Beyond the 'senses five': Immortal Possibilities in the works of Wordsworth and Shelley, submitted by Luke G. Knowland for the degree of M.Phil.
This dissertation is an inter-textual analysis and literary criticism of selected works by the Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley, in which the question of the possibility of immortality is posed. By way of examining the words chosen by the poets, the typographical lay-out of the lines, and the historical constructs behind the poems (events or authors that may have had an influence on parts of the writings), an attempt is made at discovering some allusions to what lies beyond 'this mortal coil'.
The first section of this piece is concerned with Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey and the phenomena of memory and association, and Wordsworth's implication that our memories are what make up what we are. Through this we begin to examine what is indicated in the poetry as requisite for personal continuity and personality, and can then begin to consider what the viability of immortality might be.
The work then progresses towards the Intimations of Immortality that we have from our childhood experiences, that is, the memories of those exeriences, primarily through Wordworth's Ode, The Brothers, Lucy Gray, and We are Seven. As we read of childhood perception differing from adult perception, the poems seem to infer that, through the recollection of a childhood event, we do not entirely lose that power to perceive as we did as children.
The third section examines the poets' writings regarding our senses, and begs the question of whether or not there is some extra sense (or senses) that would allow us to go beyond the modes of experiencing that we are accustomed to. By looking at Wordsworth's 'spots of time' and Shelley's Alastor, a discussion is centered around questions of perception and reality.
The final section is concerned with 'the moment', where a great many things happen in a period of time that is temporally impossible for them to occur in. By continuing to look at Wordsworth's 'spots of time' and The Excursion, and Shelley's Alastor, as well as Coleridge's Kubla Khan, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, and Wordsworth's On the Power of Sound, we can examine these instants where more happens than can happen in an instant. This would seem to be poetical metaphor for the gateway to immortal possibilities, for if this 'moment' is capable of being now and eternity, then it would stand to reason that it is also the instant between life and death, mortality and immortality.