Once the poem becameĪssociated with the beginners' classroom experience, it wasĭifficult for scholars to make a reputation on an excessive investment Present major challenges to interpretation. References to gods, history and classical authorities does not appear to One reason for this is that a poem not freighted with Since Erasmus, "Nux" has aroused virtually no critical Knowledge and can still be read profitably for those coming to (Erasmus 151)īut the majority of the comments display Erasmus' profound Almonds, however, as I have said, are the Spanish used to serve nuts for dessert? I too, when I was atįlorence, saw chestnuts provided instead of dessert fruit at the Pliny (book 16, chapter 6) relates that even in his day the When they claim to be informative, as those on line seventy-one:īut why should walnuts be excluded from the dessert course, when Observations at times do resemble a satire of philological zeal, even Straightforward "Nux" did not really demand extensiveĬommentary or explication, unlike the Metamorphoses, for example. Part of the learned wit in the project is that the relatively Tiny gift, or think that something so eloquent is valueless." (11) In any case, one could hardly regard a whole tree as a very Erasmus encouraged the pupil toĪccept "this small gift-it is really quite elegant and very "Nux" in 1523, expressly for the purpose of helping the son of Pedagogical motives led Erasmus to write a detailed commentary on Itself to ready moralizing for schoolboys who might be prone to stealing Hapless nut tree about how it had been stoned and beaten would have lent (10) It had the admired Ovidian style without any disturbingĪmorous or lascivious undertones. To be popular, not least because it was well-suited for teaching pupils (9) Occasional doubts were expressed, but the poem continued (8) What does matter more is thatīefore then "Nux" had circulated as one of Ovid's poems,Īlbeit one of the lesser works, because of its style, topic and The pros and cons of thoseĪrguments need not be reviewed here. Reception since the nineteenth century, when German philologists Transmitted as such, "Nux" has encountered a difficult Who attack it for its nuts and against fate for making it so productive, "Nux" is the complaint of a walnut tree directed against those Wordsworth scholars, even by those who have studied his borrowings and It is not surprising that "Nux" has been overlooked by The Prelude and thereby isolating it from a revealing context. Questions about the poem's story as well as its history and mayĮlucidate Wordsworth's motives in removing "Nutting" from Rather, I hope to add another dimension to the discussion by focusingĪttention on an unnoticed source for the poem in the Ovidian elegy "Nux." The recognition of this source raises some important Made it into a significant moment in Wordsworth studies, and I do notĪim to slight or deny the respective value of their contributions. These approaches have enriched our understanding of the poem and have Relation to other sources, especially in Milton and in Ariosto. The investigation of contexts and as legitimating intensive (4) Other readings have taken the assumption of originality as barfing Wordsworth's relationship to Dorothy, and about gender identity. Speculation about the psychology of puberty, about the nature of Such investigations have frequently moved on into the realm of The interpretation of the text, as commentators have sought to accountįor such radical innovation by delving into Wordsworth's biography. The poet's absolute originality have had important consequences for Hero a boy, the wood a wood" (Hartman 74). Wordsworth referred to "the Orlando of Ariosto, the Cardenio ofĬervantes, who lays waste the groves that would shelter him." (3)īut, Hartman insists, "The scene, however, remains English, the Romance and cites the prefatory essay to Tile Borderers, where Note that the act of the boy may be compared to that of a hero in In the development of the sympathetic imagination." (2) He does 'Nutting.' That Wordsworth is so inspired argues a new phase "Few before him would have been inspired by the event recorded in To quote but one major voice, that of Geoffrey Hartman: THE CENTRAL IMAGES OF WORDSWORTH'S POEM "NUTTING"ĪRE SO STRIKING that they have garnered him the highest accolades for Them his? Was it a Robbery thus to assume to himself what belonged to Thus appropriated, because he had not the consent of all Mankind to make Retrieved from Īnd will any one say he had no right to those Acorns or Apples he APA style: Wordsworth's 'Nutting' and the Ovidian 'Nux'.Wordsworth's 'Nutting' and the Ovidian 'Nux'." Retrieved from #There was a boy wordsworth free
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