Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)

PÉTER DOLMÁNYOS Wordsworth and the Mountains: The Crossing of the Alps and the Ascent to Snowdon

Wordsworth and the Mountains: The Crossing of the Alps. 27 The power, which all Acknowledge when thus moved, which Nature thus To bodily sense exhibits, is the express Resemblance of that glorious faculty That higher minds bear with them as their own. (515, 11. 86-90) The connection is explicit enough though Wordsworth narrows down the scope of his reference to include only "higher minds". The special abilities of creation and deep empathy are elaborated in the following lines. There is a general sense of joy for these minds in whatever they see: "Them the enduring and the transient both / Serve to exalt" (515, 11. 100-101). They are ready to give and to receive: "Willing to work and to be wrought upon" (515, 1. 104) and they do so in a spontaneous way: "They need not extraordinary calls / To rouse them" (517, 11. 105-106). Wordsworth takes the next step and provides the origin of such 'higher minds': "Such minds are truly from the Deity, / For they are Powers" (517, Ü. 112-113). The rest of the passage gives a list of the consequences of this

— enumerating all those activities and attributes that follow from the divine origin of such minds. Conclusions The two mountain scenes are built up along similar lines: there is a description of the physical journey, there are passages devoted to the sight offered by the places and there are passages dealing with the imagination in an attempt of interpreting the sights. The constructions in the two cases are, however, different: after the accurate description of the journey the construction comes to be changed—it is just the reverse of the Alps passage in the Snowdon episode. In the crossing of the Alps the passage addressed to the imagination comes first and the landscape is treated afterwards, in the Snowdon scene the sight is described first and the interpretation comes later. In the Alps the journey described in details is a downward one, whereas in the Snowdon section it is an ascent

—this also indicates the relation of the two scenes concerning the element of vision. In both scenes there are frontiers to be crossed: these are frontiers in the mind, as it becomes clear by the end of the passages (Rehder 167). There are corresponding external frontiers to these: the Simplon Pass itself in the Alps and the line separating the fog from the clear air above it in the Snowdon episode. In the Alps Wordsworth misses it entirely and is forced to recognise it afterwards, in the Snowdon scene it is noticed but in a moment when it is the least expected

—the existence of such a frontier, or perhaps of a frontier at all in such a place, is a surprise in itself for Wordsworth. In the Alps scene the original intention is to cross