20. Wordsworth's Poems
(Tintern Abbey & Immortality Ode)
for APPSC TGPSC TREIRB JL/DL
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William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 –
23 April 1850)
Biography:
According to Keats “His Poetry is
Egoistic Sublime”. He was abused and criticized by Jeffery of the
Edinburgh Review. He was the “Bard of Rydal
Mount”, “Harbinger of nature”,
“High priest of Nature”
and regarded as “Patriarch of Letters”. He was universally esteemed as the “Grand Old Man of English letters”. Mathew Arnold says, “His poetry is the reality, his
philosophy is the illusion”
Lake Poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey are called as Lake
poets. Term coined by “Jeffery Francis” in Edinburgh Review (1817)
William Wordsworth was born in
Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, on April 7, 1770. Wordsworth’s mother died when
he was eight—this experience shapes much of his later work. Wordsworth attended
Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and,
it is believed, where he made his first attempts at verse. While he was at
Hawkshead, Wordsworth’s father died leaving him and his four siblings orphans.
After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and,
before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe—an experience
that influenced both his poetry and his political sensibilities. While touring
Europe, Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution. The
democratic ideals of French Revolution inspired him. This experience, as well
as a subsequent period living in France, brought about Wordsworth’s interest
and sympathy for the life, troubles, and speech of the “common man.” These
issues proved to be of the utmost importance to Wordsworth’s work. Wordsworth’s
earliest poetry was published in 1793 in the collections An Evening Walk and
Descriptive Sketches. While living in France, Wordsworth fell in love with a
French girl Annette Vallone, and had a daughter, Caroline, out of
wedlock; he left France, however, before she was born. In 1802, he returned to
France with his sister, Dorothy, on a four-week visit to meet Caroline. Later
that year, he married, Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, and they had
five children together. In 1812, while living in Grasmere, two of their
children—Catherine and John—died.
Equally important in the poetic life
of Wordsworth was his 1795 meeting with the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It
was with Coleridge that Wordsworth published the famous Lyrical Ballads in 1798. While the poems themselves are some
of the most influential in Western literature, it is the preface to the second
edition that remains one of the most important testaments to a poet’s views on
both his craft and his place in the world. In the preface Wordsworth writes on
the need for “common speech” within poems and argues against the hierarchy of
the period which valued epic poetry above the lyric.
He was made Poet Laureate in 1843,
after the death of Southey.
Wordsworth’s most famous work, The
Prelude (1850), is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of English
Romanticism. The poem, revised numerous times, chronicles the spiritual life of
the poet and marks the birth of a new genre of poetry. Although Wordsworth
worked on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was published posthumously.
Wordsworth spent his final years settled at Rydal Mount in England, traveling,
and continuing his outdoor excursions. Devastated by the death of his daughter,
Dora, in 1847, Wordsworth seemingly lost his will to compose poems.
William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount
at his home and was buried in the Grasmere Churchyard on April 23, 1850,
leaving his wife, Mary, to publish The Prelude three months later.
Works:
1.
Descriptive Sketches 1793- collection of poetry about a tour he took in the Swiss Alps
2. An Evening Walk – both were his
early poems published in the university.
3. Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other
Poems
(1798) –there
were 23 poems in this book. Coleridge contributed 4 poems. The first poem is Coleridge’s: “The Rime of Ancient Mariner” and the last poem is Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”.
Great
poems:
a)
Tintern Abbey 1798: Its full title is “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the
Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798”. Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy visit a
natural spot that he had visited five years ago, and the speaker realizes that
he experiences nature in a more mature way now. He looks forward to bringing
this new memory with him into the future. The speaker is also glad to know that
his sister will remember him after he has died. Opening line: “Five years have past; five summers, with the length, Of
five long winters! and again I hear; These waters, rolling from their
mountain-springs”
b) The Idiot Boy 1798- ballad, story of Betty Foy’s disabled son who is naïve and loved by
society.
c) We are Seven 1798: discussion between
an ‘’adult poetic speaker’’ and a "little cottage girl", the speaker
meets a young girl who had six brothers and sisters, before two of them died.
She now lives at home with her mother. When the speaker asks her how many
siblings she has, she repeatedly tells him, "We are Seven," confusing
the speaker, who counts only five Famous line:
“I met a little cottage Girl:
She was eight years old,”;
------
"How many are you, then," said I,
"If they two are in heaven?"
Quick was the little maid's reply,
"O master! we are seven."
d) The Thorn 1798: The poem begins with the speaker’s description
of an old thornbush perched high on a mountaintop. A sea captain narrating the story of a woman ‘Martha Ray’ and her dead child who is buried beneath the
thorn.
e)
Tables Turned 1798- the speaker tells his friend to stop reading books and instead go outside
and be a part of nature.
Other
important poems in it:
Anecdote
for fathers 1798- subtitled: "showing how the art of lying may be taught". poem
about the wisdom of children
The Thorn
Simon Lee
"Lucy
poems" are a series of five poems composed between 1798-1801:
1. Three years she grew in sun and shower 1798
2. She dwelt among the untrodden ways 1800
3. I travelled among unknown men 1800
4. A slumber did my spirit seal. 1800
5. Strange fits of passion have I known 1807
The first four of the Lucy Poems were published in the "Lyrical
Ballads (1798, 1800)". The last was written in 1801, but published in
"Poems, in Two
Volumes (1807)".
Although they are presented as a series in modern anthologies, Wordsworth
did not conceive of them as a group, nor did he seek to publish the poems in
sequence. He described the works as "experimental" in the prefaces of
Lyrical Ballads. Only after his death in 1850 did publishers and critics begin
to treat the poems as a fixed group.
Four poems by
Coleridge in Lyrical Ballads 1798:
1. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
2.The Foster Mother’s Tale
3.The Nightingale: A Conversation Poem
4.The Dungeon
4. Lyrical Ballads,
with Other Poems (1800)
a. Preface to Lyrical
Ballads (1800) – Regarded as “Romantic Manifesto”, or “Magna Carta of
Romanticism” prose work of Wordsworth, which is considered a piece
of criticism. Its famous preface highlighted several of the key ideas of the
Romantic Movement. In his “Theory of Poetic
Diction” he advocated to use common language in poetry. He says “Poet is a man speaking to men”. ‘Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge’.; ‘Poetry is
the first and last of all knowledge’; ‘Poetry
is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings taking its origin from
emotions recollected on tranquility’ (see
criticism notes)
b. A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal 1800 - the last poem in a short sequence known as
the "Lucy poems," in which a speaker expresses his love for (and grief over) a mysterious,
idealized woman, Lucy. She is so powerful and full of life, the speaker did not think she
would ever die. It examines the unpredictable nature of death.
c. Lucy Gray 1800- describes the death of a young girl named Lucy
Gray, who went out one evening into a storm to help her mother. (It is not
included in Lucy Poems, eventhough it has a character named Lucy.)
d. Michael, a pastoral
1800- pastoral poem, in blank verse- describes the lonely life of a shepherd
Micheal, his wife and his only child Luke. The epigraph of George Eliot's
Silas Marner is taken from the poem
e. Kitten at Play 1800- poem - describes kitten named Tabby, which is compared to Indian
conjuror.
The Yarrow poems are a series of
three poems. (Yarrow river is much
celebrated in earlier Scottish verse):
1. "Yarrow Unvisited" (1803) – about his failure to visit Yarrow river in Scotland, during a tour of
Scotland with his sister Dorothy. It was partly written for his friend Walter Scott, whose friendship with him began
during this same tour.
2. "Yarrow Visited" (1814)- his
impressions on finally seeing the Yarrow in company with the poet James Hogg.
3. "Yarrow Revisited"(1831)- a tribute to his friend Walter Scott,
who died in 1832
5.
The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An
Autobiographical Poem (1799,1805,1850) – fourteen-volume
epic-length poem written in blank verse. It is a complete record of
his development from his childhood days to the period of maturity. He never
gave it a title, but called it the "Poem to Coleridge" in his
letters to his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. He described the Prelude as “a poem on the growth of my own mind” with “contrasting
views of Man, Nature, and Society.” He began it in 1798 at the age
of 28 and continued it throughout his life.
Three versions of
“Prelude”
in 1799, first
published as 2-part poem;
in 1805, as 13
books poem;
in 1850, as 14
books poem, shortly after his death, by his wife.
Its present
title was given by his widow Mary Hutchinson. He coined the term “Spots of
Time” (=Ordinary events described as extraordinary) Famous lines: “Bliss
was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very
Heaven!”- in The Prelude Book XI (about early years of French Revolution)
6. Poems, in Two
Volumes (1807) – his remarkable lyrics included in these two volumes are:
a)
The Solitary Reaper 1807- melodious song sung by a Scottish woman
while reaping alone on the plains of Scotland. The speaker can only guess at
what she is singing about because he cannot understand her language. At the
end, he is glad to take this new memory.
b) I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud 1807- (also known
as Daffodils), Dorothy and Wordsworth came across a belt of daffodils.
The speaker is happy to have this memory to look back on during less happy
times.
c)
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
1807 (known as
"Ode", "Immortality Ode" or "Great Ode") -
from Recollection of Early Childhood. It is the high-water mark of poetry in
the 19th century-said by Emerson.
d) Resolution and
Independence 1807 (known as The Leech-gatherer)- based on Wordsworth's actual
encounter with a leech-gatherer- contains famous line about
Robert Burns, who died at the age of 37: of
Him who walked in glory and in joy / Following his plough, along the
mountain-side"; another famous line about Chatterton,
committed suicide at the age of 17: “I thought
of Chatterton, the ‘Marvelous Boy’, The sleepless Soul that perished in his
pride;”
e)
Ode to Duty 1807- modeled on Thomas Gray's “Hymn to Adversity,” which in turn was
imitated from Horace's “Ode to Fortune.”
f)
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 – sonnet- unsual- about the beauty of a city rather
than the beauty of nature. Opening line: Earth
has not any thing to show more fair
g)
The world is too much with us 1807- sonnet- criticises the world absorbed in materialism
of the First
Industrial Revolution- the speaker is angry at the people who prefer
manufactured goods to the joys of nature
h) Elegiac Stanzas
1807- full
title: "Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a
Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont."
i)
My Heart Leaps Up 1807- Also known as ‘The Rainbow’. It suggests that children are actually above adults because of their
close proximity to nature, God and heaven. This Opening line: “My
heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky” Famous line in it: “The
child is the father of the man”. Last three lines of this poem are used as an
epigraph for his poem “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
Early Childhood (1807)”
j)
It is a beauteous evening calm and free 1807 - sea side walk with his illegitimate daughter
Caroline. The speaker met his daughter after ten years. Even though she doesn't
experience nature in the same way he does, the speaker considers her divine.
k)
London, 1802 (1807)- petrarchian sonnet- It’s an encomium and is dedicated to John Milton. The speaker feels that humanity is losing its
connection to nature, So he asks John Milton to save humanity. Opening line- Milton!
thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need
of thee:
|
Encomium is a speech or piece of
writing that praises someone or something.
|
1.
"French
Revolution" (1810)- Published as separate poem but later merged in
“Prelude”. It welcomes the ‘French revolution as a
pleasant exercise of hope and joy’
2.
Guide to the Lakes
(1810)- A Guide through the District of the Lakes, William Wordsworth's
travellers' guidebook
3.
"To the
Cuckoo"
4.
The Excursion: Being a portion of The Recluse, a poem (1814) – part of recluse, unfinished poem runs in 9
books. It is based on the poet’s love for nature.
5.
Laodamia (1815,
1845) - based on Trojan War- Laodamia, the wife of Protesilaus, prays to the
gods that her husband may return to her from Hades (god of the dead/ king of
underworld). He returns to her and narrates the story of his death.
6.
The White Doe of
Rylstone or, The Fate of the Nortons (1815)- is a long narrative poem
7.
Peter Bell: A Tale in Verse
(1819)- writtern in 1798, but published in 1819.
8.
Ecclesiastical
Sonnets (1822)- originally called "Ecclesiastical Sketches."
9.
Recluse 1888– if completed, would have become three-part epic and
philosophical poem. In prefatory advertisement to the First Edition of the
Prelude, 1850, it is stated that that poem was introductory to Recluse. It was
left as incomplete manuscript, later published in 1888.
a. the Prelude
b.
The Excursion 1814
c.
Planned, but neer completed
"Matthew"
poems are a series of poems, composed by Wordsworth, that describe the
character Matthew. From October 1798 to February 1799, Wordsworth worked on the
"Matthew" poems. The Poems include: Mathew, The Two April Mornings, The Fountain, Address to the Scholars
Other Great Poems
1.
Lines written as a School Exercise 1785- first poem composed as a school
boy
2.
The Sparrow’s Nest
3.
The Affliction of Margaret or Ruined Cottage
4.
Character of Happy Warrior-
5.
The Cumberland Begger-
“Wordsworth’s
poetry is egoist sublime”- Keats
Play:
1.
“Borderers (1795-97)”– his only verse drama(tragedy) set during the reign of King Henry III of
England.
Note:
To the skylark -by
Wordsworth
To a skylark -by
Shelley
Wordsworth's Poetical Works Themes
Nature
"Come forth into the light of things, /
Let Nature be your Teacher." No discussion on Wordsworth would be complete
without mention of nature. Nature and its connection to humanity makes an
appearance in the vast majority of Wordsworth's poetry, often holding a poem's
focus, and has become the cornerstone of the Romantic Movement primarily
because of him. For Wordsworth, nature is a kind of religion in which he has
the utmost faith. Nature fills two major roles in Wordsworth's poetry:
1. Even though it is intensely beautiful and
peaceful, nature often causes Wordsworth to feel melancholy or sad. This is
usually because, even as he relishes in his connection with nature, he worries
about the rest of humanity, most of who live in cites completely apart from
nature. Wordsworth wonders how they could possibly revive their spirits. In the
end, however, he often decides that it is wrong to be sad while in nature:
"A poet could not but be gay, / In such jocund company."
2. Nature also gives Wordsworth hope for the
future. Form past experience Wordsworth knows that spending time in nature is a
gift to his future self, because later, when he is alone, tired and frustrated
in the busy, dirty city, he will be able to look back on a field of daffodils
he once spent time in and be happy again.
Memory
For Wordsworth, the power of the human
mind is extremely important. In several of his poems he begins in a negative or
depressed mood, and then slowly becomes more positive. The most important use
of memory, however, is to maintain connections. For instance, in poems like
"Line Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" and "I wandered
lonely as a cloud" Wordsworth is in nature (his favorite place to be) and
he is happy, but he becomes even happier when he realizes that he never actually
has to leave his memories behind. Once he has returned to the daily gloom of
the city, he will be able to remember the time he spent among nature and make
himself happy again: "And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances
with the daffodils."
As Wordsworth begins to consider his
own mortality memory is again a huge comfort, because he realizes that even
after he has died he will be able to live on in the memory of his family and
friends, just as those who have passed on before him are in his memory.
Wordsworth is especially heartened to know that his sister Dorothy, with whom
he spent countless hours, will remember him fondly, carrying him with her
wherever she goes.
Mortality
Wordsworth's fascination with death frequently
shows up in his poetry. The Lucy Poems, for instance, are a series of poems
about a young girl who may or may not have been a figment of Wordsworth's
imagination, and who ultimately dies. Wordsworth looks at the event from
several angles. In "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" he focuses on
the unexpectedness of her death, and the unpredictability of life and death in
general. In "Three years she grew" Wordsworth creates a fanciful rationale
for her death: Nature became entranced by her and promised to give her an
incredible life, but once all of her promises were fulfilled Lucy had to die.
In "We are Seven" Wordsworth looks at a young girl who had six
siblings but now lives at home with only her mother, because two of her
siblings have died and the others have moved away. The little girl seems not to
understand death throughout the poem, but in the end the reader learns that she
may have a clearer understanding than the speaker. In "Lines Composed a
Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" Wordsworth is comforted by the thought that
he will live on after his death, because his sister Dorothy will remember him
lovingly.
Humanity
One of Wordsworth's greatest worries is the
descent of humanity. As man moves further and further away from humanity he
seems to be losing more and more of his soul. Often when Wordsworth is in
nature he is saddened because he is forced to think about the people trapped in
cities, unable or unwilling to commune with nature. In "London,
1802," for instance, Wordsworth makes a plea to the poet John Milton to
return and teach humanity how to regain the morality and virtue it once had.
Similarly, in "The world is too much with us" Wordsworth worries that
the world is too full of people who have lost their connection to divinity, and
more importantly, to nature: "Getting and spending we lay waste our
powers, / Little we see in Nature that is ours."
Transcendence and Connectivity
The idea of transcendence did not gain full
speed until the Romantic Movement moved to America, but Wordsworth was
certainly a fan of the idea long before then. "Transcendence" simply
means "being without boundaries." For Wordsworth, this means being
able to connect with people and things outside of oneself, especially in terms
of nature. It was Wordsworth's supreme aspiration to metaphorically transcend
the limitations of his body and connect completely with nature. Mankind's
difficulty accepting the beauty that nature has to offer saddened Wordsworth;
he found the loss of such a gift difficult to accept.
Morality
In Wordsworth's poems, morality doesn't
necessarily stem directly from religion, but rather from doing what is right by
oneself, by humanity, and by nature. In "London, 1802" Wordsworth
complains that man's morals are in a state of constant decline, but the morals
he is talking about have more to do with following the natural process of life
- being free and powerful, not tied down by city living or common thoughts. The
most important lesson a person can learn, according to Wordsworth, is to be
true to his own impulses and desires, but not greedy. A person should be
available to help his fellow man, but should not be consumed by other peoples'
needs. He should be in communion with nature, with humanity, and with himself.
Religion
Religion, while not as prevalent as in the
poetry of the Enlightenment, does have a place in much of Wordsworth's poetry.
Often religion is included simply to help Wordsworth's more pious readers
understand the level of his commitment to and faith in nature. Wordsworth uses
religious imagery and language in his poems in order to convey his ideas about
the power of nature, the human mind, and global interconnectivity.
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798
Background/Context:
"Tintern Abbey" was written
in July of 1798 and published as the last poem of Lyrical Ballads, also in
1798. At the age of twenty-three (in August of 1793), Wordsworth had visited
the desolate abbey alone. In 1798 he returned to the same place with his
beloved sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, who was a year younger. Dorothy is referred
to as "Friend" throughout
the poem.
The full title of the poem is “Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye
During a Tour, July 13, 1798". But the poem is simply called "Tintern
Abbey." This is misleading because the it is actually located "a
few miles" away! At the time the poem was written, Tintern Abbey was
already just the ruins of a gothic cathedral--a stone shell with no roof.
Ruins of ‘Tintern Abbey’
in Wales
The poem's structure is similarly
complex, The poem is written in tightly structured decasyllabic blank verse
and comprises verse paragraphs rather than stanzas. Categorising the poem is
difficult, as it contains some elements of the ode and of the dramatic
monologue. The flow of the writing has been described as that of waves,
accelerating only to stop in the middle of a line (caesura). Divided into five
stanzas of different lengths.
Narrative Structure:
|
Part |
Lines/Stanzas |
Description |
|
I |
Stanza-1&2 (Lines 1–49) |
contextual scene-setting |
|
II |
Stanza-3&4 (Lines 49- 111) |
developing theorisation of the significance of his
experience of the landscape |
|
III |
Stanza-5 (Lines 111–159) |
final confirmatory address to the implied listener. |
Summary:
Wordsworth begins his poem by telling
the reader that it has been five years since he has been to this place a few
miles from the abbey. Wordsworth emphasizes the act of returning by making
extensive use of repetition: "Five years
have passed; five summers, with the length / Of five long winters! and again I
hear / These waters..." He describes the "Steep and
lofty cliffs," the "wild secluded scene," the "quiet of the
sky," the "dark sycamore" he sits under, the trees of the
orchard, and the "pastoral farms" with "wreaths of smoke"
billowing from their chimneys. The reader is introduced to the natural beauty
of the Wye River area.
In the second stanza, Wordsworth
departs from the present moment to describe how his memories sustained over the
past five years. He tells his readers that his first visit to this place
gave him "sensations sweet" when he was "in lonely rooms, and mid the din / Of towns and cities".
He intimates that these "feelings... / Of unremembered pleasure" may
have helped him to be a better person, perhaps simply by putting him in a
better mood than he would have been in. Wordsworth uses words such as
"sublime,""blessed," and "serene." Wordsworth
goes on to suggest his spiritual relationship with nature, which he believes
will be a part of him until he dies. Nature, it seems, offers humankind
("we") a kind of insight ("We see into the life of things")
in the face of mortality ("we are laid asleep"). Wordsworth lays
emphasis on the last line by making it only eight syllables (four iambs) long,
as opposed to ten.
In the third stanza, he begins
to consider what it would mean if his belief in his connection to nature were
misguided, but stops short. Seeming not to care swhether the connection is
valid or not, he describes the many benefits that his memories nature give him.
Wordsworth returns to the present and reiterates how important his memories of
this landscape have been to him. At the end of the stanza he addresses the Wye
River as: "O sylvan Wye!" (apostrophe).
In the fourth stanza, Wordsworth
begins by explaining the pleasure he feels at being back in the place that has
given him so much joy over the years. He is also glad because he knows that
this new memory will give him future happiness: "in this moment there is
life and food / for future years." He goes on to explain how differently
he experienced nature five years ago, when he first came to explore the area.
During his first visit he was full of energy. Wordsworth quickly sets his
current self apart from the way he was five years ago, saying, "That time
is past." At first, however, he seems almost melancholy about
the change: "And all its aching joys are now no more, / And all its dizzy
raptures." Over the past five years, he has developed a new approach to
nature. Wordsworth is "still / A lover of the meadows and the woods,"
but has lost some of his gleeful exuberance. Instead, he views nature as the "anchor of [his] purest thoughts, the nurse, / The
guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul / of all my moral being."
In the fifth and last stanza,
Wordsworth addresses his sister Dorothy, calling her both "Sister"
and "dear Friend." Through her eyes, Wordsworth can see
the wild vitality he had when he first visited this place, and this image of
himself gives him new life. It is apparent at this point in the poem that
Wordsworth has been speaking to his sister throughout. Dorothy serves the same
role as nature, reminding Wordsworth of what he once was. Wordsworth then
shares his deepest hope: that in the future, the power of nature and the
memories of himself will stay with Dorothy. He is implying that he will die
before she does and hopes that in her memory he will be kept alive: Even as
Wordsworth thinks about dying, he is given new strength and vitality at the
thought that his sister will remember him. He describes the setting vigorously:
At the end of the poem, Wordsworth
combines their current setting with his sister's future memory of the moment.
He is satisfied knowing that she will also carry the place, the moment, and the
memory with her.
Line by line Summary
STANZA 1, LINES 1-22
Lines 1-2
FIVE years have past; five summers, with the
length
Of five long winters! …..
The speaker doesn't open with a
description of the view or even an explanation of where he is, he starts by
telling us how much time has passed since he was last here (and we know from
the title that "here" is "a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,"
on the "Banks of the Wye").
He doesn't just say "five years
have past," he really emphasizes that five years is a super long time by
adding up the seasons. Especially the "five long winters."
Lines 2-4
……………….……and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their
mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. – Once again
But now he's there again! So,
"once again," the speaker can hear and see all the beautiful stuff
that he remembers from his first visit.
This is where he starts to describe
those impressions, and he starts with what he can hear: the sound of the
"mountain-springs."
Lines 5-8
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The speaker describes the "steep
and lofty cliffs." He uses the word "again" in these lines, as
well, possibly to reinforce the idea that he's been here before. Those mountain
cliffs "impress/ Thoughts" of "seclusion," or self-imposed
solitude on the speaker.
Those cliffs reach from the landscape
below and beyond them up to the sky, "connect[ing]" everything he's
looking at, so the cliffs help to create a sense of unity to the view he's
admiring.
Lines 9-14
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these
orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe
fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
'Mid groves and copses. …………
The speaker "reposes," or
relaxes in the shade under a "sycamore" and lists all of the specific
parts of the view that he remembers from the last trip to the River Wye: the
small gardens around the cottages and the groups of fruit trees which, in the
distance, look like "tufts" instead of individual trees. Because it's
still early in the summer, the fruit isn't ripe yet, so the fruit trees are all
the same shade of green as the surrounding clusters ("groves and copses")
of wild trees.
Lines 14-18
……………………………..Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little
lines
Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral
farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
"Once again," again. He sure
wants to emphasize the fact that he's seen all this before.
The "hedge-rows," or planted rows of
shrubbery, used to mark property lines or the edge of a field, look like
"little lines" from his vantage point.
He also describes the hedge-rows as
"sportive wood run wild", which seems odd, given that hedges are
planted to keep things in order, so that the fields won't "run wild."
The speaker then points out all the
farm houses he can see, and then the little "wreaths of smoke"
appearing here and there from the woods. But no sounds of human life: the smoke
goes up "in silence."
The farms he describes are
"pastoral," which is interesting because the word
"pastoral" can refer either to shepherds (so these are probably sheep
farms), the countryside where shepherds are likely to live, or to poetry about
shepherds.
Lines 19-22
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,
Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire
The Hermit sits alone.
The speaker imagines that the smoke
could come from the fire of a "vagrant" or wandering person who's
camping out in the "houseless woods." Or maybe the smoke is coming
from a cave where a "Hermit," or solitary religious person, has
chosen to live.
STANZA 2, LINES 22-49
Lines 22-24
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
This stanza goes into a kind of
flashback, describing the way the speaker felt during the "five
years" that had passed.
Since his last visit, the memory of
the "beauteous forms," or the awesome view he's just described, has
been so present to him that he could practically see it – not like the
description of a "landscape to a blind man," who wouldn't be able to
imagine it fully.
Lines 25-30
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration: …………….
The speaker often felt comforted by
his memory of those "beauteous forms" when he was "lonely"
or cooped up in the "din" (noise), of "towns and cities".
He felt the "beauteous
forms" somewhere in his "blood," and then in his
"heart," before it finally went into his "purer mind". He
found that the memory of this view along the Wye could "restore" him
to "tranquility," or calmness.
Lines 30-35
………………………….– feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love. ………………
Recalling "beauteous forms"
brought up "feelings" of "unremembered pleasure," or
pleasant things that seemed trivial at the time.
It's the memory of having done nice
things for people, even if each individual act of kindness was "little,
nameless, [or] unremembered" by the person.
Lines 35-37
…………………Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; …………….
The speaker thinks that he "may
have owed" even more to "them" (i.e., the "beauteous
forms" of Wye). When the speaker was feeling totally run down from living
in the city, the memory of the "beauteous forms" gave him another
"gift" that was even more "sublime," so lofty, grand, and
exalted as to be almost life-changingly spiritual.
Lines 37-41
………………that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened: ……………..
The "sublime" gift that the
"beauteous forms" gave him was a "blessed mood" that made
the weight of the world seem lighter.
Both the "burthen" (or
burden) of the "mystery" and the "heavy and weary weight/ Of all
this unintelligible world" are being "lightened" by the
"blessed mood."
Just by recalling the "beauteous
forms" of the landscape from the banks of the Wye, all of the the burderns
stop bothering him.
Lines 41-46
……………….– that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on, –
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
The "affections lead" him to
a place where his physical body (the "corporeal frame") is almost irrelevant.
Even his blood has almost stopped moving in his veins. So, the physical body is
now irrelevant, or "asleep", so that only the "soul" matters.
Notice the sudden switch from the
first person singular ("I", "me,""my," etc.) to
the first person plural ("us", "we,""our", etc.).
The speaker wants us (the reader) to be included in it
Lines 47-49
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
The "eye" is now
"quiet," or, the speaker is no longer aware of his immediate,
physical surroundings because of his meditative, trance-like state.But, we're
not distracted by our surroundings, we're able to "see into the life of
things," or, we're able to see things as they really are.
STANZA 3, LINES 49-57
Lines 49-57
If this
Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft –
In darkness and amid the many shapes
Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
Have hung upon the beatings of my heart –
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
sylvan Wye! thou
wanderer thro' the woods,
How
often has my spirit turned to thee!
This is the shortest stanza in the
poem, but it's all one long, complicated sentence.
The speaker starts with the worry that
his whole theory (about how it's possible for the memories of beautiful
things to lead you to a state where you understand important truths about the
world) is totally bogus – a "vain belief."
Then the speaker says that, even if it
is bogus, (whether it is true or not), he still often ("oft") called
out to the "sylvan," or wooded, river Wye "in spirit."
The speaker describes when, or under
what circumstances, he used to cry out to the river Wye "in spirit."
It was when everything seemed dark and "joyless," even in the
"daylight," and when the "fretful stir," or anxious bustle,
of the world was really getting him down.
The speaker is saying that it doesn't
matter how bogus the idea really is. It worked for him when he was depressed.
STANZA 4, LINES 58-99
Lines 58-61
And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again:
The flashback is over (see the word
‘And now’). The speaker is back to talking about his impressions in his present
visit to the river Wye. His memories of his first visit are being
"revive[d]" by seeing everything again.
He's
experiencing "somewhat of a sad perplexity" or confused, about how
his present impressions match up with his "dim and faint"
recollections.
Even
though it's confused, he finally manages to "revive," or reconstruct,
the "picture of the mind," and remember his earlier impressions.
Lines 62-65
While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing
thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. ………………
He's
pleased for two reasons at the same time. First, because that view is pretty
spectacular in the here and now. Second, because he's already thinking about
how, sometime in the future, he's going to look back on the memory of his
present experience with enjoyment.
Lines 65-67
………….. And so I dare to hope,
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when
first
I came among these hills; ……………..
The
speaker "hope[s]" that he'll live to look back on this moment with
pleasure. Then he starts reflecting on how much he's changed since his first
visit (five years before).
Lines 67-70
…………..when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led:……………..
It's
another flashback: the speaker is describing himself from five years ago. William
leaped and "bounded" all over the place like a "roe", or
deer – just going "wherever nature led".
Lines 70-72
…………..more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. …………..
The
speaker says that William, seemed to be running away from something, rather
than chasing something "he loved".
Lines 72-75
……………….For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all. ……………….
The
speaker says nature meant everything to William.
The
parenthetical comment that breaks it up is somewhat ambiguous. The speaker says
that the "coarser", less refined or sophisticated
"pleasures" that William enjoyed as a boy, and his "glad animal
movements" are all over.
Lines 75-76
……………….– I cannot paint
What then I was………………
The
speaker interrupts himself with a dash to claim that he can't describe his past
self in words. This is kind of ironic, given that that's exactly what he's
doing, and what he's going to continue to do.
Lines 76-83
…………..The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from the eye………………….
The
speaker has just said that nature was everything to William, and he does mean
everything.
The
"sounding cataract", or waterfall, took the place of his
"passion," and the "colours and […] forms" of the
"mountain" and the "wood" were his appetite. Nature
supplied his "feeling" and "love," too – and without the
need for intellectual "thought," since nature had enough
"charm" and "interest" on its own.
So
nature, it seems, took the place of all of William's physical and emotional
desires.
Lines 83-88
…………………..– That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompence………………
The
speaker can no longer experience the same "aching joys" and
"dizzy raptures" that William could; he can just remember them. But
he has "other gifts" now that "recompence", or make up for
it.
Lines 88-93
…………….For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing often times
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue…………………
The
speaker has matured beyond William's "thoughtless" appreciation of
nature. Now, when he looks at nature, he's able to hear "the still, sad
music of humanity," which seems to mean that he can sense some universal,
timeless connection between nature and all of humanity.
The
music is "power[ful]," though. It can "chasten and subdue"
the speaker, or, in other words, it can make him feel both humbled and calm.
Lines 93-99
………………………… And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
When
he hears the "still, sad music of humanity," the speaker says that he
feels some kind of "presence", which"disturbs" the speaker,
but in a good way. The "presence" makes the speaker lift his
"thoughts" to higher things.
The
"presence" also gives the speaker a sense that there's
"something" like a divine presence that exists "deeply
interfused," or blended in with everything around it.
This
"something" lives in "the light of setting suns", in
"the round ocean and the living air", in "the blue sky",
and even "in the mind of man".
This
"something" exists in everything in nature, surrounding us, filling
us, and binding the universe together.
Lines 100-102
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all
thought,
And rolls through all things. …………….
The
speaker defines the "something" is "a motion and a spirit,"
that "impels," or animates, all things that think, and that
"rolls through all things". He really wants to emphasize that this
"spirit" connects everything.
Lines 102-107
……………..Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear, – both what they half create,
And what perceive; ……………..
This
is why the speaker still considers himself a "lover" of nature. It's
because he's figured out that the "presence" (a.k.a. the
"something" or the "spirit") connects everything.
So
the speaker loves everything "that we behold/ From this green earth",
everything that you can sense with "eye, and ear". So the speaker is
saying that he loves what his "eyes and ears""half create"
as well as "what [they] perceive".
Lines 107-111
…………………well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.
The
speaker is happy to see the "presence" (a.k.a. the
"something" or the "spirit") "in nature and the
language of the sense".
He
calls it "the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/ The guide, the
guardian of my heart, and soul/ Of all my moral being".
The
speaker seems to find it difficult to describe the "presence" he
feels in nature. Up to this point, he's described it as: "a
presence", "something", "a motion and a spirit",
"the anchor of my purest thoughts", "the nurse, the guide, the
guardian of my heart", and the "soul of all my moral being".
STANZA 5, LINES 111-159
Lines 111-113
Nor perchance,
If I were not thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay:
The
final stanza opens with another gearshift. The speaker says that even if he
weren't "thus taught" – even if he hadn't learned about the
"presence" in nature – he still wouldn't "suffer his genial
spirits to decay." In other words, he wouldn't allow his natural sympathy
and kindness to go to waste.
Lines 114-121
For thou art with me here upon the banks
Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! ………………
He
won't let his "genial spirits" go to waste, because "thou
art" with him on the banks of the river Wye.
He
calls her his "dearest Friend", his "dear, dear Friend",
and his "dear, dear Sister". Wordsworth's sister was named Dorothy.
He
says that her "voice" reminds him of the way he used to feel
("the language of my former heart"), and her "wild eyes"
remind him of his "former pleasures".
So
the speaker seems to be saying that present-day Dorothy reacts to nature in the
same way that William did when he was here five years ago. He says that he can
see his past self in her.
Lines 121-134
…………………………. and this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to
lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil
tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings………………..
This
is one of the most famous lines of the poem: "Nature never did betray/ The heart that loved her".
So, "Nature" will answer the speaker's prayer because he's a
Nature-lover. "Her privilege" refers to "Nature's
privilege." Nature will always "lead" us "from joy to
joy" through all our lives.
Nature
will make sure that we only have "lofty thoughts", and will keep our
minds full of "quietness and beauty". This is important, because
there's plenty to distract us from the "quietness and beauty."
The
speaker lists some of the possible distractions: "evil tongues", or
mean gossipy people who talk smack; "rash judgment", or people who
misjudge you; the "sneers of selfish men", or the self-centered folks
who look down on you; and "the dreary intercourse", or the boring,
mind-numbing interactions of "daily life". Phew. "Nature"
protect us from all these!
Lines 134-142
………………………..Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee: and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; ………….
He
utters few lines of blessing or benediction on Dorothy: "let the moon/
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;/ And let the misty mountain-winds be free/
To blow against thee".
The
speaker wants Dorothy to experience nature the way that William experienced it
five years ago. He wants her to have the same "wild ecstasies" that
William did.
That
way, when Dorothy "mature[s]" the way he did, her
"pleasure" in nature will become "sober", too – just like
the speaker!
Lines 142-146
……………………………..oh! then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing
thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations! …………………
if
Dorothy's mind gets turned into "solitude, or fear, or pain, or
grief", she'll be able to "heal thoughts" that will make her
feel better.
The
speaker, stood next to her with his "exhortations", or
encouragements.
Lines 146-159
………………….Nor, perchance –
If I should be where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past existence – wilt thou then forget
That on the banks of this delightful stream
We stood together; and that I, so long
A worshipper of Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that service: rather say
With warmer love – oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty
cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy
sake!
The
"gleams/ Of past existence" that the speaker is seeing in Dorothy's
"wild eyes" are his recollections of the way William reacted to
things.
Now
the speaker imagines a future after he has died, after he is "where [he]
no more can hear/ Thy voice". He asks Dorothy if she'll forget having
"stood together" on the banks of the Wye after he's gone.
He
also asks if she'll forget that her brother, who has loved Nature for "so
long", had come back "hither" to the banks of the Wye with an
even deeper love of nature than he felt before.
She
won't forget, he says, that after all of his "wanderings" and the
"many years/ Of absence", the view from the banks of the Wye are
even more precious to him than they were before.
10. Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (1807)
Background/Context:
"Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"
("Ode", "Immortality Ode" or "Great Ode") is a
poem by William Wordsworth, completed the first part (4 stanzas) in 1802 and
second part (7 stanzas) in 1804 and published with the simple title “Ode” in Poems, in Two Volumes (1807). It was the last poem of the second volume of the
work. it was later edited and given the current title, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" in 1815.
In 1820, Wordsworth issued The Miscellaneous Poems of William
Wordsworth. In this 1820 version of the poem, the lines 140 and 141 are
removed.
The first
part of the poem was completed on 27 March 1802 and a copy was provided to
Wordsworth's friend and fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who responded
with his own poem, "Dejection: An Ode", in April. The fourth stanza of the ode ends
with a question, and Wordsworth was finally able to answer it with seven
additional stanzas completed in early 1804.
The poem's
speaker remembers that, when he was a child, he saw the whole world shining
with heavenly beauty, and wonders where that beauty has gone now he's an adult.
While he can never get that kind of vision back, he concludes, he can still
build his faith upon his memories of it; the way the world looks to children,
he argues, is a hint that every human soul comes from heaven, and will return
there one day.
Epigraph:
Wordsworth
added an epigraph just before publication, "paulò majora canamus".
The Latin phrase is from Virgil's Eclogue 4, meaning "let us sing a
somewhat loftier song. The poem was reprinted under its full title "Ode: Intimation of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood" for Wordsworth's collection Poems (1815).
The reprinted version contained a new epigraph that was added at Henry Crabb
Robinson's suggestion. The epigraph was from last three lines of "My Heart Leaps Up (1807)", also
known as " The Rainbow ".
Form and
Meter
The poem is
an irregular Pindaric ode in 11 stanzas that combines narrative style of an
interior monologue in the manner of Coleridge's Conversation poems; prophetic
aspects of the poem are related to the Old Testament of the Bible; and
the works of Saint Augustine, and reflective and questioning aspects are
similar to the Psalms and the works of Saint Augustine, and the
ode contains what is reminiscent of Hebrew prayer.
The stanzas
were written with variable rhyme schemes, in iambic lines with anything from
two to five stressed syllables. The rhymes occasionally alternate lines,
occasionally fall in couplets, and occasionally occur within a single line (as
in “But yet I know, where’er I go” in the second stanza).
The poem
also contains multiple enjambments and there is a use of an ABAB rhyme scheme
that gives the poem a singsong quality.
Narrative
Structure:
|
Part |
Stanzas |
Description |
|
I |
1-4 |
discuss death, and the loss of youth and innocence |
|
II |
5-8 |
describe how age causes man to lose sight of the
divine |
|
III |
9-11 |
express hope that the memory of the divine will
allow us to sympathise with our fellow man |
Criticism:
The ode
praises children for being the "best
Philosopher" ("lover of truth") because they live in
truth and have prophetic abilities. This claim bothers Coleridge and he writes,
in Biographia Literaria, that Wordsworth was trying to be a prophet in an area that he could
have no claim to prophecy.
Lord Byron responded
to Poems in Two Volumes in a review, that the collection lacked the quality
found in Lyrical Ballads and dismissed this poem as Wordsworth's "innocent odes"
Francis
Jeffrey, a Whig lawyer (coined the term lake poets) and editor of the
Edinburgh Review, originally favoured Wordsworth's poetry following the
publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 but turned against the poet from 1802
onward. In response to Wordsworth's 1807 collection of poetry, Jeffrey
contributed an anonymous review to the October 1807 Edinburgh Review that condemned
Wordsworth's poetry again.
Robert
Southey, in a letter to Walter Scott, wrote, "There are certainly some pieces there which are good
for nothing….”.
But, Emerson
praised the poem as: “It is the high-water mark of poetry in the 19th century”
Summary:
The speaker
begins by declaring that there was a time when nature seemed mystical to him,
like a dream, "Apparelled in celestial light." But now all of that is
gone. No matter what he does, "The things which I have seen I now can see
no more."
In the
second stanza 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,
where'er I go, / That there hath past away a glory from the earth." The
speaker is saddened by the birds singing and the lambs jumping in the third
stanza. Soon, however, he resolves not to be depressed, because it will only
put a damper on the beauty of the season. He declares that all of the earth is
happy, and exhorts the shepherd boy to shout.
In the
fourth stanza the speaker continues to be a part of the joy of the season,
saying that it would be wrong to be "sullen / While Earth herself in
adorning, / And the Children are culling / On every side, / In a thousand
valleys far and wide." However, when he sees a tree, a field, and later a
pansy at his feet, they again give him a strong feeling that something is
amiss. He asks, "Whither is fled the visionary gleam? / Where is it now,
the glory and the dream?"
The fifth
stanza contains arguably the most famous line of the poem: "Our birth is
but a sleep and a forgetting." He goes on to say that as infants we have
some memory of heaven, but as we grow we lose that connection: "Heaven
lies about us in our infancy!" As children this connection with heaven
causes us to experience nature's glory more clearly. Once we are grown, the
connection is lost. In the sixth stanza, 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 known, and that imperial palace whence
he came."
In the
seventh stanza the speaker sees (or imagines) a six-year-old boy, and foresees
the rest of his life. 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
and pride / The little Actor cons another part." It seems to the speaker
that his whole life will essentially be "endless imitation." In the
eighth stanza the speaker 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 an adult. He asks him, "Why
with such earnest pains dost thou provoke / The years to bring the inevitable
yoke, / Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?" In the ninth stanza
(which is the longest at 38 lines) 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.
In the tenth stanza the speaker harkens back to the beginning of the
poem, asking the same creatures that earlier made him sad with their sounds to
sing out: "Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!" Even
though he admits that he has lost some of the glory of nature as he has grown
out of childhood, he is comforted by the knowledge that he can rely on his
memory. In the final stanza the speaker says that nature is still the stem of
everything is 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."
Line by line Summary
Epigraph:
The
child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
(Wordsworth: "My Heart Leaps Up")
These three
lines are actually the final three lines of Wordsworth’s own poem ‘The
Rainbow,’ or ‘My Heart Leaps Up’. They were inserted before the
poem when it was published in Poems, in 1815.
I
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.
In the
first stanza of ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood’ the speaker begins by looking towards the past. He recalls how there
“was a time” when things were different. To him, the “meadow, grove, and
stream” all seemed “Apparelled” or dressed/covered in “celestial light”. There
was something spiritually elevating, and almost religious about the landscape.
The “common sights” were not common, they were wondrous. He adds to this that
they made him think that he was expecting the “glory and freshness of a dream,”
or at least they had that kind of feeling.
In the
middle of this stanza, he reminds the reader that everything is not as it was.
The world is not so glorious. Things are not as they were in “yore” or the
past. He has tried to seek out and find the same emotional experiences he had
as a child but has been unable. The thing that
he used to see he can “now…see no more”.
II
The
Rainbow comes and goes,
And
lovely is the Rose,
The
Moon doth with delight
Look
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, where'er I go,
That
there hath past away a glory from the earth.
The second
stanza is also fairly short. It contains the speaker’s current way of thinking
about the world. All the beauty of nature has not left him; he can still see
and experience it. But, as the last lines admit, there is something crucial
missing. In these lines, Wordsworth alternates between trimeter and tetrameter.
The alternating patterns of the meter mimic the fluctuating perception of
space.
He speaks
on the “Rainbow” and the “Rose,” an example of alliteration, as well as on the
“Moon” and “Waters.” Everything is “beautiful and fair,” and he can feel the
glory of the sun, but still, it’s not as it was.
III
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 that 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.
The third
stanza is seventeen lines long and makes use of a more complicated rhyme
scheme. It starts out following a pattern of ABBCCA. In the first lines of this
section, he reiterates again the beauty of the natural world but interrupts
himself to speak on his “thought of grief”. As the “young lambs” jumped through
the field to the sound of a “tabor,” or drum, he was brought low.
His
weakness is luckily temporary though and he is relieved by “A timely
utterance”. The poet does not explain what this “utterance” is, only that it
was relieving. It was likely something natural, the sound of a bird, or other
creature.
The speaker
also mentions the “cataracts” in this stanza or the waterfalls. They are loud,
personified in order to emphasize the racket their waters make. He determines
that he’s no longer going to feel sad. His “grief” has been wronging the
season. He knows he should be celebrating so he’s going to try.
He takes
note of the “gay” or happy nature of the earth and the way the “Land and sea”
give themselves freely in joy. Creating a juxtaposition with his own heart, he
notes how the “Beast[s]” are able to “keep holiday” at this time of year. He
truly wants to feel as they do, but there’s still something keeping him from
fully committing.
IV
Ye
blessèd creatures, I have heard the call
Ye to
each other make; I see
The
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 fourth
stanza contains the speaker’s words to the “blessèd creatures” of the earth. As
if to console or reassure them, he says that he has “heard the call” they shout
to one another and how the whole world and heavens participate in the joy they
create. His heart, he adds, is “at your festival”. He’s fully in, ready to
participate alongside the lovely life around him. In the sixth line the speaker
stutters, as if overcome with that same joy.
In lines
seven and eight he curses the possibility of ever feeling sad on a day like
this. It is a “sweet May-morning” and the children are laughing and playing in
the fields. There is life being born and bringing new joy to the earth.
Repetition
I used in the fifteenth line to emphasize the speaker’s attempts to give
himself over fully to the joy he hears. He looks out around him,
metaphorically, and sees a “tree”. There’s one, in particular, that’s of
interest. It stands along with a field he has “looked upon” in the past. Both
of these things make him think of “something that is gone”. They are
personified, playing into the already heavy personification used in the
previous times. The world is at all times speaking to the narrator of this
poem.
It’s not
just from the tree and field that he’s getting this negative feeling, also from
the flower at his feet. It too tells the same tale. Where is it, he asks, “the
glory and the dream?” Despite his joy or attempts at joy, everything is not
right. There is still something missing.
V
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 is 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.
The fifth stanza is perhaps the best-known of the whole poem. The
speaker begins by saying that “Our birth is but a sleep and a
forgetting”. He is proposing the possibility that the human soul exists before
birth, “elsewhere” and “cometh from afar” when we are born. The “elsewhere” is
a better place, somewhere more glorious. When ‘we” do come to earth to be born
we bring with us “trailing clouds of glory”. It is with this feeling humans are
born.
It is here that Wordsworth puts the
root of the poem. When we are young, “Heaven
lies about us” but as we age it disappears.
In the second half of the stanza, he adds that growing up is like
entering into prison. The “Shades of the prison-house begin to close” as one
leaves one’s youth. “He,” the young man, must everyday travel closer to the
west from the east, a metaphor for death. As the journey grows long, the
splendour of “Heaven” disappears and fades in the “light of common day”. It is
this “Heaven” that the speaker has been missing in the first four stanzas.
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 can
To
make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget
the glories he hath known,
And
that imperial palace whence he came.
The sixth stanza is closer
in length to stanzas one and two. In it, Wordsworth turns his attention to the
earth and how it words as a mother to humankind. It has something of a
“Mother’s mind” as it fills its lamp with “pleasures”. The earth is pure in its
pursuits, none of its aims are unworthy.
In addition to being a mother, the earth is also a nurse to humanity.
“She” does all she can to “make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man” forget
“Heaven” of the pre-birth time. It is best, the nurse-earth thinks, for
humankind to forget about the “imperial palace whence” they came from.
VII
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-learn{e}d 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 tongue
To
dialogues of business, love, or strife;
But
it will not be long
Ere
this be thrown aside,
And
with new joy and pride
The
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.
In the
first part of the seventh stanza, the speaker introduces a young boy. He
exclaims over this child who is only six years old and “of a pigmy size” in
relation to the rest of the world. The next lines explore the relationship the
child has with his family members. He learns to love, he’s cared for, and is
taught how to act by his mother and father. The boy imitates what it’s going to
be like to grow older with charts. Planning “A wedding or a festival,” and so
on. The boy is shaped by their influence.
These lines
cast the world, as Shakespeare would’ve said, as a stage. The boy imagines that
there are various roles to fill and he can fill them by learning the “dialogues
of business, love, or strife”. But, before long he will change his mind and he
will “con another part”. The speaker wants to know why this child is choosing
to grow up and cast aside the joys of youth. Why would one want to engage in
“endless imitation”.
VIII
Thou,
whose exterior semblance doth belie
Thy
Soul's immensity;
Thou
best Philosopher, who yet dost keep
Thy
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 Immortality
Broods
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 might
Of
heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,
Why
with such earnest pains dost thou provoke
The
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!
In the eighth stanza, the
speaker continues to discuss the boy. He addresses him as if he’s a prophet of
some kind, or a “Philosopher”. It is only this boy and by default those of his
age, that have access to “those truths”. He could tap into the Heaven of his
birth if he chose to, a fact the speaker is trying to get across to him.
Those who are older are toiling to find that time before birth in which
everything was illuminated.
In the
second half of the eighth stanza the speaker, continuing to address the child,
asks him why he is trying to grow up so quickly. Why he states, are you trying
to provoke pain and bring about the “inevitable yoke?” It’s going to be very
soon in which this child completely loses access to the joys of the world, and
the speaker is trying to warn him of that. Soon, his soul is going to have the
weight of the world.
IX
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 breed
Perpetual
benediction: not indeed
For
that which is most worthy to be blest;
Delight
and liberty, the simple creed
Of
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 Creature
Moving
about in worlds not realised,
High
instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did
tremble like a guilty thing surprised:
But
for those first affections,
Those
shadowy recollections,
Which,
be they what they may
Are
yet the fountain-light of all our day,
Are
yet a master-light of all our seeing;
Uphold
us, cherish, and have power to make
Our
noisy years seem moments in the being
Of
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.
In the
first part of the ninth stanza, which is the longest of the poem with
thirty-nine lines, the speaker makes a statement of intent. He thinks of the
past, that which he has lost, and how he intends to move forward. His past is
remembered in nature and he can take pleasure in the fact that this is always
going to be the case.
In this
second half of the stanza, he reiterates much of what he said previously. He
celebrates in the recollections of the past. They are the “fountain-light of
all our day” and the “master-light of all our seeing”. That which we remember
from our youth directs us as we age. It is only through the memory of youth
that our old age is made to seem beautiful.
There is
nothing, the speaker adds in the last portion of this long stanza, that can
“abolish or destroy” his youth. It exists eternally no matter what the season
or difficulty of the present. No matter, he adds, how far “inland we may be”
there is a connection to the pre-life world of heaven. The “immortal sea” is
the insight that “brought us hither” to life on earth.
X
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 bright
Be
now for ever taken from my sight,
Though
nothing can bring back the hour
Of
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.
In a repetition of how he
addressed the shepherd boy earlier on in the poem, he asks the birds to sing.
He also brings back in the image of the lambs bounding and the drum sounding.
These lines are quite evenly rhymed, playing into the joy the speaker
feels.
He wants all
creatures around him to participate in his joy, to feel the “gladness of the
May!” He’s clearly incredibly excited by this revelation he has come
to.
The speaker
knows now that he can take comfort in the past, in “primal sympathy”. It
happened, so it cannot be undone. It will always exist in memory. Anaphora in
these last lines of the tenth stanza help paint a clear picture of the
speaker’s thoughts. He celebrates “In the soothing thought” that
faith exists through death and years bring “the philosophic mind” and spring
will come out of suffering.
XI
And
O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Forebode
not any severing of our loves!
Yet
in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I
only have relinquished one delight
To
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 sun
Do
take a sober colouring from an eye
That
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
final stanza of ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
Early Childhood’ begins with an address to the landscape. He feels the
“might” of these places and loves them for it. He knows now so much more than
he did as a child. When he was young, as the six-year-old in previous stanzas,
he believed himself immortal. Or at least that’s how he felt. It was as though
he could push past youth and adulthood would be better and forever.
He’s
smarter than that now and takes joy in his mortality. He knows he’s going to
die and that he must accept and love his human heart. The speaker loves nature
all the more because he knows he won’t last within it forever. The last lines
are a lovely conclusion to this piece and bring him finally to the joy he was
initially looking for. The “meanest” or smallest and least significant flower
and stir up in him deep and moving thoughts.
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