SmokedSalmon
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- Oct 3, 2003
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- 2003
Hey 2004 Hscer's. I had these notes floating around my computer still from last year and thought it might be beneficial for you. Enjoy! 
Q: How do Malouf and Wordsworth demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between humanity and the wild?
Wordsworth
•Wordsworth relationship with the wild involves him observing “the beauteous forms” of it and thus gaining certain mental and physical benefits of it. The wild puts him in a tranquil and relaxed state, as if he was performing yoga or meditating. However he does not look deeper into the wild because he has already gained the ultimate understanding of it. The wild is a place of security, a place where humans can interact peacefully, a place where there is no pressure from the drudgery of city life which engulfed him for some time. For example in Tintern Abbey he remarks the city as a “burden” and “weary” then contrasts it with the wild (using light adjectives) which puts him in a “Serene and blessed mood” (line 42)
•The wild can be nourishing and succulent to humanity. As we all know, humans love to eat!! And nature offers man all the succulent and irresistible food to sustain us.
•Two things to be found in the wild which are of central importance: understanding and growth of the self and the presence of God protecting the earth and giving shape and meaning to the natural forms.
•Wordsworth does not need a higher level of communing with nature unlike Ovid. His ultimate understanding of the wild comes from seeing a spiritual presence (God) in the landscape, that “Inscrutable work manship that reconciles/Disordent elements” He is engulfed by the benefits the wild offers to him and is thus propelled into a higher level of understanding. God is perceived as “A motion and a spirit” that “rolls through all things” and acts as the “anchor” of “his purest thoughts” The presence creates a calm serenity in the wild. The wild is soothing due to both its visual beauty and through an understanding of a realm beyond the physical world.
•However Wordsworth’s speakers never lose themselves in nature. The division between the earth and the heavenly God who presides over and protects it remain intact.
•Further examples of enlightenment: Tintern Abbey, “O Sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the woods represents the wild has a definable structure unlike the chaotic city life. It goes on to say “How often has my spirit turned to thee” It portrays Wordsworth’s feeling of completion that the wild gives to him.
•Tintern Abbey - “Elevated thoughts” or “A presence that disturbs me with the joy”. Represents the interrelationship of nature. God and humanity all bound up together in a moment of still contemplation. In the mature mind, these things interfuse rather than “looming” over him as nature did in his youth.
•Wordsworth’s’ poem “beauteous evening, calm and free” depicts the evidence of the “Gentleness of heaven” over the wild scene and emphasises the presence of God in every aspect and it suggests the fact that this presence gives a sense of security in the wild. It also feeds the mind “with lofty thoughts”. This leads to the full understanding of humanity’s place in the wild.
•Wordsworth: A simple action like a song: Wordsworth’ positive images of the wild are presented in the poem “The Solitary Reaper” He conveys the power a song can have based on the way it is expressed. The listener is stunned into silence and compares it with the wild (nightingale or cuckoo bird). The song has touched his heart so deeply that he remembers it “long after it was heard no more”
•Wordsworth: his description of his “beauteous evening, calm and free” represents that at times there is space for “quiet” contemplation where you can feel at peace or ease with the wild. However in Ovid’s world there is no such thing. He is constantly faced with it, and thus cannot shun himself away from it.
•Childhood - Adulthood:
For Wordsworth, childhood is a time to revert back to innocence. When you are young, everything seems exciting, entertaining, adventurous, thrilling and the ‘wild’ is portrayed as all of these things. It is a time of unthinking movement, doing sometimes the most dangerous of things without need of “a remoter charm” (Tintern Abbey). In “Tintern Abbey” and “The Prelude” Wordsworth presents the transformation from childhood to adulthood where the individual develops from experiencing “aching joys” and “dizzy raptures” (TA) to an appreciation of a spiritual presence in the wild which supplies “elevated thoughts”. Interlacing with nature in adulthood involves stillness and calm. The passions of childhood in the natural world are revived and remembered with great fondness, but Wordsworth’s speakers do not seek to relieve them, preferring the wisdom of maturity.
Similarities with Ovid: In recalling his life in the Prelude, Wordsworth hopes to further “understand” himself.
Malouf
•Malouf depicts Ovid as first struggling to relate to the ‘wild’ he has been thrown into. He does not realise the ‘beauty’ it evokes and nevertheless pictures it with full of negative emotions and connotations. He claims that he is ‘at the ends of the earth.” However as he grows to accept his new environment he comes to the realization that the wild is his protector, not his enemy. He starts metamorphosing into someone who appreciates the wild. For example he plants his own “subversive” garden where once he pictured the wild as “no flower, no fruit.”
•Malouf shows that the wild can be presented through all seasons and how the wild can have an impact on humans whether it be good or bad. Like when the spring comes he says “I feel the ice of myself cracking. I feel myself loosen and flow again, reflecting the world. That is what spring means.” This quote represents his comprehending that nature affects our personal world. Spring symbolises rebirth, regeneration, new things and that is exactly how he portrays it.
•(Malouf cont)For winter, in Tomis, the mental state of the inhabitants change, they “move about in a dream, or if our wits had turned to sharp little crystals” This reflects the negative impacts the wild can have on humanity. It drives people to have harsh thoughts and feel isolated from the world. Could it be that our way of viewing life is altered by the seasons nature puts us through every year? Well that is how Ovid views it.
•Winter: major factor to note: The “wild boy” runs around naked in the snow, totally happy and free. Ovid looks on at him bewildered wondering why he is outside in the freezing cold and not inside safe and warm. This represents that no matter how much humanity has transformed our way of life, the wild can never be curbed, it shall remain free for ever.
•Malouf: When Ovid isxf going on a hunting trip with the fellow villagers of Tomis they take him to a horseman’s burial ground. The villagers all perform the same ritual which is scatter some grain to wane off the ‘bad spirits’ and let out a “blood curdling cry”. Suprisingly, Ovid does the same thing and he feels “a moment of exhilaration”, he enjoyed being a part of the ceremony. This demonstrates the growing understanding Ovid is developing for the wild. He is becoming intoxicated with it, forgetting his fears and uncertainty. He reminds himself once again who he is, “I am a Roman” however it is carried and “moves out from his body” he feels “freer” for doing so. He is now able to leave behind the guilt he has for his brother’s death. It is like the wild has opened up the door to enable him to continue his journey to self-discovery. He is now free to “prepare a death of my own”.
•Malouf: Ovid tries to teach the “wild boy” the rule sand responsibilities of humanity. However Ovid finds that the child becomes each animal he imitates. This depicts an even more intense interaction between humanity and the wild. Ovid is plunged head first into this interaction and finds it somewhat frightening when he wonders what the child thinks. He is curious about the wild, he is not shunning himself away from it no more. He wants to “let the universe in” to achieve the ultimate understanding of the wild and his place in it.
•Spiritual presence: comparisons from Wordsworth: In Ovid’s world, spirituality is a threat to an unbroken communion with nature, as we see in the case of the old woman’s negative interpretation of the Child’s character. Wordsworth’s benevolent God who creates beauty in the landscape is nowhere to be seen in Malouf’s world. Spirits in Tomis require offerings to be placated and are believed to cause violent fits and feers. They take on fierce animal forms, and even Ovid wonders about what kind of being the Child is. But Ovid does not believe that the ‘gods have created the landscape in the way that Wordsworth’s God “rolls through all things”. He believes that the humans have dreamed up this spiritual world and added it to the landscape to give it a meaning anda purpose. In dreaming them into existence he argues that they do in fact become real. The human imagination is the key in Malouf’s world.
•Malouf: The metamorphosis of Ovid: As Ovid spends more time communing with the wild he uncovers the ultimate comprehending of his relationship to it. At the end of the novel he discovers that the close interaction with the wild has given him “the immensity, the emptiness” which actually “feeds the spirit.” Thus it is only when Ovid visualises humans as a part of the landscape itself that he fully understands his role in the wild cycle of life and is unified with the natural world. This is depicted when he says “I am turning into the landscape. I feel myself sway and ripple. I feel myself expand towards the blue roundness of the sky.”
•Malouf: The final metamorphosis of Ovid involves an “interchange” with the earth, since “Between our bodies and the wild there is unity and commerce.” Therefore, when the boundaries between humanity and the wild are removed the final understanding of humans in the landscape is one of profound communion.
•Both writers recognise the importance of escaping from busy urban worlds and entering more natural environments for understanding themselves and their relationship to the wild.
•Malouf: When Ovid describes a day in Tomis as “quiet time…when the harder tasks are over” (37). The villagers like the old man and the daughter in law are still industriously making things which relate to their lives outside in the ‘wild’: “he works away at a net” and she is “Sewing strips of rough hide to make a cloak” This shows that these people are always living in connection with the wild.
•Childhood-Adulthood: Ovid’s life is less linear and more cyclical. Ovid comes to the realisation that childhood is of significance. He recaptures his closeness he felt to the wild boy of his youth through their unspoken language. In acknowledging where he has come from, he can then finally “creek back to it”.
•Ovid is reacting to entirely new landscapes and is in a constant state of change. Unlike Wordsworth who just revises his childhood and looks back on it recalling the lessons that the wild has taught him. Ovid realises that the “state of soft security” he had lived in Rome had removed him from the kind of “animal nature” that Ryzak possesses, and that he must somehow discover that kind of natural communion in himself.
•He comprehends that rather then being the teacher of the ‘wild’ child who he tries to bring into a human world, but be the child himself, being taught by the ‘wild boy’ about moving toward unity with the wild world.
•Similarities: “The Prelude” and “An Imaginary Life” describe the simple joys of childhood and describe the process of adults remembering their childhood experiences.
•Ovid: realises that his life has taken him away from his childhood and that he has to return to it. “I fall into some timeless place in myself where the past suddenly reoccurs in all its fullness, or is still in progress. I am there again” “I am immeasurably, unbearably happy.’
Q: How do Malouf and Wordsworth demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between humanity and the wild?
Wordsworth
•Wordsworth relationship with the wild involves him observing “the beauteous forms” of it and thus gaining certain mental and physical benefits of it. The wild puts him in a tranquil and relaxed state, as if he was performing yoga or meditating. However he does not look deeper into the wild because he has already gained the ultimate understanding of it. The wild is a place of security, a place where humans can interact peacefully, a place where there is no pressure from the drudgery of city life which engulfed him for some time. For example in Tintern Abbey he remarks the city as a “burden” and “weary” then contrasts it with the wild (using light adjectives) which puts him in a “Serene and blessed mood” (line 42)
•The wild can be nourishing and succulent to humanity. As we all know, humans love to eat!! And nature offers man all the succulent and irresistible food to sustain us.
•Two things to be found in the wild which are of central importance: understanding and growth of the self and the presence of God protecting the earth and giving shape and meaning to the natural forms.
•Wordsworth does not need a higher level of communing with nature unlike Ovid. His ultimate understanding of the wild comes from seeing a spiritual presence (God) in the landscape, that “Inscrutable work manship that reconciles/Disordent elements” He is engulfed by the benefits the wild offers to him and is thus propelled into a higher level of understanding. God is perceived as “A motion and a spirit” that “rolls through all things” and acts as the “anchor” of “his purest thoughts” The presence creates a calm serenity in the wild. The wild is soothing due to both its visual beauty and through an understanding of a realm beyond the physical world.
•However Wordsworth’s speakers never lose themselves in nature. The division between the earth and the heavenly God who presides over and protects it remain intact.
•Further examples of enlightenment: Tintern Abbey, “O Sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the woods represents the wild has a definable structure unlike the chaotic city life. It goes on to say “How often has my spirit turned to thee” It portrays Wordsworth’s feeling of completion that the wild gives to him.
•Tintern Abbey - “Elevated thoughts” or “A presence that disturbs me with the joy”. Represents the interrelationship of nature. God and humanity all bound up together in a moment of still contemplation. In the mature mind, these things interfuse rather than “looming” over him as nature did in his youth.
•Wordsworth’s’ poem “beauteous evening, calm and free” depicts the evidence of the “Gentleness of heaven” over the wild scene and emphasises the presence of God in every aspect and it suggests the fact that this presence gives a sense of security in the wild. It also feeds the mind “with lofty thoughts”. This leads to the full understanding of humanity’s place in the wild.
•Wordsworth: A simple action like a song: Wordsworth’ positive images of the wild are presented in the poem “The Solitary Reaper” He conveys the power a song can have based on the way it is expressed. The listener is stunned into silence and compares it with the wild (nightingale or cuckoo bird). The song has touched his heart so deeply that he remembers it “long after it was heard no more”
•Wordsworth: his description of his “beauteous evening, calm and free” represents that at times there is space for “quiet” contemplation where you can feel at peace or ease with the wild. However in Ovid’s world there is no such thing. He is constantly faced with it, and thus cannot shun himself away from it.
•Childhood - Adulthood:
For Wordsworth, childhood is a time to revert back to innocence. When you are young, everything seems exciting, entertaining, adventurous, thrilling and the ‘wild’ is portrayed as all of these things. It is a time of unthinking movement, doing sometimes the most dangerous of things without need of “a remoter charm” (Tintern Abbey). In “Tintern Abbey” and “The Prelude” Wordsworth presents the transformation from childhood to adulthood where the individual develops from experiencing “aching joys” and “dizzy raptures” (TA) to an appreciation of a spiritual presence in the wild which supplies “elevated thoughts”. Interlacing with nature in adulthood involves stillness and calm. The passions of childhood in the natural world are revived and remembered with great fondness, but Wordsworth’s speakers do not seek to relieve them, preferring the wisdom of maturity.
Similarities with Ovid: In recalling his life in the Prelude, Wordsworth hopes to further “understand” himself.
Malouf
•Malouf depicts Ovid as first struggling to relate to the ‘wild’ he has been thrown into. He does not realise the ‘beauty’ it evokes and nevertheless pictures it with full of negative emotions and connotations. He claims that he is ‘at the ends of the earth.” However as he grows to accept his new environment he comes to the realization that the wild is his protector, not his enemy. He starts metamorphosing into someone who appreciates the wild. For example he plants his own “subversive” garden where once he pictured the wild as “no flower, no fruit.”
•Malouf shows that the wild can be presented through all seasons and how the wild can have an impact on humans whether it be good or bad. Like when the spring comes he says “I feel the ice of myself cracking. I feel myself loosen and flow again, reflecting the world. That is what spring means.” This quote represents his comprehending that nature affects our personal world. Spring symbolises rebirth, regeneration, new things and that is exactly how he portrays it.
•(Malouf cont)For winter, in Tomis, the mental state of the inhabitants change, they “move about in a dream, or if our wits had turned to sharp little crystals” This reflects the negative impacts the wild can have on humanity. It drives people to have harsh thoughts and feel isolated from the world. Could it be that our way of viewing life is altered by the seasons nature puts us through every year? Well that is how Ovid views it.
•Winter: major factor to note: The “wild boy” runs around naked in the snow, totally happy and free. Ovid looks on at him bewildered wondering why he is outside in the freezing cold and not inside safe and warm. This represents that no matter how much humanity has transformed our way of life, the wild can never be curbed, it shall remain free for ever.
•Malouf: When Ovid isxf going on a hunting trip with the fellow villagers of Tomis they take him to a horseman’s burial ground. The villagers all perform the same ritual which is scatter some grain to wane off the ‘bad spirits’ and let out a “blood curdling cry”. Suprisingly, Ovid does the same thing and he feels “a moment of exhilaration”, he enjoyed being a part of the ceremony. This demonstrates the growing understanding Ovid is developing for the wild. He is becoming intoxicated with it, forgetting his fears and uncertainty. He reminds himself once again who he is, “I am a Roman” however it is carried and “moves out from his body” he feels “freer” for doing so. He is now able to leave behind the guilt he has for his brother’s death. It is like the wild has opened up the door to enable him to continue his journey to self-discovery. He is now free to “prepare a death of my own”.
•Malouf: Ovid tries to teach the “wild boy” the rule sand responsibilities of humanity. However Ovid finds that the child becomes each animal he imitates. This depicts an even more intense interaction between humanity and the wild. Ovid is plunged head first into this interaction and finds it somewhat frightening when he wonders what the child thinks. He is curious about the wild, he is not shunning himself away from it no more. He wants to “let the universe in” to achieve the ultimate understanding of the wild and his place in it.
•Spiritual presence: comparisons from Wordsworth: In Ovid’s world, spirituality is a threat to an unbroken communion with nature, as we see in the case of the old woman’s negative interpretation of the Child’s character. Wordsworth’s benevolent God who creates beauty in the landscape is nowhere to be seen in Malouf’s world. Spirits in Tomis require offerings to be placated and are believed to cause violent fits and feers. They take on fierce animal forms, and even Ovid wonders about what kind of being the Child is. But Ovid does not believe that the ‘gods have created the landscape in the way that Wordsworth’s God “rolls through all things”. He believes that the humans have dreamed up this spiritual world and added it to the landscape to give it a meaning anda purpose. In dreaming them into existence he argues that they do in fact become real. The human imagination is the key in Malouf’s world.
•Malouf: The metamorphosis of Ovid: As Ovid spends more time communing with the wild he uncovers the ultimate comprehending of his relationship to it. At the end of the novel he discovers that the close interaction with the wild has given him “the immensity, the emptiness” which actually “feeds the spirit.” Thus it is only when Ovid visualises humans as a part of the landscape itself that he fully understands his role in the wild cycle of life and is unified with the natural world. This is depicted when he says “I am turning into the landscape. I feel myself sway and ripple. I feel myself expand towards the blue roundness of the sky.”
•Malouf: The final metamorphosis of Ovid involves an “interchange” with the earth, since “Between our bodies and the wild there is unity and commerce.” Therefore, when the boundaries between humanity and the wild are removed the final understanding of humans in the landscape is one of profound communion.
•Both writers recognise the importance of escaping from busy urban worlds and entering more natural environments for understanding themselves and their relationship to the wild.
•Malouf: When Ovid describes a day in Tomis as “quiet time…when the harder tasks are over” (37). The villagers like the old man and the daughter in law are still industriously making things which relate to their lives outside in the ‘wild’: “he works away at a net” and she is “Sewing strips of rough hide to make a cloak” This shows that these people are always living in connection with the wild.
•Childhood-Adulthood: Ovid’s life is less linear and more cyclical. Ovid comes to the realisation that childhood is of significance. He recaptures his closeness he felt to the wild boy of his youth through their unspoken language. In acknowledging where he has come from, he can then finally “creek back to it”.
•Ovid is reacting to entirely new landscapes and is in a constant state of change. Unlike Wordsworth who just revises his childhood and looks back on it recalling the lessons that the wild has taught him. Ovid realises that the “state of soft security” he had lived in Rome had removed him from the kind of “animal nature” that Ryzak possesses, and that he must somehow discover that kind of natural communion in himself.
•He comprehends that rather then being the teacher of the ‘wild’ child who he tries to bring into a human world, but be the child himself, being taught by the ‘wild boy’ about moving toward unity with the wild world.
•Similarities: “The Prelude” and “An Imaginary Life” describe the simple joys of childhood and describe the process of adults remembering their childhood experiences.
•Ovid: realises that his life has taken him away from his childhood and that he has to return to it. “I fall into some timeless place in myself where the past suddenly reoccurs in all its fullness, or is still in progress. I am there again” “I am immeasurably, unbearably happy.’
