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William Wordsworth1770-1850
is the second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson on 7 April 1770 in Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland—part of the scenic region in Northwest England, the Lake District.
his mother died when he was 8 years old spent his free days and sometimes “half the
night” in the sports and rambles
also found time to read voraciously in the books owned by his young master, William Taylor who encouraged him in his inclination to poetry.
His father, John Wordsworth, died when he was 13 years He took his degree on 1791 at St Johns College, Cambridge Wordsworth became a fervent “democrat” and proseleyte of the French
Revolution – which seemed to him, as to many other generous spirit, to promise a “glorious renovation”.
he had a love affair with Annette Vallon the impetuous and warm-hearted daughter of a French surgeon at Blois.
It seems clear that Wordsworth and Annette planned to marry, despite their difference in religion and political inclinations (Annette belongs to an Old Catholic family whose sympathies were royalist).
Wordsworth and Annette had a daughter named Caroline – lack of funds forced Wordsworth back to England.
The outbreak of war between England and France made it impossible for him to rejoin Annette until they had drifted so far apart in sympathies that a permanent union no longer seemed desirable.
His suffering, his near collapse, and the successful effort, after his sharp break with his past, to re-establish “a saving intercourse with my true self”, are the experiences that underlie many of his greatest poems.
He settled in a rent-free cottage at Racedown, Dorsetshire, with his beloved sister, Dorothy, who now began her long career as confidante, inspirer and secretary;
At the same time Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge; two years later he moved to Alfoxden House, Somersetshire, to be near Coleridge, who lived four miles away at Nether Stowey.
Even he had been an undergraduate at Campbridge, Coleridge had detected signs of genius in Wordsworth’s rather conventional poem about his tour in the Alps, Descriptive Sketches, published in 1793. Coleridge hailed Wordsworth unreservedly as “the best poet of the age”.
The two poet collaborated in some writings and freely trade thoughts and passages for others; and Coleridge even undertook to complete a few poems that Wordsworth had left unfinished.
The result of their joint efforts was a small volume, published anonymously in 1798, Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems. It opened with Coleridge’s Ancient Manner, included three other poems by Coleridge, a number of Wordsworth ‘s verse anecdotes and psychological studies of human people;
Lyrical Ballads sold out in two years, and Wordsworth published over his own name a new edition , dated 800, to which he added a second volume of poems, in close consultation with Coleridge;
In 1802 Wordsworth finally came into his father’s inheritance and amicable settlement with Annette Vallon, married Mary Hutchinson, a lake country woman whom he had known since childhood.
The course of his existence after that time was broken by various disasters: the drowning in 1805 of his favorite brother John, a sea captain whose ship was wrecked in the storm; the death of two of his five children in 1812; a gradual estrangement from Coleridge, culminating in an open quarrel (1810) from which they were not completely reconciled for almost two decades; and from the 1830s on, the physical and mental decline of his sister, Dorothy.
In 1813, an appointment as Stamp Distributor (revenue collector) for Westmorland was concrete evidence of his recognition as a national poet. Gradually his residences, as he moved into more commodious quarters, became standards stops for tourists; he was awarded honorary degrees and, in 1843, appointed poet laureate.
He died in 1850 at the age of eighty; only then his executors published his masterpiece “The Prelude”- autobiographical poem which he had written in two parts in 1799, expanded to its full length in 1805, and then continued to revise almost to the last decade of his long life.
Wordsworth is above all the poet of the remembrance of things past, or as he himself put it, of “emotion recollected in tranquility”. Some object or event in the present triggers a sudden renewal of feelings he had experienced in youth; the result is a poem exhibiting the sharp discrepancy between what Wordsworth called “two consciousness”: himself as he is now and himself as he is once was.
Occasionally in his middle and later life a jolting experience would revive the intensity of Wordsworth remembered emotion and also his earlier poetic strength. The moving sonnet Surprised by Joy, was written in his forties at the
abrupt realization that time was beginning to diminish his grief at the death some years earlier of his little daughter Catherine.
Major Works Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798)
"Simon Lee""We are Seven“"Lines Written in Early Spring""Expostulation and Reply""The Tables Turned""The Thorn""Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"
Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems (1800) Preface to the Lyrical Ballads"Strange fits of passion have I known""She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways""Three years she grew""A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal""I travelled among unknown men""Lucy Gray""The Two April Mornings""Nutting""The Ruined Cottage""Michael""The Kitten At Play"
Poems, in Two Volumes (1807) "Resolution and Independence""I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Also
known as "Daffodils""My Heart Leaps Up""Ode: Intimations of Immortality""Ode to Duty""The Solitary Reaper""Elegiac Stanzas""Composed upon Westminster Bridge,
September 3, 1802""London, 1802""The World Is Too Much with Us"
Guide to the Lakes (1810) " To the Cuckoo " The Excursion (1814) Laodamia (1815, 1845) The Prelude (1850)
OdeIntimations of
Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood
By: William Wordsworth
The Child is Father of the Man;And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light,The glory and the freshness of a dream.It is not now as it hath been of yore;-- Turn wheresoe’er I may, By night or day,The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
The rainbow comes and goes, And lovely is the Rose, The doth with delightLook round her when the heavens are bare, Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, wher’er I go,That there hath past away a glory of the earth.
Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, And while the young lambs bound As to the tabor’s sound,To me alone there came a thought of grief:A timely utterance gave the thought relief, And I again am strong:The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep, And all the earth is gay; Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity, And with the heart of May Doth every Beast keep holiday;-- Thou child of Joy,Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy!
Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call Ye to each other make; I seeThe heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; My heart is at your festival, My head hath its coronal,The fulness of your bliss, I feel– I feel it all. Oh evil day! If I were sullen While Earth herself is adorning, This sweet May-morning, And the Children are culling On every side, In a thousand valleys far and wide, Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,And the Babe leaps up on his Mother’s arm:-- I hear, I hear, with Joy I hear! --But there’s a Tree, of many, one,A single Field which I have looked upon,Both of them speak of something that is gone: The Pansy at my feet Doth the same tale repeat:Whither is fled the visionary gleam?Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness,But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home:Heaven lies about us in our infancy!Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy,But He beholds the light, and whence it flows, He sees it in his joy;The Youth, who daily farther from the east Must travel, still in Nature’s Priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended;At length the Man perceives it die away,And fade into the light of common day.
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,And, even with something of a mother’s mind, And no unworthy aim, The homely Nurse doth all she canTo make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man, Forget the glories he hath known,And that imperial palace whence he came.
Behold the Child among His new-born blisses,A six years’ Darling of a pigmy size!See, where ‘mid work of his own hand he lies,Fretted by sallies of his mother’s kisses,With light upon him from his father’s eyes!See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,Some fragment from his dream of human life,Shaped by himself with newly-learned art; A wedding or a festival, A mourning or a funeral; And this hath now his heart, And unto this he frames his song: Then will he fit his tongueTo dialogues of business, love, or strife; But it will not be long Ere this be thrown aside, And with new joy and prideThe little Actor cons another part;Filling from time to time his “humorous stage”With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,That life brings with her in her equipage; As if his whole vocation Were endless imitation.
Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie Thy Soul’s immensity;Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keepThy heritage, thou Eye among the blind,That, deaf and silent, read’st the eternal deep,Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,-- Mighty Prophet! Seer blest On whom those truths do rest,Which we are toiling all our lives to find,In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;Thou, over whom thy ImmortalityBroods like the Day, a Master o’er a Slave,A Presence which is not to be put by;Thou little Child, yet glorious in the mightOf heaven-born freedom on thy being’s height,Why with such earnest pains dost thou provokeThe years to bring the inevitable yoke,Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight,And custom lie upon thee with a weight,Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!
O joy! That in our embers Is something that doth live, That nature yet remembers What was so fugitive!The thought of our past years in me doth breedPerpetual benediction: not indeedFor that which is most worthy to be blest;Delight and liberty, the simple creedOf Childhood, whether busy or at rest,With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:-- Not for these I raise The song of thanks and praise; But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings; Blank misgivings of a CreatureMoving about in worlds not realised,High instincts before which our mortal NatureDid tremble like a guilty Thing surprised: But for those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the foundation light of all our day,Are yet a master of light of all our seeing; Upholds us, cherish, and have the power to makeOur noisy years seem moments in the beingOf the eternal Silence: truths that wake, To perish never;Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor Man nor Boy,Nor all that is at enmity with joy,Can utterly abolish or destroy! Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be,Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither,And see the Children sport upon the shore,And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! And let the young Lambs bound As to the tabor’s sound!We in thought will join your throng, Ye that pipe and ye that play, Ye that through your hearts to-day Feel the gladness of the May!What though the radiance which was once so brightBe now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of human suffering; In the faith that looks through death,In years that bring the philosophic mind.
And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,Forebode not any severing of our loves!Yet in my heart o hearts I feel Your might;I only have relinquished one delightTo live beneath your more habitual sway.I love the Brooks which down their channels fret,Even more than when I tripped lightly as they;The innocent brightness of a new-born Day Is lovely yet;The clouds that gather round the setting sunDo take a sober colouring from an eyeThat hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;Another race hath been, and other palms are won.Thanks to the human heart by which we live,Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
Analysis
Who is speaking? An adult/ a man who reflects his
attitudes towards nature (William Wordsworth)
To whom is the speaker speaking?
to the reader who are also unconscious of their behavior towards nature
What is the situation?
The poem split into three movements, the first of 4 stanzas discusses or concerns about lost vision (inability to see divine glory of nature, the problem of the poem), the second of 4 stanzas describes how age causes man to lose sight of the divine (negative response to the problem), and the third of 3 stanzas is hopeful in that the memory of the divine allows us to sympathize with our fellow man (positive response to the problem).
What is the speaker’s tone? the poem had a change of
tone in every stanza; each of the first three stanzas
has a mixture of joy and grief, but after having found a compensation for that loss, the poet is now able to celebrate the spirit of May.
What does it convey in
every stanza?
Stanza IThe speaker declares that once
natured appeared mystical to him. It was like a dream; now that feeling has disappeared. It says that for all his attempts he can’t see the things in the manner he used to.
Stanza IThe Child is Father of the Man;And I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light,The glory and the freshness of a dream.It is not now as it hath been of yore;-- Turn wheresoe’er I may, By night or day,The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
The author says wistfully and said that “ there was a time” (childhood) when all of the nature seemed dreamlike to him (“Apparelled in celestial light”).
what is described is the poets lamentation on not being able to see any more the glory and freshness of a dream that his childhood had (“The things which I have seen no more”).
Stanza IIThe speaker confess that though the natural objects like rainbow, the rose, the moon, and the sun are still visible to him, and he accepts that they are still beautiful there is definitely something missing.
Stanza II The rainbow comes and goes, And lovely is the Rose, The doth with delightLook round her when the heavens are bare, Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, wher’er I go,That there hath past away a glory of the earth.
• The speaker says that even though he can still see the rainbow, the rose, the moon, and the sun, and even though they are still beautiful, something is different… something has been lost. “But yet I know, wher’er I go, that there hath past away a glory of the earth”.
Stanza IIIThe speaker says that the singing of
the birds and the jumping of the lambs saddens him. However, he says that he is determined not to be depressed because it will mar(spoil) the beauty of nature in the season. He asserts that the whole earth is happy, and he inspires the shepherd boy to shout.
Stanza IIINow, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, And while the young lambs bound As to the tabor’s sound,To me alone there came a thought of grief:A timely utterance gave the thought relief, And I again am strong:The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep, And all the earth is gay; Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity, And with the heart of May Doth every Beast keep holiday;-- Thou child of Joy,Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy!
While listening to the birds sing in springtime and watching the young lambs leap and play, he suddenly becomes sad and fearful (“To me alone there came a thought of grief”): but this sadness doesn’t last long, because the soul of nearby waterfalls, the echoes of the mountains… restored him to strength. He end saying that all the earth is gay, because of that he urge strongly a shepherd boy to play around him.
Stanza IV The speaker declares that it would not be
right if he remained aloof in that season. He continues to be a part of the delight of the season. In spite of sharing the joy of the season, he says that when he sees a tree, a field, and a pansy at his feet he again feels that something is wrong. He does not find the shine of the visions and he does not see any glory.
Stanza IVYe blessed Creatures, I have heard the call Ye to each other make; I seeThe heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; My heart is at your festival, My head hath its coronal,The fulness of your bliss, I feel– I feel it all. Oh evil day! If I were sullen While Earth herself is adorning, This sweet May-morning, And the Children are culling On every side, In a thousand valleys far and wide, Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,And the Babe leaps up on his Mother’s arm:-- I hear, I hear, with Joy I hear! --But there’s a Tree, of many, one,A single Field which I have looked upon,Both of them speak of something that is gone: The Pansy at my feet Doth the same tale repeat:Whither is fled the visionary gleam?Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
• The speaker continues to be a part of the joy of the season, saying that it would be wrong to be sad (“While Earth herself is adorning, and the children are culling on every side, in thousand valleys for and wide”).
• He declares it is impossible to feel sad in such a beautiful May morning, with children playing around him among the flowers. Although, suddenly, he looks at a tree and a field which said to each other that something is gone. The same is made by a pansy. Because of that he asked himself what has happened to appearance of nature (“wither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream?”).
Stanza V Stanza V is highly significant, for it has the most
emphatic and famous line of the poem: “ Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting”. He says in our infancy we have some memory of heaven but with our growth the connection is lost. He says that if there is a connection like the children have, we can enjoy nature more beautifully.
Stanza VOur birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness,But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home:Heaven lies about us in our infancy!Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy,But He beholds the light, and whence it flows, He sees it in his joy;The Youth, who daily farther from the east Must travel, still in Nature’s Priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended;At length the Man perceives it die away,And fade into the light of common day.
• Contains the most famous lines in the poem:”Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting”. Wordsworth says that human beings are asleep and should forget important things. He goes on to say that as infants we have some memory of heaven, but as we grow we lose that connection with heaven causes us to experience nature’s glory more clearly. Once we are grown, the connection is lost.
Stanza VI
The speaker turns philosophically and says that soon after our arrival on the earth, everything around us conspires to make us forget about the place whence we came.
Here the place alludes to heaven.
Stanza VI
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,And, even with something of a mother’s mind, And no unworthy aim, The homely Nurse doth all she canTo make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man, Forget the glories he hath known,And that imperial palace whence he came.
• The speaker says that as soon as we get to earth, everything conspires to help us forget the place we came from: heaven. “Forget the glories he hath, and that imperial palace whence he came’.
Stanza VIIImagining about a six year old boy, the
speaker foresees the rest of his life. According to the speaker the child will learn through experience he/she gets, but most of his efforts will be just the imitation. According to the speaker he believes that his entire life will necessarily be “endless imitation”.
Stanza VIIBehold the Child among His new-born blisses,A six years’ Darling of a pigmy size!See, where ‘mid work of his own hand he lies,Fretted by sallies of his mother’s kisses,With light upon him from his father’s eyes!See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,Some fragment from his dream of human life,Shaped by himself with newly-learned art; A wedding or a festival, A mourning or a funeral; And this hath now his heart, And unto this he frames his song: Then will he fit his tongueTo dialogues of business, love, or strife; But it will not be long Ere this be thrown aside, And with new joy and prideThe little Actor cons another part;Filling from time to time his “humorous stage”With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,That life brings with her in her equipage; As if his whole vocation Were endless imitation.
• The author is looking at a six year old boy, and imagines his life and the love that his parents feel fort him. Wordsworth describes the way in which a young boy leaves nature, because he has to deal with adulthood and a whole different kind of life. That is reflected when he sees the boy playing with some imitated fragment of adult life (“ little plan or chart”, “a wedding or a festival”, “a mourning or a funeral”). He says that the child will learn from his experiences, but that he will spend most of his effort on imitation: “and with new joy, “the little actor cons another part”. At the end, the author says that all life is an imitation.
Stanza VIIIThe speaker addresses to the child
directly and the calls the child who happens to be so close to heaven during its early years wants to grow quickly into an adult.
Stanza VIIIThou, whose exterior semblance doth belie Thy Soul’s immensity;Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keepThy heritage, thou Eye among the blind,That, deaf and silent, read’st the eternal deep,Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,-- Mighty Prophet! Seer blest On whom those truths do rest,Which we are toiling all our lives to find,In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;Thou, over whom thy ImmortalityBroods like the Day, a Master o’er a Slave,A Presence which is not to be put by;Thou little Child, yet glorious in the mightOf heaven-born freedom on thy being’s height,Why with such earnest pains dost thou provokeThe years to bring the inevitable yoke,Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight,And custom lie upon thee with a weight,Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!
• The poet addresses the boy as if he was a prophet of the lost truth (“Mighty Prophet! Seer Blest! On whom those truths do rest”).
• He speaks directly to the child, calling him a philosopher.
• The speaker cannot understand why the child, who is so close to heaven in his youth, would rush to grow into adult. He ask him, “Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke/ The years to bring the inevitable yoke,/ Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?”
Stanza IX longest in the poem has 38 lines According to the declaration made by the
speaker, he experiences immerse joy, realizing that his memory will enable him to always connect to his childhood and through childhood he would be able to be connected to nature.
Stanza IXO joy! That in our embers Is something that doth live, That nature yet remembers What was so fugitive!The thought of our past years in me doth breedPerpetual benediction: not indeedFor that which is most worthy to be blest;Delight and liberty, the simple creedOf Childhood, whether busy or at rest,With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:-- Not for these I raise The song of thanks and praise; But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings; Blank misgivings of a CreatureMoving about in worlds not realised,High instincts before which our mortal NatureDid tremble like a guilty Thing surprised: But for those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the foundation light of all our day,Are yet a master of light of all our seeing; Upholds us, cherish, and have the power to makeOur noisy years seem moments in the beingOf the eternal Silence: truths that wake, To perish never;Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor Man nor Boy,Nor all that is at enmity with joy,Can utterly abolish or destroy! Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be,Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither,And see the Children sport upon the shore,And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
The speaker experiences a flood of joy when he realizes that through memory he will always be able to connect to his childhood, and through his childhood to nature.
Stanza XThe speaker speaks to the creatures he had
mentioned in the opening part of the poem and tells them to sing a song of joy. He confesses that growing out of his childhood, there is definitely some loss of the glory of nature, but he feels solace(comfort) because he has knowledge and he can rely on his memory which will take him back to his childhood.
Stanza XThen sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! And let the young Lambs bound As to the tabor’s sound!We in thought will join your throng, Ye that pipe and ye that play, Ye that through your hearts to-day Feel the gladness of the May!What though the radiance which was once so brightBe now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of human suffering; In the faith that looks through death,In years that bring the philosophic mind.
• After that thoughts, he has become very happy, because of that he urges the birds to sing, and urges all creatures to participate in what he says “The gladness of the may”. Then, again, he is stricken by the thought that he is old now, but that sad doesn’t last too long because with the thought that he has been with nature all the years makes him happy again, because he has a lot of recollections of his childhood with the nature so, he can feel the joy like he felt before.
Stanza XIThe speaker accepts that nature
gives support to everything to his life. It is the stem of everything. It brings him insight, and fill his memories and his belief that his soul is never going to die, it is immortal.
Stanza XIAnd O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,Forebode not any severing of our loves!Yet in my heart o hearts I feel Your might;I only have relinquished one delightTo live beneath your more habitual sway.I love the Brooks which down their channels fret,Even more than when I tripped lightly as they;The innocent brightness of a new-born Day Is lovely yet;The clouds that gather round the setting sunDo take a sober colouring from an eyeThat hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;Another race hath been, and other palms are won.Thanks to the human heart by which we live,Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
• The speaker says that nature still the stem of everything in his life, bringing him insight, fueling his memories and his belief that his soul is immortal: “To me the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears?
• Wordsworth claims that he will in love with it until he dies.
Imagery: Stanza IThere was a time when meadow, grove,
and stream,The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light,The glory and the freshness of a dream.It is not now as it hath been of yore;-- Turn wheresoe’er I may, By night or day,The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
the poet describes a picture of nature such that you can almost picture them in is dream.
Imagery: Stanza IIThe rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the Rose, The doth with delightLook round her when the heavens are bare, Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, wher’er I go,That there hath past away a glory of the earth.
The poet continues to describe these natural figures as his experienced during childhood that will never be repeat anymore
Imagery: Stanza IIINow, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound As to the tabor’s sound,………………………………………………………………………..The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;………………………………………………………………………………I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep, And all the earth is gay; Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity, And with the heart of May Doth every Beast keep holiday;-- Thou child of Joy,Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy!
The poet picture out the singing of the birds and the jumping of the lambs
He also describes that the whole earth is happy, and he inspires the shepherd boy to shout.
Imagery: Stanza IVWhile Earth herself is adorning, This sweet May-morning, And the Children are culling On every side,In a thousand valleys far and wide, Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm, (lines 43-48)………………………………………………………………….The Pansy at my feet (line 54)
The speaker declares it is impossible to feel sad in such a beautiful May morning, with children playing around him among the flowers.
The same is made by a pansy.
Imagery: Stanza VII
The speaker is imagining about a six year old boy, and foresees the rest of his life.
The speaker states that the child will learn through experience he/she gets, but most of his efforts will be just the imitation.
the speaker believes that his entire life will necessarily be “endless imitation”.
Lines 85-92:Behold the Child among His new-born blisses,A six years’ Darling of a pigmy size!See, where ‘mid work of his own hand he lies,Fretted by sallies of his mother’s kisses,With light upon him from his father’s eyes!See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,Some fragment from his dream of human life,Shaped by himself with newly-learned art;
Imagery: Stanza X
The speaker speaks to the creatures he had mentioned in the opening part of the poem and tells them to sing a song of joy.
Lines 168-170
Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! And let the young Lambs bound As to the tabor’s sound!
Imagery: Stanza XIAnd O, ye Fountains, Meadows,
Hills, and Groves,Forebode not any severing of our loves!Yet in my heart o hearts I feel Your might;…………………………………………………………….The innocent brightness of a new-born Day Is lovely yet;The clouds that gather round the setting sunDo take a sober colouring from an eyeThat hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;
The speaker accepts that nature gives support to everything to his life. It is the stem of everything. It brings him insight, and fill his memories and his belief that his soul is never going to die, it is immortal.
ThemeWordsworth identifies the poem’s principal
theme as the “Immortality of the Soul”.
According to Wordsworth, the poem emerges from two recollected feelings of a childhood: the lost vividness of sense objects, which appear different to the adult poet from how they appeared to him as a child; and the child’s inability to accept his own mortality and to reconcile the fact of his own death with the world around him.
Diction
Word/s: Phrase/s Denotation Connotation
As to the tabor’s sound Like the sound of a small drum
Timely utterance The sounds of nature, such as wind and waterfalls
Eternal mind God
Life’s star soul sun
Mighty Prophet! Seer Blest The one who declares publicly a message that one believes has come from God or a god; a person who predicts the future
The little child
palms Palms leaves worn as symbols of victory
Word/s: Phrase/s Denotation Connotation
My head hath its coronal Circlet of flowers, with which the shepherd boys trimmed their hats in May.
homely Suggesting home life Simple and friendly
fretted irritated
Moving about in worlds not realised,
Not seeming real
Kinds of Language
Metaphor-Comparison between unlike things without using like, as, or than
The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep (line 25) (Comparison of waterfalls to musicians)
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star (line 60) (Comparison of the soul to a guiding star)
Personification-Comparison of a thing to a person
The Moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare (lines 12-13) (These lines compare the moon to a person experiencing delight)
Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity (lines 30-31) (These lines compare the land and the sea to jolly persons)
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind, And, even with something of a mother's mind, And no unworthy aim, The homely nurse doth all she can To make her foster-child, her Inmate Man, Forget the glories he hath known, And that imperial palace whence he came. (lines 78-85) (This stanza compares earth to a woman—in particular, to a mother and a nurse)
Synecdoche-substitution of a part to stand for the whole, or the whole to stand
for a part
Thou eye among the blind (line 112)
("Eye" represents a child who guides adults)
Alliteration-repetition of consonant word
From God, who is our home (line 66)
Behold the Child among his new-born blisses
(line 86)
See, at his feet, some little plan or chart, Some fragment from his dream of human life (lines 91 and 92)
Ye that pipe and ye that play, Ye that through your hearts to-day (lines 177-178)
Anaphora-Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of word groups occurring one after the other.
Apostrophe-Addressing an abstraction or a thing, present or absent, or addressing an absent
person or entity
And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves, Forebode not any severing of our loves! (lines 192-193)
Paradox-Contradictory statement used to express a truth
Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may, (line 155)Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, Are yet a master-light of all our seeing (Shadows are a source of light)
Syntax
Meter and Feet Wordsworth uses iambic feet throughout
the poem. in the fifth line of the first stanza, the first
two syllables (The GLOR) make up the first iambic foot, and the second two syllables (y AND) make up the second iambic foot.
........1..............2.................3................4.................5 The GLOR..|..y AND..|..the FRESH..|..ness OF..|..a DREAM.
The meter of the poem varies from dimeter to hexameter.
.........1...............2.................3.....................4......................5 There WAS..|..a TIME..|..when MEAD..|..ow, GROVE,..|..and STREAM, Pentameter.........1................2...............3................4. The EARTH,..|..and EV..|..ry COM..|..mon SIGHT, Tetrameter.....1..............2 To ME..|..did SEEM Dimeter......1..............2.............3...............4 Ap PAR..|..elled IN..|..cel EST..|..ial LIGHT, Tetrameter........1..............2.................3................4.................5 The GLOR..|..y AND..|..the FRESH..|..ness OF..|..a DREAM. Pentameter..1.............2.............3.............4..................5 It IS..|..not NOW..|..as IT..|..hath BEEN..|..of YORE; Pentameter........1....................2.............3 Turn WHERE..|..so E'ER..|..I MAY, Trimeter.......1..............2 By NIGHT..|..or DAY, Dimeter..........1...............2.................3................4................5..............6 The THINGS..|..which I..|..have SEEN..|..I NOW..|..can SEE..|..no MORE. Hexameter
Rhyme
The poem uses end rhyme and internal rhyme.
The pattern of the end rhyme varies.
for example, the difference between the rhyming pattern of the first stanza and that of the second.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, a The earth, and every common sight,
b To me did seem a Apparell'd in celestial light,
b The glory and the freshness of a dream.
a It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
c Turn wheresoe'er I may,
d By night or day, d The things which I have seen I now can see no more. c
The rainbow comes and goes, a
And lovely is the rose; a
The moon doth with delightb
Look round her when the heavens are bare; c
Waters on a starry nightb
Are beautiful and fair; c
The sunshine is a glorious birth; d
But yet I know, where'er I go, e
That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth. d
Wordsworth uses internal rhyme carefully but to good effect. But yet I know, where'er I go (line 17) Fallings from us, vanishings; 147 (line 147) Which, be they what they may, (line 155) Though inland far we be (line 167)
Conclusion
Wordsworth believed that, upon being born, human beings move from a perfect, idealized realm into the imperfect, un-ideal earth. As children, some memory of the former purity and glory in which they lived remains, best perceived in the solemn and joyous relationship of the child to the beauties of nature. But as children grow older, the memory fades, and the magic of nature dies. Still, the memory of childhood can offer an important solace, which brings with it almost a kind of re-access to the lost purities of the past. And the maturing mind develops the capability to understand nature in human terms, and to see in it metaphors for human life, which compensate for the loss of the direct connection.
Wordsworth’s poems initiated the Romantic era by emphasizing feeling, instinct, and pleasure above formality and mannerism. He gave expression to undeveloped human emotion.
“Intimations of Immortality” is one of his most important works, together with “The Prelude” and “Lyrical Ballads”. The Ode deals with childhood’s lost connection with nature as human beings get old. That connection only can be preserved in memory.
When we are children, we are innocent, we like to play, we haven’t got problems; but when we are adult, we have to deal with problems in the job, in the family… because of that we forget the good and beautiful things of our childhood.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowdA host of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.
Analysis
Who is speaking?
To whom is the speaker speaking?
William Wordsworth
to the reader
What is the situation?
The poet is reminiscing his past while lying in his couch the time when he saw many daffodils in the woods of Lake District.
What is the speakers tone?
the poem goes through a gradual shift of tone, from wandered lonely (line 1) to but be gay (happy) (line 15), and pleasures fills.
What does it convey in
every stanza?
What does it convey in
every stanza?
Stanza IThe speaker presents his
wandering over the valleys and hills, lonely as a cloud. At one place he sees a large number of daffodils covering a very vast stretch of land. He says that flowers were fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Lines 1-2I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,The speaker describes how he walked around and
felt as lonely as a cloud. He doesn’t say “walked around”, but uses the much more descriptive word “wandered”.
Wandered means roaming around without a purpose like when you explore something
the speaker is projecting his own loneliness on the clouds
Lines 3-4When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;Suddenly (all at once), the speaker sees a group of
daffodil flowers. We tend to think as daffodils as “yellow”, but he uses the more majestic-sounding word “golden”.
He calls them a crowd, so they must be packed tightly together. Then he elaborates on “crowd” by adding the noun “host”.
“Host” and “crowd” mean pretty much the same thing. A “crowd” is associated with groups of people, while “host” is associated with angels, because people often refer to a “host of angels”. Coupled with the description of their angelic “golden” color, we seem to be dealing with some very special daffodils.
Lines 5-6Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
He sees the daffodils beside a lake and underneath some trees. It’s a breezy (windy) day, and the flowers “flutter” and “dance” on their stems.
“Fluttering” suggests flight, which could bring us to the angels or even birds or butterflies. “Dancing” is something that usually only humans do.
What does it convey in
every stanza?
Stanza IIThe speaker gives more details about the
flowers. He says that those flowers reminded him of the Milky Way. He says that there were so many flowers and the scene seemed too infinite; thousands of flowers were tossing their heads while dancing joyfully.
Lines 7-8Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,The poet emphasizes that there are a whole lot
of daffodils; more daffodils than he has probably ever seen before;
The flowers stretch “continuously”, without a break like the stars in the Milky Way, each one gleaming like a star.
Lines 9-10They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:Like the Milky Way galaxy, the flowers are
roughly concentrated in a line that seems to stretch as far as the eye can see (“ never-ending”). The flowers line the shore (“margin”) of a bay of the lake, which must be a relative large lake.
Lines 11-12Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The speaker takes in “ten thousand” dancing
flowers at once.The flowers “toss their heads” while dancing to the
wind. By “heads” we think he means the part of the flower with the petals, the weight of which causes the rest of the flowers to bend.
“Sprightly” means happily or merrily. The word derives from “sprite”, which refers to the playful little spirits that people once thought inhabited nature. “Sprites” are supernatural beings, almost like fairies.
What does it convey in
every stanza?
Stanza IIIThe speaker says that the flowers were
dancing beside the lake. He says that the dance of the flowers was better than the sparkling waves of the lake. He says that a poet can only be happy in such a joyous surroundings. He says that he stayed their for a long time but during that period he just continued to observe.
Lines 13-14The waves beside them danced; but
theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
The waves also dance in the breeze, but the daffodils seem happier than the waves.
The entire scene has suddenly been invested with a joyful human-like presence. Since waves do not bring as much joy as the yellow flowers, the flowers “out-did” the waves with their happiness.
The waves “sparkle”, which creates yet another association with the stars. Everything seems to be gleaming, twinkling, shining and sparkling.
Lines 15-16A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:
Despite his earlier loneliness, the speaker now can’t help but feel happy, or “gay”, with such a beautiful vision to look at.
Or, as he puts at, with such joyful and carefree ("jocund") "company" to hang out with. The flowers and waves feel like companions to him. They are all pals.
Lines 17-18 I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
The repetition of "gaze" tells us that he kept looking at the flowers for a long time. It's as if the speaker enjoys looking at these daffodils at the time, but doesn’t realize exactly how great of a gift he has just received with this vision.
Apparently, the speaker doesn't think that he fully appreciated the vision at the time.
The word "wealth" expresses a more permanent kind of happiness.
What does it convey in
every stanza?
Stanza IVThe speaker says that when he is
lying on a couch and he is feeling lonely, the scene comes back to his mind and his heart is filled with joy. His heart begins to dance with the daffodils.
Lines 19-20For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,
First, he sets the scene: he often sits on his couch, kind of feeling blah about life, with no great thoughts and sights. Sometimes his mind is empty and "vacant," like a bored teenager sitting on the sofa after school and trying to decide what to do. At other times he feels "pensive," which means he thinks kind-of-sad thoughts.
Lines 21-22They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;So, often when our speaker gets in these downer
moods, the image of the daffodils "flashes" through his mind.
The "inward eye" expresses what Wordsworth felt to be a deeper, truer spiritual vision. A person cannot share his or her own spiritual vision completely with others, and so it is a form of "solitude." But its truth and beauty make it "blissful."
Lines 23-24And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodilsWhen the memory of the flowers and the lake
flashes into his head, he feels happy again. It’s almost like the same experience he had while "wandering" through nature at the beginning of the poem, when the real daffodils pushed the loneliness out of his head.
His heart is set to dancing, just like the flowers. He dances along "with" them – they are his cheerful companions once again.
Imagery: Stanza I A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the Milky Way
the poet paints a wonderful picture of daffodils such that you can almost picture them in the breeze
Imagery: Stanza II
Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:
The poet continues to describe what he and his sister saw at Lake District and he compares daffodils to the stars that shine
Imagery: Stanza IV
“For oft when on my couch I lie”The poet is reminiscing his experienced
at Lake District while he was lying on a couch
Themes:1.Nature' s beauty uplifts the human spirit.
A poet could not but be gay, (line 15)And then my heart with pleasure fills, (line 23)
And dances with the daffodils (line 24)
2. People sometimes fail to appreciate nature's wonders as they go about their daily routines.
I gazed--and gazed--but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:
3. Nature blooms unattended. The daffodils bloom in splendor along the shore of the lake without the need for human attention. .
Kinds of Language
Personification-Comparison of a thing to a person
Line 1-2: I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,
Comparison of the cloud to a lonely human
Lines 3-4: When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;
The daffodils are personified as a crowd of people. This personification
will continue throughout the poem.
Lines 6: Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Daffodils cannot actually "dance," so
Wordsworth is ascribing to them an action that is associated with people.
Lines 12: Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The personification of the daffodils becomes more specific. The "heads" of the daffodils are the part of the flower with the petals. It is larger and heavier than the stem, and so it bobs in a breeze
Lines 13-14: The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:
The waves also get in on some of the dancing action,
but the daffodils are not to be out-done – they are happier than the waves.
MetaphorLines 21-24: They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
Wordsworth imagines the daffodils in his spiritual vision, for which he uses the metaphor of an "inward eye." His heart dances like a person, too.
Lines 3-4: When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils;
Comparison of daffodils to a crowd of people
Lines 4 and 6: A host of golden daffodils;Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Comparison of daffodils to dancing humans
SimileLine1: I wandered lonely as a cloud
Comparison (using as) of the speaker's solitariness to that of a cloud
Lines 7-8: Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
Comparing the shape and number of the daffodils to the
band of stars that we call the Milky Way Galaxy.
Hyperbole- exaggeration
Line 9: They stretched in never-ending line
The speaker says that the line of daffodils is "never-ending," but we know this can’t be strictly true: all good things come to an end.
Line 11: Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
We cannot count the flowers that are packed together
in a glance
Alliteration-repetition of consonant word
lonely as a cloud (line 1).
high o'er vales and Hills (line 2).
When all at once (line 3). (Note that the w and o have the same consonant
sound.)
Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, (line 5)
Syntax
Structure and Rhyme Scheme The poem contains four stanzas of six
lines each. In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second with the fourth. The stanza then ends with a rhyming couplet.
Meter The lines in the poem are in iambic
tetrameter, as demonstrated in the third stanza.
Enjambment (line 13-14) “The waves beside them danced; but
they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:”
..........1..............2..................3...................4 The WAVES.|.be SIDE.|.them DANCED;.|.but THEY ......1................2..................3................4 Out-DID.|.the SPARK.|.ling WAVES.|.in GLEE:— ....1.............2.............3.............4 A PO.|.et COULD.|.not BUT.|.be GAY ......1.............2...........3............4 In SUCH.|.a JOC.|.und COM.|.pa NY: .......1................2..................3.................4 I GAZED—.|.and GAZED—.|.but LIT.|.tle THOUGHT ...........1....................2............3...............4 What WEALTH.|.the SHOW.|.to ME.|.had BROUGHT:
In the first stanza, line 6 appears to veer from the metrical format. However, Wordsworth likely intended fluttering to be read as two syllables (flut' 'RING) instead of three so that the line maintains iambic tetrameter
Conclusion
Nature should be highly appreciated;
Nature can pushed the loneliness out of your head;
To Wordsworth, the memory of the daffodils is as good as the real thing.
Whenever you are feeling kind of upset, just think of nature and you can find joy thinking of it (thinking about your experienced in nature makes you feel comfortable).
The World is too Much With Us
The world is too much with us; late and soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:Little we see in Nature that is ours;We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;The winds that will be howling at all hours,And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather beA pagan suckled in a creed outworn;So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;Have sight of Proteus rising the sea;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
Analysis
Who is speaking?
To whom is the speaker speaking?
To the people
The poet (William Wordsworth)
What is the speakers tone?
angry
What is the situation? The persona of the poem accuses the
modern age of having lost its connection to nature and to everything meaningful.
Summary of the sonnet
The speaker regrets that the world is excessively fuel of human things and they are wasting their powers, going away from nature. He says that humans have given their hearts somewhere else and that is sad.
According to the speaker, sea, winds, and almost everything that is present in nature has maintained a powerful connection, but human has taken him away from that.
The speaker uses the phrase “out of tune” to show that humans are not living in harmony with nature: He says that they are not involved in nature in the way they should.
The speaker says that he would rather be a pagan who follows a worn out system of belief if he were said to be out of tune with nature.
He says that even a pagan is able to see the things which would bring some hyappiness to him. He alludes to the sea gods, Proteus and Triton.
Imagery Lines 5-7
This Sea that bears her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers
The poet paints his comparison to a woman and of the moon to a person who sees the woman
Imagery Lines 12-14
So might I standing in this pleasant lea,Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;Have sight of Proteus rising the sea;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
We can picture out that in these lines Wordsworth is yelling angrily standing on the shore
Theme Society is so bent on making
and spending money in smoky factories and fast-paced business enterprises that it ignores the pristine glory of nature, which is a reflection of the divine. ( a universal theme that remains in today’s world)
Diction
Word/s, phrase/s Denotation Connotation
Sordid boon Shameful gain; tarnished blessing
Late and soon Our fixation on materialism has been a problem in the past and will continue to be a problem in the future.
Suckled in a creed outworn Brought up in an outdated religion
Kinds of Language
Alliteration
Line 1: The world is too much with us Line 2: we lay waste our powers Line 4: We have given our hearts away Line 5: bares her bosom Line 6: The winds that will be howling
Metaphor
Line 4: We have given our hearts away (Comparison of hearts to attention or concern or to enthusiasm or life)Line 10: suckled in a creed outworn Comparison of creed to a mother nursing her child
Oxymoron - a form of paradox that compares contradictory words.
Line 4: sordid boon. shameful gain; tarnished blessing.
Personification
Line 5: The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon Comparison of the sea to a woman and of the moon to a person who sees the woman
SimileLines 6-7:
The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers Comparison of the winds to flowers
Syntax
StructureThe World Is Too Much With Us is a Petrarchan sonnet that is
structured as an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The octave often proposes a problem or concern that the sestet
resolves or otherwise engages. The ninth line – the first line of the sestet – marks a shift in the direction of the poem and is called the "turn" or the volta (Italian).
Rhyme Scheme The rhyme scheme of the octave is ABBA ABBA, while the rhyme
scheme of the sestet is more flexible; two of the most common is CDCDCD.
Meter
.......1.................2................3..............4................5 The SEA..|..that BARES..|..her BO..|..som TO..|..the MOON, .........1.................2..................3................4..............5 The WINDS..|..that WILL..|..be HOWL..|..ing AT..|..all HOURS
Enjambment
Lines 9-10 It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather beA Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
Conclusion
The poet is highly disappointed with the humanity and he is ready to choose a different way which connects him to nature.
We can say that all our activities are gradually taking us away from nature.
Thank You.
