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영어

Many critics have not paid much attention to William Wordsworth’s reliance upon the concept of unpredictability which is fundamental to his poetic project. He holds a strong faith in the notion of chance, the limitless nature of possibility. He strives for an understanding of nature which is separated from Enlightenment notions of causality. Critics’ reading of his poetry is quite related to Laplace’s way of reading of the universe as controlled and structured by orderly laws. Wordsworth indicates that the manifestations of nature provide an abundant description of the idea of chance. This paper elaborates upon The Prelude (1799, 1805, 1850) to explore Wordsworth’s representation of unpredictability. The Prelude demonstrates from the start that unpredictability is inherent and chance is a natural aspect of nature. Much critical attention has been paid to his “spots of time” which are associated with his memories of chance. These are related to his recollection of childhood events that have no absolutely discernable cause and effect. These implicate that his imagination is derived from numerous accidents by chance. He suggests that distortions and disruptions of the natural world cannot be explained or rationalized. What he recognizes through numerous accidents in nature is chance, flux, change, and dynamics.