgment may be erroneous, and that in many cases it necessarily will be so.

Frasi significative della Preface to LYRICAL BALLADS, 1800

Wordsworth si APPROPRIA del lavoro
For the sake of variety, and from a consciousness of my own weakness, I was induced to request the
assistance of a Friend, who furnished me with the Poems of the ANCIENT MARINER, the FOSTER-
MOTHER'S TALE:, the NIGHTINGALE, and the Poem entitled LOVE. I should not, however, have
requested this assistance, had I not believed that the Poems of my Friend would in a great measure have the
same tendency as my own, and that, though there would be found a difference, there would be found no
discordance in the colours of our style; as our opinions on the subject of poetry do almost entirely coincide.
Tratteggia un quadro della società contemporanea
For to treat the subject [the systematic defence of his theory] with the clearness and coherence […] it would
be necessary to give a full account of the present state of the public taste in this country, and to
determine how far this taste is healthy or depraved; which, again, could not be determined, without
pointing out, in what manner language and the human mind act and re-act on each other and without
retracing the revolutions, not of literature alone, but likewise of society itself.

LA TEORIA POETICA DI WORDSWORTH

The principal object, then, which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to choose incidents and
situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a
selection of language really used by men; and, at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring

Anno accademico 2022-23 9

 Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”
Letteratura Inglese II e IIIA
Prof. Elisabetta Marino
marino@lettere.uniroma2.it

of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way; and, further,
and above all, to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them, truly though not
ostentatiously, the primary laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards the manner in which we associate
ideas in a state of excitement. Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the
essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their
maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic
language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a
state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately
contemplated, and more forcibly communicated [...] The language, too, of
these men is adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real
defects […]) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects
from which the best part of language is originally derived; and because,
from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their
intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity they convey their
feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. Accordingly, such
a language, arising out of repeated experience and regular feelings, is a more
permanent, and a far more philosophical language, than that which is
frequently substituted for it by Poets, who think that they are conferring
S.T. Coleridge
honour upon themselves and their art, in proportion as they separate themselves
from the sympathies of men, and indulge in arbitrary and capricious habits of
expression, in order to furnish food for fickle tastes, and fickle appetites, of their own creation.
[…]
For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: but though this be true, Poems to
which any value can be attached, were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man, who being
possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply. For our continued
influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our thoughts, which are indeed the representatives of
all our past feelings.

La malattia della società

For a multitude of causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a
combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting
it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor.
The most effective of these causes are the great national events which are
daily taking place, and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where
the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary
incident.

Chi è il poeta?
Taking up the subject, then, upon general grounds, I ask what is meant by the William Wordsworth
word Poet? What is a Poet? To whom does he address himself? And what
language is to be expected from him? He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more
lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a
more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind.

Anno accademico 2022-23 10

 Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”
Letteratura Inglese II e IIIA
Prof. Elisabetta Marino
marino@lettere.uniroma2.it

La scrittura di W. Wordsworth: TESTI A CONFRONTO

Dalla Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, by a

Republican
[…] And this brings me to my grand objection to
monarchy, which is drawn from THE ETERNAL LA FASE RAZIONALISTA
NATURE OF MAN. The office of king is a trial to
which human virtue is not equal. Pure and universal But Europe at that time was thrilled with joy,
representation, by which alone liberty can be secured, France standing on the top of golden hours,
cannot, I think, exist together with monarchy. It seems And human nature seeming born again.
madness to expect a manifestation of the general (Prelude, VI, 339-341)
will, at the same time that we allow to a particular will
that weight which it must obtain in all governments
that can with any propriety be called monarchical.
They must war with each other till one of them is
extinguished. It was so in France.

"Two of us in the church-yard lie,

LA FASE RIVOLUZIONARIA My sister and my brother;
And, in the church-yard cottage, I
“ROMANTICA” Dwell near them with my mother."

"You say that two at Conway dwell,

Da WE ARE SEVEN (Lyrical Ballads)
A simple child, dear brother Jim,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
I met a little cottage Girl:
She was eight years old, she said;
Her hair was thick with many a curl
That clustered round her head.
She had a rustic, woodland air,
And she was wildly clad:
Her eyes were fair, and very fair;
--Her beauty made me glad.
"Sisters and brothers, little Maid,
How many may you be?"
"How many? Seven in all," she said
And wondering looked at me.
And two are gone to sea,
Yet ye are seven!--I pray you tell,
Sweet Maid, how this may be."
Then did the little Maid reply,
"Seven boys and girls are we; 30
Two of us in the church-yard lie,
Beneath the church-yard tree."
"You run about, my little Maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the church-yard laid,
Then ye are only five."
10
"Their graves are green, they may be seen,"
The little Maid replied,
"Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,
And they are side by side. […]

"And where are they? I pray you tell."

She answered, "Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea.

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 Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”
Letteratura Inglese II e IIIA
Prof. Elisabetta Marino
marino@lettere.uniroma2.it

LA FASE del CONSERVATORISMO

Dorothy Wordsworth’s Diary
Upon Westminster Bridge July 29th, 1802
(Poems in Two Volumes, 1807) “It was a beautiful morning. The
City, St. Paul’s, with the River and a
multitude of little Boats, made a
most beautiful sight as we crossed
EARTH has not anything to show more fair: Westminster Bridge. The houses
were not overhung by their cloud of
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by smoke… the sun shone so brightly,
A sight so touching in its majesty: with such a pure light, that there was
This City now doth like a garment wear even something like the purity of one
of nature’s own grand spectacles”.
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

Ecclesiastical Sonnets (1822)

Note
The Catholic Question, which was agitated in
Parliament about that time, kept my thoughts
in the same course; and it struck me that
certain points in the Ecclesiastical History of
our Country might advantageously be
presented to view in verse. Accordingly, I took
up the subject, and what I now offer to the
reader was the result.

When this work was far advanced, I was

agreeably surprised to find that my friend, Mr.
Southey, had been engaged with similar views
in writing a concise History of the Church 'in'
England. If our Productions, thus
unintentionally coinciding, shall be found to
illustrate each other, it will prove a high
gratification to me, which I am sure my friend
will participate.

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