『서정적 담시집(1798)』의 "서정적" 읽기 -「바보 소년」,「가시나무」,「시몬 리」를 중심으로-

Abstract

It was with a political sense that Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads(1798) chose the ballad as his poetic form since it dealt with ordinary people. In that collection of poems, he attempted to focus on common people, especially, the poor and the deserted, and their sufferings in order to make them better understood by sympathizing with their destitution and isolation. For that purpose, he used the lyrical ballad, as distinguished from the German supernatural ballad by Burger and the ballad prevalent in the magazines of the time. The lyrical ballad is capable of diminishing extremely powerful feelings as well as provoking strong feelings. It contains two different genres: narrative and lyric. The "lyrical" in lyrical ballad indicates a "lyrical" reading of the narrative, stressing the importance of the reader himself. For Wordsworth, the poem is meaningless without the reader`s response, so the reader in the lyrical ballad is required to get involved in the narrator`s "lyrical" reading, unlike the reader who has only to enjoy the fantastic and thrilling story of the ballad. In "The Idiot Boy," Wordsworth`s "lyrical" reading which requires the reader`s compassionate involvement changes the idiot boy`s adventure story into one of a mother`s love. This contributes to not only the reader`s better understanding of Johnny`s idiocy but he also becomes closer to the boy. The narrator in "The Thorn" makes Martha`s tragic story ambiguous and mysterious in relating uncertain gossips. However, his "lyrical" reading helps the reader see her suffering as profound and universal. "Simon Lee " shows that the "lyrical" reading is more effective in presenting Simon`s poverty as real than the narrative one. Simon`s gratitude for his help leads the narrator as an ideal reader to the realization that Simon and he have a common human destiny, that is, mortality. In short, Wordsworth created the lyrical ballad as opposed to the supernatural, horrifying, or sentimental story, boosting sympathy, against the telling of an unsympathetic story. In that poetic form, the "lyrical" reading serves as a means of facing social reality while paying attention to those who are isolated. Wordsworth, through his "lyrical" reading, paved the way for the possibility of lyric`s capability of dealing with social problems.