{"id":162,"date":"2023-02-08T21:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T21:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/?p=162"},"modified":"2023-02-08T21:00:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T21:00:18","slug":"the-fancied-peele-castle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/2023\/02\/08\/the-fancied-peele-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fancied “Peele Castle”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI could have fancied that the mighty Deep<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Was even the gentlest of all gentle things.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ah!\u00a0then\u00a0, if mine had been the Painter’s hand,<\/span>
\nTo express what then I saw; and add the gleam,<\/span>
\nThe light that never was, on sea or land,<\/span>
\nThe consecration, and the Poet’s dream\u201d (Wordsworth 11-16).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elegiac Stanzas Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont<\/span><\/i>, is something of a typical \u201cromantic\u201d poem by Wordsworth as well typical of the Romantic Era. Wordsworth\u2019s focus on what is the spiritual connection between the mind and nature works to ultimately dictate the meaning of this elegy, using metaphorical language to elucidate a sort of reciprocal relationship between nature and emotions that we find in ourselves only through this connection. In this bit from the elegy, something I found substantial and certainly meaningful is the use of the word \u201cfancied\u201d. As one of the \u201cBig Six\u201d of the romantic poets, Wordsworth is known for utilize common factors in which distinguish the Romantic Era from others. As the concept of “imagination” part of the typical terminology of this Era, and as \u201cfancied\u201d is fairly synonymous with \u201cimagined\u201d, it is intriguing to think of how he differentiates the two terms; why he did not choose to simply write \u201cimagined.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though, in considering this conundrum respective to the rest of the elegy, and as Wordsworth continues to write, \u201cAh! then , if mine had been the Painter\u2019s hand\u201d, the significance of \u201cfancied\u201d reveals itself not only in Wordsworth\u2019s interpretation of the painting, but also in him visualizing himself as Beaumont himself. As this is obviously not the case, it is possible that to Wordsworth, fancying something is a form of visualization with maybe less credence than that of imagination. This concept is reiterated later in saying \u201cTo express what then I saw; and add the gleam, The light that never was, on sea or land.\u201d Here, he is seemingly coming to grips with what is real, and what is not. \u201cTo express what then I saw\u201d, while later realizing that there was a \u201clight that never was, on sea or land\u201d, Wordsworth is conceptualizing a difference in what he has seen, or even imagined, versus what he has defined as \u201cfancied\u201d. \u201cThe light that never was, on sea or land\u201d represents a struggle in his realization that in his connection to nature, or \u201csea\u201d and \u201cland\u201d, he has worked to create mental fallacies that dictate how he interprets the world around him, and ultimately, how he interprets this painting.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI could have fancied that the mighty Deep\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Was even the gentlest of all gentle things.\u00a0 Ah!\u00a0then\u00a0, if mine had … Continue reading The Fancied “Peele Castle”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}