The theory that eliminates the relationship of literature from the author’s cultural, historical, and personal context comes in different names: formalism, objectivism, and new criticism. These theories are the same, they view every word in the text as autonomous, and they linchpin on the interpretation, and analysis of the literary piece through the evaluation of elements present/used within the text such as grammar, syntax, literary devices, rhyme, and meter.
Theorists of this school of thought advocate logical ideals in identifying the message of a literary piece as it consists of systematic and methodical studies/readings, indicating the deliberate utilization of the close reading technique. Through the use of this technique, the isolation of texts enables formal attributes to be classified, structures to be categorized, and imagery to be examined. This theory, therefore, views literature as an object with an internal purpose existing for what it’s worth, not as an extension of wisdom, not a reflection of society, and not as related to the author’s life.
An Objective Reading of William Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils”
This critical reading proposes that William Wordsworth’s poem, “The Daffodils,” employs images of nature as viewed from the perspective of the sky in the figurative use of language in its own verbal structure.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
This assumption is supported by the Critical Theory of Objectivism, which according to Adams (186), locates the literary work of art in its own verbal structure, raising up form at content’s expense, hence, also known as “Formalism,” “Textuality,” “Organicism” and even known as “art for art’s sake” (a theory of pure beauty): the use of imagery of organicism, considering a text as an organic unity, an entity with its own independent integrity.
The poem consists of four stanzas with six lines each and a rhyme scheme of ABABCC.
It expresses how nature’s image is described from above (sky/cloud). The use of the first-person pronoun, “I” and the word “cloud” in line 1, and the descriptions of line 2 indicate the point of view of the sky. Lines 4, 5, and 6 are descriptions seen through the images of the sky’s perspective as expressed in the poem.
The descriptions and images portrayed in the poem are connected by theme and colloquial language. The message of the poem expresses overcoming feelings of loneliness through nature as expressed in the image of the first line in the first stanza. The use of the first pronoun “I” from the first, second, third, and fourth stanza connects images of the sky’s vision and perspective as exemplified by the use of the possessive pronouns “they/their” in lines 9, 12, 13, and 21 to nature and the world which is expressed by “continuous as the stars that shine” (line 7), “the milky way” (line 8), and “the waves” (line 13).
The use of the personal pronoun “me” in line 18 and possessive pronoun “my” in lines 19 & 23 connects images of the world’s impact/effect to the “sky” as expressed through “wealth” in line 18 portraying the image of nature’s richness. The fourth stanza echoes the language technique that connects the image of happiness by just the sight of nature. Lines 18 and 19 create an image of loneliness when away from nature and lines 20, 21, 22, and 23 contrast that image into solitude as being content and happy knowing the beauty and great expanse of nature.
Therefore, Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” textually employs images of nature as viewed from the perspective of the sky in the figurative use of language in its own verbal structure.
