Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Susan's Dilemma
Reading Poor Susan, Wordsworth depicts a girl having a vision of her countryside home. The vision is sparked by the song of a thrush and "her heart is in heaven" when thinking about the countryside. As the vision fades, susan is re-introduced to city-life, its unnatural bustle, and busy sadness. Wordsworth depicts that this girl is most happy in nature, in her imagination of nature, and also at home (and imagination of home), which sheds light on a psychological phenomenon about one's childhood and hometown. In Susan, Wordsworth shows that, when living in a city, nature's joys are mostly presented through imagination. The gifts of nature are obviously more present within its setting and so Wordsworth, being an avid supporter of experiencing natural beauty, calls for Susan to return to the countryside so "thy father will open its door."
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I agree with what Adam has to say about this. I was wondering, however, if the word "Father" has a double meaning in the poem? Does it represent both "Father" as in God and/or father as in her biological parent (since she is describing her countryside home, possibly childhood hometown, etc.)
ReplyDeleteIt is worth considering this, I agree, since poor Susan is likely to be a woman of the streets (Cheapside was a neighborhood in London known for prostitution), and thus the house of her father is both the church and the literal house of her childhood.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting comment, Warren, with the usage of the word "father"... but I also find certain other word pairings to be interesting. In particular: "In the silence of the morning, the song of the bird"... any sentence with silence and song together seems contradictory, yet it explains perfectly what poor Susan hears
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