French Revolution, as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement (1805)¶

Author: William Wordsworth
Type: Poetry · Blank verse (extract from The Prelude)
Published: Composed 1804–05; first published 1809 in Coleridge's The Friend
Copyright: Public domain
Era/Period: WH Era 3 — the French Revolution
ELA Standards: 9-10.R.7 · 9-10.R.8
WH Standards: WH.6_12.2 · WH.6_12.5
Studio: WH-04 · One Idea, 130 Years of War — pairs with Declaration of the Rights of Man

Studio 2 (WH-02) · The Rights We Wrote Down

Pairs with: Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) · Level: Maverick

When people write down their rights, what changes — and what doesn't? — "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive." What did the Rights of Man feel like to the people who believed it — before the Terror?

See the WH-02 Literature Lens.

What This Poem Is About¶

Wordsworth was nineteen when the French Revolution began, and he walked through France while it was happening. Fifteen years later — after the Terror, after war, after Napoleon — he remembered how it felt at the start: "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!" The poem captures the moment when ordinary people believed reason was about to remake the world.

Read It¶

Public domain — full text.

Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!--Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!
When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights,
When most intent on making of herself
A prime Enchantress--to assist the work,
Which then was going forward in her name!
Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,
The beauty wore of promise, that which sets
(As at some moment might not be unfelt
Among the bowers of paradise itself)
The budding rose above the rose full blown.
What temper at the prospect did not wake
To happiness unthought of? The inert
Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!
They who had fed their childhood upon dreams,
The playfellows of fancy, who had made
All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength
Their ministers,--who in lordly wise had stirred
Among the grandest objects of the sense,
And dealt with whatsoever they found there
As if they had within some lurking right
To wield it;--they, too, who, of gentle mood,
Had watched all gentle motions, and to these
Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers more mild,
And in the region of their peaceful selves;--
Now was it that both found, the meek and lofty
Did both find, helpers to their heart's desire,
And stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish;
Were called upon to exercise their skill,
Not in Utopia, subterranean fields,
Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where!
But in the very world, which is the world
Of all of us,--the place where in the end
We find our happiness, or not at all!

— William Wordsworth, 1805 · published in The Friend, 1809; later part of The Prelude, Book XI

Why It Matters¶

These lines are a memory of hope written by someone who knew how the story turned out. By 1805 the Revolution had produced the guillotine, years of war, and an emperor. Wordsworth doesn't erase the hope — he records it honestly, as part of the history. Historians quote this poem to show what the Revolution meant to young Europeans in 1789.

The Essential Question — Can one document change the world — and if so, how?¶

The Declaration of the Rights of Man promised that reason and rights would rebuild society. Wordsworth shows what that promise felt like to the people who believed it. Ask: can a document change the world by changing what people hope for — even if the result isn't what they hoped? Notice the line "Not in Utopia... / But in the very world."

ELA Standards Connection¶

Standard	Connection
9-10.R.7	Figurative language: "dawn," "heaven," reason as "a prime Enchantress." What does each image suggest about how revolution felt?
9-10.R.8	Point of view: an older speaker remembering his younger self. How does the gap in time change the meaning?

WH.6_12.2 + Era 3 — Enlightenment ideology: reason, rights, and the belief that society could be remade.

WH.6_12.5 + Era 3 — Causes and effects of the French Revolution — and the gap between its promise and its outcome.

Key Vocabulary¶

Enthusiast — a passionate supporter
Auxiliars — helpers; allies
Utopia — an imaginary perfect society
Plastic — easily shaped (here: society could be molded)

Studio Ideas¶

Hope vs. outcome — Pair this poem with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and an account of the Terror. Was the hope foolish or necessary?
Dawn imagery — Track how often revolutions are described as a "dawn." Why that image?
Then and now — Is there a moment in your lifetime when people felt "bliss was it in that dawn to be alive"? What happened next?