{"id":6612,"date":"2016-04-01T07:47:16","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T07:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6612"},"modified":"2016-04-01T07:47:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T07:47:16","slug":"real-research-collective-finds-a-new-wordsworth-manuscript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2016\/04\/01\/real-research-collective-finds-a-new-wordsworth-manuscript\/","title":{"rendered":"REAL Research Collective finds a new Wordsworth manuscript"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of\u00a0the REAL Research Collective (RRC<\/a>), whilst on a recent study visit to Dove Cottage in Grasmere (UK), stumbled on a previously unseen Wordsworth manuscript that is a revision to his influential poem:\u00a0The Tables Turned<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

As you will no doubt know, the REAL Research Collective's\u00a0purpose is to \"explore the REAL\u00a0in its material, symbolic, phenomenological, discursive, magic, religious, and embodied presence in the world\", and it is particularly interested in questions such as:<\/p>\n

\"How do non-human actants (including animals, plant, soil, land as well as machines and tools) form specific practices ...?\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Imagine their surprise and delight, therefore, to discover, in the Dove Cottage lavatories, in a dusty box labelled \"Material Stuff\", this later version of The Tables Turned<\/em>, where it turns out that \"tables\" refer to actual (ie, REAL) tables, and \"turned\" is a clear reference to lathes.<\/p>\n

Although Wordsworth\u00a0was too scrupulous with language ever to use a phrase like \"non-human actant\", it is now clear that he changed his mind about the focus of this poem in order to bring in an emphasis on learning from the industrial world, rather than from \"nature\" which\u00a0the original poem promoted.<\/p>\n

Wordsworth scholars across the world are reported\u00a0to be \"gob-smacked\" by the discovery, variously describing it as \"spiffing\" and \"groovy\". \u00a0Here is the revised verse in full:<\/p>\n

Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;<\/em>
\n Or surely you'll grow double:<\/em>
\n Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;<\/em>
\n Why all this toil and trouble?<\/em><\/p>\n

The sun above the foundry's\u00a0head,<\/em>
\n A freshening lustre mellow<\/em>
\n Through all the factory site\u00a0has spread,<\/em>
\n His first sweet evening yellow.<\/em><\/p>\n

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:<\/em>
\n Come, hear the steam hammer hit,<\/em>
\n How sweet his music! on my life,<\/em>
\n There's more of wisdom in it.<\/em><\/p>\n

And hark! how blithe the anvil\u00a0rings!<\/em>
\n It, too, is no mean preacher:<\/em>
\n Come forth into the light of things,<\/em>
\n Let forges\u00a0be your teacher.<\/em><\/p>\n

They have\u00a0a world of ready wealth,<\/em>
\n Our minds and hearts to bless\u2014<\/em>
\n Spontaneous wisdom breathed by stealth,<\/em>
\n Truth breathed by resourcefulness.<\/em><\/p>\n

One impulse from a charcoal\u00a0wood<\/em>
\n May teach you more of man,<\/em>
\n Of moral evil and of good,<\/em>
\n Than all the sages can.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sweet is the lore\u00a0machinery\u00a0brings;<\/em>
\n Our meddling intellect<\/em>
\n Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:\u2014<\/em>
\n We murder to dissect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Enough of Science and of Art;<\/em>
\n Close up those barren leaves;<\/em>
\n Come forth, and bring with you a heart<\/em>
\n That watches and receives.<\/em>
\n.....................<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the REAL Research Collective was\u00a0quick to realise, this is much more evocative of time and place than Wordsworth's usual pathetic, pastoral ramblings. \u00a0As such, the core Collective\u00a0team have decided\u00a0to learn the poem by heart so that whenever on a\u00a0couch they lie, in vacant or in pensive mood, it will\u00a0flash upon that inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude, and then\u00a0their\u00a0hearts with pleasure will fill, and dance with every\u00a0satanic mill.<\/p>\n

The REAL Research Collective's\u00a0next study visit will\u00a0be to the public toilets in Stratford upon Avon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of\u00a0the REAL Research Collective (RRC), whilst on a recent study visit to Dove Cottage in Grasmere (UK), stumbled on a previously unseen Wordsworth manuscript that is a revision to his influential poem:\u00a0The Tables Turned. As you will no doubt...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}