In class we began to discuss the religious overtone throughout "Ode
on Intimations." Someone mentioned the idea of Christianity in lines
that mention a Tree and God. To me it seems clear that this poem is
discussing the Christian God. I did a bit of research and from what I
have found Wordsworth seemed to have been a devout member of the Church
of England.* However, a few other people stated that they didn't think
it was strictly the Christian God being spoken of. Considering that
Wordsworth was a devout Christian, what would lead the audience to
believe that Wordsworth is speaking of anything but the Christian God?
This
idea made me think a lot about literary criticism and in particular the
question of whether or not the meaning of a piece of literature depends
on the author or the audience. What do you guys think? Can the audience
decide whether or not this poem is about Christianity, or does the
audience get to decide for themselves what it is about? I personally
have always felt that what the audience has to say about literature is
most important; however, I also think that the intention of the author
and the author's background should have some play in the interpretation
of literature by the audience.
*Correct me if my research is incorrect
I agree with you on this point. I believe once the author has released the work, the work goes into public domain and therefore may be dissected, reevaluated and emphasized to the audiences content. Having said that, do I think the audience gets many points wrong? Yes, but I think it's a critical part of poetry that we continue to interpret poems from many perspectives, authors and readers alike. Kudos for doing research on the subject. : )
ReplyDeleteDavid
This is a wildly interesting subject and thanks MacKenzie for bringing it up! I too believe that the reader plays a role in the interpretation of literary works. This idea is actually an entire field of literary criticism called reader response theory. If anyone is interested in learning more about this field of literary criticism or others I'm including a link to Purdue's theory page.
ReplyDeletehttps://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/06/