Masters Theses

Date of Award

3-1950

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Alwin Thaler

Committee Members

Kenneth Curry, John A. Hansen

Abstract

Many notable influences are apparent in the writings of William Wordsworth, as, indeed, in the works of many creative artists. Arnold, Grierson, De Selincourt, Legouis, Havens, and other Wordsworth scholars have written much concerning the influence of Milton upon Wordsworth. Certainly his poetry has many "Miltonic echoes" which testify to the "completeness with which he had absorbed his master." His early poems, "Descriptive Sketches" and "Evening Walk," bear "painful witness" to the influence of the minor eighteenth-century writers: Warton, Thomson, Gray, Collins, and others. Seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century philosophers influenced his thinking in his search for a metaphysical basis of his theory of life. His poetry is filled with simile, metaphor, and allusion drawn from the pages of books of travel and exploration. Another influence upon the great nature poet, although less obvious than some of those mentioned above, is none the less real--the influence of William Shakespeare, for Wordsworth's poetry "abounds in reminiscence of Shakespearian scene and phrasing."

It is easy to overrate or underrate, very hard to weigh with precision the influence of one writer upon another. The task here attempted is that of sketching the influence Shakespeare had upon a mind differing from his in a thousand ways, but a mind "gifted with a penetrative imagination that none of our poets, save Shakespeare, can surpass."

There are three possible ways to discover Shakespeare's influence upon Wordsworth: first, to collect and analyze what Wordsworth actually says about Shakespeare in his prose writings, his conversations, and his poetical works; second, to observe the similarities in ideas and in phrasing between the two poets which indicate that Wordsworth echoed, consciously or unconsciously, the thoughts and words of his great predecessor; and last, to co-ordinate these findings with those of the many critics of Shakespeare and of Wordsworth who have already contributed valuable information on the subject.

I wish to make grateful acknowledgement to Dr. Alwin Thaler for suggesting the theme of this study and for supervising and directing its completion. Also my sincere thanks go to Dr. Kenneth Curry and Dr. John A. Hansen for the valuable assistance and criticism they gave in its development.

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