Was anyone else reminded of Wordsworth while reading the excerpts from Rousseau’s “The Reveries of a Solitary Walker”?
At first I was reminded of Wordsworth’s “Old Man Traveling.” Perhaps this came to mind because both the poem and Rousseau’s writings are literally about old men who are walking in a natural setting, but I think that Rousseau also picks up on the same sense of passiveness and blending in with nature which we find in “Old Man Walking.”
I was also reminded of the “wise passiveness” and solitude of “Expostulation and Reply” when Rousseau talked about the “contemplative, solitary man.” Rousseau saw his home on St. Peter’s Island as a place where he could passively exist in nature, and therefore learn a lot about nature as well as himself. I just love the image of him sitting alone in a boat, going wherever the current would take him. I can definitely see how he would find that to be an enriching way to spend the afternoon!
The connection is definitely powerful--Wordsworth likely read Rousseau's Reveries before 1799 when he composed "The Prelude," which includes a scene similar to Rousseau's boat scene--except that in Wordsworth's version he has stolen the boat and thus part of the landscape rises up and seems to bear down on him, chasing him across the lake. He begins by coasting, and the boat.
ReplyDelete"Leaving behind her still on either side
Small circles glittering idly in the moon,
Until they melted all into one track
Of sparkling light."
Everything is peaceful until
"from behind that craggy steep, till then
The bound of the horizon, a huge cliff,
As if with voluntary power instinct,
Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,
And, growing still in stature, the huge cliff
Rose up between me and the stars, and still
With measured motion, like a living thing
Strode after me."
The scene of Rousseau's idle pleasure is transformed into nature's retribution for Wordsworth's moral trespass.