Recollection as the Principle of William Wordsworth’s Poetic Process

This article aims at shedding light on the practice of recollection of memories in the poems of William Wordsworth. A close observation of Wordsworth’s masterpieces demonstrates that Wordsworth, ‘the high priest of nature’, tries to recapture and reconstruct for his readers the feelings he has derived from various sources. No other poets could exhibit such expertise in the field of workings and significations of recalling in the creative process, whereas, Wordsworth is not in the habit of making ‘a present joy the matter of a song’ (The Prelude, Book-I, Line-47). In fact, writing poems on past memories is a very dominant fact in his creative faculty. Therefore, his experience is not lost, rather revived when the poet's mind is in need of it. His imaginative mind makes the emotions once again ‘flash upon that inward eye’, reconstructs the previous thought and feeling and delights the readers by giving permanent life to his past experience. Wordsworth recaptures in his poems his experiences regarding his family; people encountered by chance, his old friends and his own childhood moments. The poet, in fact, focuses through his verses, the power of past scenes, and incidents over our mind when they are recollected and combined with present thoughts. He holds the notion that incidents, objects, or situations taking place around the natural surroundings get installed in the memory of the poet according to the human feeling of joy, sorrow, fear, or mystery. These experiences themselves possess a power to provoke powerful emotions which thereafter reflect on a tranquil mind of the poet. Then contemplation revives and recreates greater emotion and finally with the colorful threads of imagination the poet knits unique verses. Wordsworth’s best-known poems exemplify his association with past events, how they serve the basis of his creative process, and what influences those memories have in his personal life.