Date of Award
Spring 2020
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
School
Humanities
Committee Chair
Dr. Emily Stanback
Committee Chair School
Humanities
Committee Member 2
Dr. Jonathan Barron
Committee Member 2 School
Humanities
Committee Member 3
Dr. Nicolle Jordan
Committee Member 3 School
Humanities
Abstract
When the second edition of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads was published in 1800, it contained nearly triple the number of poems as the first volume. Wordsworth’s “Song for the Wandering Jew” was one of these newly added poems. There are a number of influences at work in the poem, chief among these is the narrative of the Wandering Jew alluded to in the poem’s title. In regards to work written on Jews in Romantic-era English literature, little scholarship has addressed the figure of the Wandering Jew. “Song for the Wandering Jew” may seem to be an outlier in Lyrical Ballads for its brevity, desolate tone, titular dedication, and biblical engagement. But I argue that considering the poem alongside the history and text of the Wandering Jew ballads reveals the 1800 poem as paradigmatically Wordsworthian. In “Song,” the figure of the Wandering Jew allows Wordsworth to connect Judaic thought and his own views on Nature, God, and Humanity. I argue that in so doing, Wordsworth’s poem establishes what one might call an ecosystem of sympathy that joins ideas of man and nature, Jew and Christian, isolation and connectivity, understanding and prejudice, into a work of great compassion. In turn, Wordsworth’s poem calls attention to the anti-Judaic nature of the Wandering Jew figure and subverts the stereotypes that serve as its foundation.
Copyright
Germenis, 2020
Recommended Citation
Germenis, Matthew, "“Never nearer to the goal”: Wordsworth, Sympathy, and the Wandering Jew" (2020). Master's Theses. 724.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/724