பனங்கிழங்கின் பயன்கள்!

William WordsWorth

UNDERSTANDING
THE
POETRY
OF
WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH
UPWW
UNDERSTANDING
THE POETRY
OF
WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH
by
Robert A. Albano
MERCURYE PRESS
Los Angeles
UNDERSTANDING THE POETRY
OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Robert A. Albano
First Printing: December 2009
All Rights Reserved © 2009 by Robert A. Albano
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or
by any information storage retrieval system, without the
written permission of the publisher.
MERCURYE PRESS
Los Angeles
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Wordsworth and the Romantic Period 7
2. Tintern Abbey (explication) 17
3. The Intimations Ode (explication) 43
“Tintern Abbey” (complete poem) 79
“Intimations Ode” (complete Poem) 85

CHAPTER 1
WORDSWORTH AND THE
ROMANTIC PERIOD
WORDSWORTH’S EARLY YEARS
William Wordsworth was most certainly one of the
most influential of the Romantic poets. During the era of
the Romantics in the early nineteenth century, Wordsworth
wrote many great poems. Two of the best are “Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and “Ode:
Intimations of Immortality.” These two poems reflect
several motifs or ideas that are common to the Romantic
poets, especially (1) a reverence for nature and (2) the
idealization of childhood.
William Wordsworth was born in 1770 and died in
1850. His poetry often focused on the relationship
between man and nature. Like all of the Romantic poets,
his work shows a remarkable contrast to the literature of the
previous era, the Neoclassic Age.
Where the Neoclassicists were organized or
structured, orderly, and artificial in their approach, the
Romantics were unlimited or boundless, free, and natural.
Where the Neoclassicists placed an emphasis on reason,
the Romantics emphasized emotion.
Understanding the Poetry of 8 William Wordsworth
Neoclassicists Romantics
organized, structured unlimited, boundless
orderly free
artificial natural
Reason Emotion
Wordsworth’s poetry is also remarkable for being
both simple and complex at the same time. Wordsworth
presents complex ideas and philosophical concepts through
a simple subject matter and language.
The second of five children, Wordsworth was born
in northeast England in 1770. In 1778 Wordsworth’s
mother died; and his father, who had earlier been rather
successful in business, found himself in debt. However, his
father did manage to send young William to a good
boarding school when the boy was nine years old. Prior to
that, William received most of his education from his
mother.
Disaster struck again for Wordsworth when he was
thirteen years of age (in 1783). His father died.
Wordsworth was fortunate, though, that his uncles became
his new guardians; and they saw to it that Wordsworth
continued his education at the boarding school
Wordsworth graduated at age 17 (in 1787) and then
enrolled at Cambridge University. His guardians expected
him to be a clergyman, a member of the church, when he
graduated.
Before he graduated, the 20-year-old Wordsworth
took a break from his studies in 1790 in order to take a
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 9
walking tour through the Alps, the mountain range in
central Europe and ranging along the borders of
Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, and Austria. This
experience with nature – among others – convinced the
gifted scholar that the life of the clergy was not for him.
In 1791 Wordsworth graduated with honors from
Cambridge. He then moved to London. A few months
later Wordsworth moved again, this time to France. He
fell in love with a French girl there. Her name was
Annette Vallon.
In the following year (1792) Wordsworth and his
girlfriend Annette had a child, a daughter whom they
named Caroline. However, a lack of money as well as the
growing tensions between England and France forced
Wordsworth to return to England without his fiancé and
daughter.
Wordsworth’s experiences in the Alps became the
subject matter for his first published work in 1793,
Descriptive Sketches. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge
hailed the work and lavishly praised Wordsworth as “the
best poet of the age.”
Because of his ties to France, the years prior to the
French Revolution were ones of great despair and
suffering for Wordsworth. Wordsworth worried about the
political crisis and how it was affecting Annette Vallon and
his daughter Caroline.
Later, in 1797, with his sister Dorothy, Wordsworth
moved to Somerset, in southern England. The time he
spent there contributed significantly in restoring his mental
Understanding the Poetry of 10 William Wordsworth
health. At Somerset Wordsworth became close friends to
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The two intellectual men
shared a passion for poetry, and they influenced the writing
of each other in numerous and profound ways.
PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS
In the following year, 1798, Wordsworth and
Coleridge produced a joint collection of poetry entitled
Lyrical Ballads. Among other poems in this work is the
highly regarded “Tintern Abbey.”
Lyrical Ballads was highly successful, and it
entered a second edition in 1800 and a third edition in 1802.
For the second edition, Wordsworth added a Preface. And
in the 1802 edition he expanded that Preface even further.
This Preface today stands as what critics refer to as
the pivotal turning point of English Romantic criticism.
They also use the word “manifesto” to describe it. The
word manifesto is often used in politics when a political
party or organization wishes to declare its goals or principle
guidelines or intentions. To call Wordsworth’s Preface a
manifesto, then, suggests that it somehow collectively
represents the unified thoughts of the Romantic poets.
Nothing could have been further from Wordsworth’s
intentions. The poet was not issuing any kind of political
statement, nor was he suggesting that any type of organized
movement enveloped the Romantic writers.
Yet, nevertheless, his Preface does encapsulate the
trends and development of poetry in his age. The
Preface examines the subject matter and language of
poetry as well as addressing the question, “What is a
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 11
poet?” Although the Preface is too lengthy and
complicated to examine adequately in this introduction, the
student should be aware of some of the key concepts that
appear in it.
KEY CONCEPTS OF THE PREFACE
(1) First, Wordsworth defines poetry as the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Unlike the
Neoclassicists, who kept their emotional voice in check,
Wordsworth declares that an abundance of emotions forms
the core of poetry. Such feelings exist within the poet as a
result from his contact with nature, which exists outside or
separate from the poet.
(2) Second, Wordsworth declares that poetry is free
from rules. The poet is free to explore, bend, and even
break the conventions of poetry. No established meters or
rhythm need to be followed. And ideas or concepts can be
explored as freely as rhythmical patterns.
(3) Third, nature forms the primary subject
matter of poetry. And nature becomes, in a sense, a
reflection of the poet’s own soul.
(4) Fourth, ordinary items, everyday objects, the
commonplace are endowed with a special quality or
glory. The poet may esteem and honor a tree, a small
stream, or even a little child. Such are wonderful and
marvelous creations of nature.
(5) Fifth, the beauty of nature contains a strange
or even supernatural quality that affects the beholder in a
positive and spiritual manner.
Understanding the Poetry of 12 William Wordsworth
One must keep in mind, though, that Wordsworth
was not establishing rules here. He was merely recording
his thoughts on the nature of poetry during his age –
especially as it appears in his own poems and those by
Coleridge.
Wordsworth, like all of the Romantics, believed in
the Individualism of the poet. Poets should not conform to
rules, and Wordsworth would definitely not want other
poets to use his poems as inspiration for their own creations
or to imitate his own style of writing poetry.
AFTER LYRICAL BALLADS
After the third edition of Lyrical Ballads was
printed, Wordsworth also was able to settle his personal
affairs. In 1802 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy took a
trip to France. There he met his former girlfriend and his
ten-year-old daughter. William helped them out financially,
but the love that William Wordsworth and Annette Vallon
once felt for one another no longer existed.
Later that same year, William Wordsworth married
Mary Hutchinson, a friend whom he had known since
childhood. Their marriage was a successful one, and they
had five children.
Wordsworth scholars generally point to the years
from 1797 and 1807 as the period when Wordsworth wrote
his greatest poetry. Of course, this time frame includes the
poems found in Lyrical Ballads. And it also includes the
“Intimations Ode,” which first appeared in 1807.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 13
Several critics suggest that Wordsworth’s poetry
after 1807 does not measure up to that which he wrote
earlier. However, Wordsworth’s reputation as a great poet
continued to grow over the next few decades.
In fact, as late as 1843, more than a decade after the
Romantic movement had ended in England, Wordsworth
was honored with the title of Poet Laureate. He was
declared as the chief poet of England.
William Wordsworth died in 1850. He was the last
survivor of the six truly great Romantic poets. Keats died
in 1821, Shelley in 1822, Byron in 1824, Blake in 1827,
and Coleridge in 1834. The final chapter on Romanticism
was now at an end.
Understanding the Poetry of 14 William Wordsworth
THE PRIMARY TOPICS OF WORDSWORTH’S POEMS
(1) First, Wordsworth viewed nature as a teacher.
Nature instructs all of us when we are young and prepares
us for our adult lives.
(2) Second, a relationship exists between
childhood and adulthood. Wordsworth does not just
mean this is the obvious sense. Rather, he points to a
mystic or supernatural connection between these two
distinct stages in life.
(3) Third, Wordsworth does believe that there is
meaning in life, and such meaning can be apprehended or
understood through a relationship with nature.
(4) Fourth, despite the positive affect of nature upon
man, there also exists a conflict between man and nature.
At times Wordsworth depicts nature as a mysterious or
divine presence. It possesses a supernatural quality that
surpasses the understanding of man. Thus, nature, although
an object of beauty, may also be, at the very same time, an
object of awe or even fear.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 15
MOTIFS IN ROMANTIC POETRY
The reader of William Wordworth’s poetry should
attempt to discover which of the motifs common to many
romantic poets are included in Wordsworth’s own work.
There are primarily eight of these motifs to look for.
1. a reverence for nature
2. nature’s appearance is largely subjective, formed by
the response of the human mind
3. expressionistic imagery (images are not realistic but
often represent the internal thoughts and moods of the
speaker)
4. the conflict between desire and the mundane world
(not unlike a conflict between reason and emotion)
5. a portrayal of the sensitive, alienated artist
6. praise of the primitive
7. the idealization of childhood
8. the nature of genius
Not all of these motifs will appear in Wordsworth’s poems,
but most of them do.

CHAPTER 2
TINTERN ABBEY
INTRODUCTION
In one of his greatest poems, “Lines Composed a
Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” the speaker recounts a
physical journey where he returns to one of his favorite
boyhood haunts, a scenic river bank. Yet more important
than the physical journey is the mental one, in which
Wordsworth recalls the past and his memories regarding
the healing power of nature.
“Tintern Abbey” was written in 1798 and was
included in Lyrical Ballads. The complete title is “Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey on
Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour. July 13,
1798.”
The poem pays homage to the restoring powers of
nature.
The poem recounts an actual event at an actual
location. Tintern Abbey is located in Wales in close
proximity to Bristol, Monmouth, and Gloucester. In the
summer of 1798, Wordsworth took a walking tour there
with his sister Dorothy.
Understanding the Poetry of 18 William Wordsworth
Wordsworth had been there once before, by himself,
five years earlier, in 1793. The year prior to that, in 1792,
Wordsworth had been forced to leave his girlfriend and
their baby daughter in France. That separation left
Wordsworth feeling extremely depressed and full of
despair. But the walking tour that he took above Tintern
Abbey contributed significantly to bringing the young
Wordsworth, then only 23 years old, back to health.
In 1798 Wordsworth returned to the scenic spot
with his sister Dorothy. His hope was that the magical
powers of the landscape would affect her as it did him.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 19
STRUCTURE
The poem is 159 lines long and is divided into five
stanzas.
(1) In the first stanza, lines 1 to 22, Wordsworth
describes the locale and mentions how it awakens
memories from five years before.
(2) In the second stanza, lines 22 to 49, Wordsworth
provides a flashback recalling how the beauty of nature
has helped sustain and revive him at those times in the
past when he felt weary or depressed.
(3) The third stanza is brief, comprising lines 49 to
57. Wordsworth questions his belief, his philosophy
regarding the power of nature. But he does not question his
own experience.
(4) The fourth stanza is the longest, extending from
line 58 to line 111. In this section Wordsworth contrasts
the present moment with his reflections of boyhood.
(5) In the fifth and last stanza, from line 111 to 159,
Wordsworth focuses on his sister Dorothy and how she is
gaining the gifts of Nature that he had obtained in the past.
Wordsworth depicts nature as a protector or guardian
Understanding the Poetry of 20 William Wordsworth
STANZA 1
The first stanza begins with the following lines:
FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.--
The opening passage uses typical seasonal imagery, with
summer representing a pleasurable time in life and with
winter representing a cold and harsh time. Wordsworth
informs us that five years has passed since his last visit.
But the poet is also suggesting that those past five
years have not been easy. Wordsworth describes the
winters with a simple adjective, long. The summers are not
described in this way. Wordsworth is indicating that he has
experienced more of the harsher moments in life and not so
many of the pleasurable ones.
With another simple adjective – the word soft –
Wordsworth describes the sound of the mountain springs.
Wordsworth indicates the gentleness and tranquility of the
surroundings and offers these up as a contrast to the harsh
times of the past five years.
The stanza continues:
Once again
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.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 21
Wordsworth establishes a connection in these lines between
the wild secluded scene of nature and the deeper, secluded
thoughts of the speaker. The speaker is thus connected to
nature. The word wild – yet another simple adjective –
may thus also describe the thoughts of the speaker. His
thoughts are wild due to his depression or despair.
Yet the speaker also establishes another connection,
this time between the wild landscape of nature and the
quiet of the sky. The sky lends its quiet calm upon the
wild and unruly growths of nature. And since the speaker’s
thoughts are connected to the landscape, the quiet charm of
the sky also affects him. The speaker absorbs the calm and
quiet presence of nature. And the speaker sits down to
relax under the shade of the sycamore tree.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore …
Wordsworth may have specifically mentioned the
sycamore because of its symbolism. In Egypt the
sycamore is the Tree of Life. And in the Bible the tree is a
symbol of rejuvenation. Of course, Wordsworth finds
Nature to have restorative or rejuvenating qualities. So the
symbolism is appropriate.
During the Renaissance, the sycamore took on an
entirely different meaning. It is associated with dejected
love or, simply, sad love. The sycamore appears notably in
one of the songs that Desdemona sings in the play Othello.
This symbolism is also appropriate for Wordsworth, who is
sad over having to leave his girlfriend in France. And quite
likely, Wordsworth could have intended both meanings.
Understanding the Poetry of 22 William Wordsworth
This Renaissance symbolism may have been created
by poets who were always on the look out for puns and
wordplay. The word sycamore sounds like "sick amour,"
meaning a sick or sad love. For Shakespeare's Othello,
another pun could be intended. Sycamore sounds similar to
"a sick Moor." Othello was a Moor, the Moors being a
tribe of people in northern Africa. Othello’s jealousy is a
“sick amour” or sick love; and, so, Othello is a sick Moor.
In describing the landscape, the speaker in “Tintern
Abbey” corrects himself.
Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild.
The plants form little lines, but they are not hedges. A
hedge refers to plants purposely planted close together in a
yard or garden to form a fence or boundary. In wild nature
there is no gardener to attend the plants. They grow
naturally, wildly, without order. Nature in this way
resembles Romantic poetry, which is also natural but free
from any constrained and restrictive rules.
The speaker then observes the farm houses that dot
the landscape:
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 23
… these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
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.
Wordsworth uses two similes – introduced by the word as
in line 19 – to describe the farm houses. The first simile is
that of the vagrants – hoboes or travelers – camping out
beneath a tree in the woods. The second simile is the
comparison to the hermit living in a cave. Both the woods
and the cave are part of nature, and Wordsworth is
suggesting that the farms appear to be just as natural. The
farms have taken on the attributes of nature. The smoke
sent up from the farmers’ chimneys are silent, like the quiet
of the sky. The farms are serene and peaceful just like the
streams and wild woods. The final word of the stanza is
alone. The loneliness compliments the seclusion noted
earlier.
The stanza thus depicts nature with several key
terms: wild, secluded, quiet, and alone. The speaker also
possesses these qualities. His own wild nature becomes at
rest in the quiet of nature.
Understanding the Poetry of 24 William Wordsworth
STANZA 2
The second stanza begins with the following lines:
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye.
The speaker is now connecting nature to himself and is
describing the power of that nature. Even though he has
been away from the beauty of nature for five years, he has
not forgotten its beauty or its power. The beauty and
power of nature have always been with him. He can still
see its beauty even though he is away from it. It exists in
his memory. He is not blind to it.
The speaker then adds …
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 key word of this passage and perhaps the central theme
of the entire poem is restoration. Wordsworth is
describing the restorative power of nature.
The din or noise of life in the city is in direct
contrast to the quiet of nature. Life in the city is not only
noisy, but it fills one with weariness. And such weariness
is not only physical; it is also psychological and emotional.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 25
Nature is the solution to this weariness. It
provides tranquil restoration. It provides serenity and
peace. It soothes the nerves and calms the mind.
The speaker then adds that the pleasures or gifts of
nature ...
… 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.
In other words, the speaker is declaring that the power of
nature causes man to act in good and positive ways.
Men, of course, are not always kind and loving.
Sometimes they are cruel and hateful. Wordsworth may be
suggesting that such men are cut off from nature. They are
either physically away from nature or they are blind to it.
Such men are to be found more often in the city than in the
country.
Wordsworth, thus far, has suggested that nature
provides at least two gifts to man: (1) it restores men’s
troubled or depressed feelings, and (2) it causes men to act
in good, kind, and loving ways. But there is yet another
gift that nature provides.
Wordsworth describes this third gift beginning at
line 35:
Understanding the Poetry of 26 William Wordsworth
Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; 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 adjective sublime, mentioned in line 37, suggests that
this third gift has a higher spiritual value. The first two
gifts, restoration and goodness, are physical, emotional, or
psychological gifts. But this third gift sustains the spirit or
soul of man.
The speaker explains that life in general makes us
feel like we are carrying an enormous burden or load on
our shoulders. Life is often difficult. It makes us tired,
exhausted, weary. And this heavy load weighs down our
spirits, our souls. And, worse yet, we do not understand
why this is so. The speaker tells us it is a mystery. We feel
like we are always carrying this burden or load, but we do
not know why.
This third gift of nature, then, is the uplifting of
our spirit or soul. Nature is our spiritual support. Our
spirit is stronger because of nature’s affect on it. And we
are thus able to stand up and move on despite the heaviness
that life bears down upon us, upon our spirits. This third
spiritual gift also lasts us our entire lives, according to
Wordsworth; and once our bodies are gone, our spirit
continues as a living soul.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 27
The final three lines of the stanza are these:
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
Wordsworth concludes his second stanza by stating that (1)
the power of nature brings us joy (the gift of restoration
when we are feeling depressed or full of despair) and (2)
harmony or fellowship with other people (the gift of
goodness). And (3) Nature gives us the ability to
understand life. We see not only the physical aspects of
life, but we also come to see the spiritual aspects of
everything in life.
Understanding the Poetry of 28 William Wordsworth
STANZA 3
The third stanza is quite brief and begins with the
following:
If this
Be but a vain belief …
The word vain here could mean incorrect, worthless, or
even foolish. Wordsworth is questioning his philosophy
regarding the three gifts of nature. He wonders whether he
might be wrong. But then he supports his belief with the
following:
… 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,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!
Essentially, Wordsworth is supporting his belief with his
own experience. The word sylvan refers to the woods or
forest, the word Wye is the name of the river near Tintern
Abbey.
Wordsworth uses personification to describe the
river as a wanderer traveling through the woods. The river
becomes alive and thus has a spirit of its own.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 29
Wordsworth may doubt his philosophy, but he does
not doubt his memory or experience. He explains that,
while he was living in the city and experiencing severe
bouts of depression, he only needed to think about the Wye
River and its surroundings. Then he would be restored.
He would no longer be troubled or depressed. He would
then feel joy even though he did not physically leave the
city.
Understanding the Poetry of 30 William Wordsworth
STANZA 4
In stanzas two and three, Wordsworth is discussing
his first visit above Tintern Abbey in 1793. In stanza four
Wordsworth then turns to the present moment: his second
visit there five years later, in 1798. The word now, in line
58, marks this shift. The return visit brings mixed emotions:
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again:
Wordsworth first comments that he experiences sadness
and confusion at this second visit. The sadness may be
due to the fact that he has been away for so long and has
missed the scene and the experience of being there. The
experience is so wonderful and uplifting to him that he may
perhaps be wondering why he did not return there sooner.
Wordsworth vaguely remembers his earlier visit,
but he notes that his memories about certain features of the
place are dim and faint. This return visit, then, revives
those memories. The return visit also brings pleasure and
pleasing thoughts. Wordsworth’s pleasure comes from the
belief …
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years.
In other words, the memories that will come from this
second visit will be able to restore him and bring him joy
in the many long years ahead when he returns, once again,
to the city and lives separated from nature.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 31
At least, Wordsworth hopes this will be true. He hopes that
the effects of this second visit will be the same as the first.
Yet Wordsworth also realizes that he is no longer
the same man that he was five years earlier. And so he is
not certain that nature will affect him in the same way.
Wordsworth describes his younger self with a simile. He
declares that five years ago he was like a roe. He was like
a wild deer leaping and jumping over the hills and
mountains. Wordsworth then extends his simile by
suggesting that maybe he was more like a deer being
pursued by hunters. He adds the following:
… more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved.
Back in 1793 Wordsworth was flying from or running
away from himself and his own dreaded depression. He
did not know then the effect that nature would have upon
him. The positive experience was, then, accidental.
But with the return visit in 1798, Wordsworth is
running to Nature. Nature is the “thing he loves.” And,
so, Wordsworth is perhaps wondering whether that happy
accident can repeat itself.
The fictional character that Wordsworth creates in
his poem is not exactly the same as the real Wordsworth
himself. In 1793 Wordsworth was then 23 years of age.
But he indicates that his speaker is a much younger person
at that time. Wordsworth depicts the speaker at the earlier
time (in 1793) as a youth, full of innocence.
Understanding the Poetry of 32 William Wordsworth
For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all.
Like many Romantic poets, Wordsworth idealizes youth or
childhood. The child is fully connected to or integrated
with Nature. Wordsworth describes his youthful
connection to Nature in terms of emotions. He is all
appetite, feelings, and love. There is an emotional
connection between the child and nature, and the
innocent youth does not have any need for the three great
gifts of nature that Wordsworth describes in stanza two.
With some regret, Wordsworth declares that his
time of childhood and youth are over:
That time is past.
And all of the wonderful and magnificent emotions that the
child receives from nature are also over:
… and all its aching joys are no more.
The adult is no longer in touch with nature; and, so, he can
no longer feel the pure and glorious joy that the child
experiences.
But the speaker does not regret or mourn the loss of
this childhood joy and pleasure. He comments that Nature
provides other gifts to the adult that are just as wonderful
and as magnificent as the gifts that the adult has lost. The
speaker now looks upon nature in a new way, far different
from his childhood self.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 33
Wordsworth explains that, yes, it is true, the adult is
forced to listen to the “sad music of humanity.” The adult
is forced to experience the harshness and displeasure of life.
And this sad music of humanity has the power to “chasten
and subdue” the adult. In other words, humanity, life in
society, can be harmful to us in many ways. It can get us
down and defeat us, as if we were prisoners or slaves to it.
Adulthood is clearly quite difficult. But Wordsworth then
explains that adulthood is not entirely negative. There is
something positive to provide balance in our lives.
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.
The word presence (in line 94) suggests that there is
something alive, but not human. Rather, it is spiritual. The
word could indicate, then, the Spirit of Nature. The word
disturbs is used in a positive way here. This spirit of nature
interrupts Wordsworth from his mundane or ordinary
problems. It awakens him to a world outside the ordinary
and physical.
The words elevated and sublime also indicate that
this presence is high and lofty and spiritual, that it is
beyond the scope of ordinary vision and understanding.
And so, this presence, this spirit of nature, brings the
speaker a sense or feeling of sublime joy. It moves his
soul beyond the worries and cares of the ordinary world.
Understanding the Poetry of 34 William Wordsworth
And this joyful spiritual presence is everywhere:
in the sun, in the stars, in the ocean, and in the sky. It is
everywhere. And, most importantly, this joyful and
sublime spiritual presence enters into the mind of man.
Wordsworth further defines or describes this
Spiritual Presence in the next few lines:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
This spirit is everywhere. It is in everything and everybody.
It is ubiquitous or omnipresent. It is flowing through
everything and everybody.
Although Wordsworth does not directly call this
spiritual presence God, most Christians would. God also is
everywhere and exists in all people and things. God also is
a presence that flows through everything and everybody.
Wordsworth, though, does not feel that it is necessary to
enter into a religious debate or argument. He leaves it up to
his readers to decide whether they should call this spiritual
presence God or not.
The conclusion of the stanza is clearly marked by
the word therefore:
Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth.
Wordsworth can no longer experience and enjoy nature
with the “glad animal movements” of his boyhood. He no
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 35
longer can become a part of nature on a purely physical and
emotional level. But he still loves nature because now he
can enjoy it on a deeper and far more spiritual level.
In the final lines of stanza four, Wordsworth
describes nature metaphorically:
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.
In the first of these five metaphors, Wordsworth describes
Nature as the anchor of his purest thoughts. Like a ship’s
anchor, nature keeps man firm and secure – but that
security is in goodness and benevolence. Pure thoughts
suggest acting in a good and noble and harmonious manner.
The next three metaphors are self-explanatory.
Wordsworth also describes nature as a nurse, a guide, and
the guardian of his heart. Finally, and most importantly,
Wordsworth calls Nature the “soul of all my moral being.”
But the distinction between heart and soul is a crucial one.
The word heart refers to a person’s physical or emotional
self. Nature both guards and heals the physical and
emotional aspects of the speaker. But the word soul
connects nature to man’s spiritual self.
Nature exists within the soul of man. The soul of
man is interfused and intertwined with nature. The spiritual
force of nature is also, then, the spiritual force within man.
Man is a part of nature, and cannot – or should not – be
separated from it.
Understanding the Poetry of 36 William Wordsworth
STANZA 5
In the fifth and final stanza of “Tintern Abbey,”
Wordsworth mentions his traveling companion, his sister
Dorothy. Wordsworth begins the stanza in this way:
Nor perchance,
If I were not thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay.
The word genial, as the certain critics suggest, could mean
creative. But the word can also mean pleasant or
comforting, and Wordsworth most likely intended all three
of these meanings. Wordsworth is stating that his genial
spirits, his good and positive feelings, would not suffer or
decay in any way even if nature did not provide the
spiritual gift that he was previously discussing.
And the reason why this is so is that his sister is
with him: “for thou art with me here.” Wordsworth is
experiencing his pleasant holiday with his sister Dorothy,
whom he describes as his dearest friend. Wordsworth is
extremely happy to share this glorious experience in nature
with his sister.
The speaker describes his sister as being much like
he was when he first visited the location five years earlier.
He is suggesting that she will experience that particular
locale in nature just as he did when he was a youth five
years earlier.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 37
In thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart.
May I behold in thee what I was once.
Actually, Wordsworth is using a poetic conceit here. In
reality, Dorothy was only one year younger than
Wordsworth himself. The character of Dorothy in
“Tintern Abbey” is a fictional figure used for poetic
purposes. Wordsworth does this because he wants to make
a point, and he also wants to create a splendid poem.
Wordsworth is not writing a biography here. Wordsworth
is a poet. He is not a biographer.
In the fictional situation created in the poem, the
character of Dorothy serves to remind Wordsworth of his
own boyhood, his own youth. Wordsworth thus hopes and
prays that Dorothy will benefit from nature in the same
way that he did. In the rough times ahead that Dorothy,
like all people, must face in society, Wordsworth hopes that
she will receive the comfort and joy and spiritual protection
from Nature.
Wordsworth notes that Nature, personified, treats
those who love her with kindness:
Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her.
Referring to Nature as “she,” Wordsworth once again
explains how Nature sustains and comforts us during the
rough times of our lives.
Understanding the Poetry of 38 William Wordsworth
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.
The word inform (in line 125) means to place within us or
to have a lasting effect upon us. Nature’s effect within us
is a lasting one. It does not disappear.
Once again Wordsworth is explaining how nature
will cheer us and bless us so that later, when we are in the
midst of the woe and the suffering and evil of life, we do
not succumb or fall to it. We are able to get through the
hard times in life because the power of nature is within us.
The stanza shifts directions (at line 134), beginning with
the word “therefore.”
Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee.
In a prayer-like fashion, Wordsworth asks Nature – the
moon, the mountains, the wind – to bless his sister.
The speaker also believes that Nature will sustain
and comfort his sister as she gets older and encounters
difficulties of life.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 39
In after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure.
The speaker believes that his sister will experience the two
stages of Nature just as he had. As a boy or young man,
the speaker was one with nature, like an animal, enjoying
nature on an emotional level. But as an adult, the gifts of
nature are sublime or spiritual. The speaker sees his
youthful sister experiencing nature on an emotional level,
but he also believes that she will also later experience
nature on a spiritual level later, after they end their journey.
Thus, Nature will heal and comfort Dorothy in later
years whenever she experiences the “solitude, or fear, or
pain, or grief” that is, unfortunately, so much a part of
living.
The speaker concludes by foreseeing his own
death – a time when he “no more can hear” his sister’s
voice. But he adds that his sister will have one more gift
related to nature that he did not have earlier. Dorothy will
have the memory of having shared Nature with her brother
William.
We stood together.
In his concluding section, Wordsworth once again
describes his relationship with Nature in religious terms.
He is “a worshipper of Nature” and has for Nature a “zeal
of holier love.”
Understanding the Poetry of 40 William Wordsworth
Wordsworth loves nature in the same manner that a
good Christian loves God. But Wordsworth’s love is
increased or enhanced all the more because he is able to
share that love with his sister Dorothy, whom he also loves.
In the final five lines of the poem, Wordsworth
predicts that his sister Dorothy will, many years in the
future, continue to remember this single experience in
Nature with fondness and love for two reasons: (1) because
the gifts of nature will sustain and comfort her during
difficult times; and (2) because she will remember having
shared this experience with her dear and close brother,
whom she also loves.
And William Wordsworth is also comforted in
knowing that he has shared the experience in nature with
the sister whom he loves:
These steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!
And, so, for the speaker, the return journey to the Wye
River above Tintern Abbey in 1798 also brings two gifts: (1)
the speaker is able to recall with gladness and fondness his
earlier visit five years earlier. In so doing, he is able to
understand and appreciate the gifts of nature. And (2) he
will now have the comforting knowledge that he has shared
his love of nature and its gifts with his own dear and
cherished sister and that she too will experience the
powerful and sublime force of nature herself in the many
years to come.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 41
Many modern critics praise “Tintern Abbey” and
note that it was Wordworth’s first poem to create a mythos
surrounding nature. Nature is a mythic force, a powerful
force, a god-like force that blesses and protects mankind.
The poem connects the inner world of the mind with the
external world of nature. Nature is thus infused within
the inner being of man.
When the book, Lyrical Ballads, appeared in 1798,
it introduced a new age of poetry. That book, and
especially the poem “Tintern Abbey,” ushered in a new
style and spirit of poetry. And that new style was
Romanticism.

CHAPTER 3
THE INTIMATIONS ODE
INTRODUCTION: MY HEART LEAPS UP
Wordsworth expanded upon the concepts
introduced in “Tintern Abbey” in the following years.
Wordsworth had already indicated that the supernatural or
spiritual gifts of youth are lost, but not entirely forgotten, as
a person reaches adulthood. Further, the memory of that
spiritual power helps to sustain us even during the most
troubled and turbulent times of our lives.
In 1802, just a few years after he wrote “Tintern
Abbey,” Wordsworth wrote another of his greatest works,
the “Intimations Ode.” The complete title of this poem is
“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
Early Childhood.” Wordsworth introduces the poem with
the final three lines of another, shorter poem that he had
written just a little time earlier, also in 1802. That poem,
entitled “My Heart Leaps Up,” is only nine lines long.
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
Understanding the Poetry of 44 William Wordsworth
The entire poem appears to be rather simple. The speaker
enjoys the beauty of nature, symbolized by the rainbow.
And the speaker adds that such appreciation of nature
occurs from the time he is a child to the time he is an old
man.
But then the puzzling seventh line appears: “The
Child is father of the Man.” The line is open to
interpretation, but the reader should recall the relationship
between man and nature as Wordsworth expressed it in
“Tintern Abbey.” In “Tintern Abbey” the poet suggests
that a child enjoys nature on a purely physical and
emotional level. But as an adult, he enjoys nature on a
deeper and sublime level. He enjoys nature on a spiritual
level. The childhood self thus teaches and prepares the
adult self for life. The adult self is born from the childhood
self.
A similar concept is suggested in the seventh line of
“My Heart Leaps Up” and is explored at a far deeper level
in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.”
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 45
ODE
The term ode comes from the classical age of Rome
and is usually described as a lyrical poem having a high or
exalted style. The form of the ode often employs a rise
and fall of emotional power. During the Classical Age,
odes were frequently sung at public festivals or in drama.
Not surprisingly, Wordworth's own “Ode” has been
set to music three times. Arthur Somervell's version
appeared in 1907. Gerald Finzi's cantata Intimations of
Immortality premiered in 1950. It was also recorded by
Ron Perlman on a 1989 album entitled Of Love & Hope,
inspired by the television show Beauty & the Beast, starring
Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton.
Understanding the Poetry of 46 William Wordsworth
STRUCTURE
Wordsworth divides his “Ode” into eleven stanzas
of varying length.
(1) In the first stanza, the speaker notes how, as a youth,
earth possessed a celestial or heavenly quality.
(2) But in the second stanza, the speaker notes how, as he
became older, that celestial quality began to disappear.
(3) In the third stanza, the speaker, as an adult, experiences
conflicting emotions – grief and joy.
(4) In the fourth stanza, the speaker employs his memory to
recall the past experience of youth. And he wonders what
has happened to that lost vision of childhood.
(5) In stanza five, the speaker elaborates on how the
heavenly vision of childhood dies away.
(6) In the next stanza, the poet then comes back to the adult
and his experience on earth.
(7) But in the seventh stanza, he returns to the topic of
childhood and refers to the child as an actor and imitator.
(8) And in the eighth stanza the speaker also notes how,
rather ironically, the child is all too anxious to grow up.
(9) In the ninth stanza the poet uses the word benediction
to indicate that the adult can experience the pleasures of the
past.
(10) In the tenth stanza, the speaker philosophically
accepts the change in how he experiences nature as a child
and adult.
(11) And in the final stanza the speaker becomes
reconciled to the relationship between mankind and nature.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 47
STANZA 1
In Stanza One, the speaker begins with “there was a
time.” He is referring to his time of youth. He is referring
to his childhood.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light.
The word appareled means dressed or covered. Everything
in nature appears to be bathed or infused with a celestial or
heavenly presence. Nature possesses a spiritual quality. It
possesses a wonderful or marvelous quality that is more
like a dream than reality.
The poet then uses the simile “of a dream” (in line
5). The experience of Nature is a marvelous and
enchanting dream for the youth. But for the adult, the
experience is not the same:
It is not now as it hath been of yore.
The word yore refers to the time of the past. Here,
specifically, it refers to the time of childhood. But the
word now refers to the time of adulthood. The adult
experience of nature is different from that of the child.
The stanza concludes with this line:
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
Understanding the Poetry of 48 William Wordsworth
The adult cannot feel or experience the celestial presence of
nature. The adult does not have that direct spiritual
connection to nature that he once had as a child. There is a
tone of regret or sadness regarding this loss.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 49
STANZA 2
In Stanza Two, the speaker notes that, as an adult,
he can still appreciate and marvel at the beauty of
nature. He still is pleased with the loveliness of the
rainbow and the rose and the moon. He still enjoys the
reflection of the stars on a lake at night. He still loves the
shining sun.
However, the speaker regrets losing the celestial
experience with nature that he had as a child:
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.
The speaker is sad that he can no longer experience that
glorious heavenly connection to nature.
Understanding the Poetry of 50 William Wordsworth
STANZA 3
The poet begins the third stanza with the word now.
He is referring to the present time when he is now an adult.
Despite the beauty of nature, the speaker feels regret and
sadness:
To me alone there came a thought of grief.
The youthful connection to nature that he has lost fills him
with grief. However, the speaker quickly thinks about
something to alleviate and remove his sadness:
A timely utterance gave that thought relief.
The word utterance simply means something said or
uttered. Some critics interpret this word to suggest a
specific poem, such as “My Heart Leaps Up.” But more
likely the word utterance refers to a concept or idea. It
refers to the idea that is expressed in the following lines of
the stanza. And that idea, simply expressed, is the joy of
nature. And this joy in nature is so powerful that it brings
relief to the speaker. It makes him strong (as mentioned in
line 24). In fact, he feels so strong that he vows that his
sadness will never return:
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong.
As noted earlier, traditionally the ode has the form
of rising and falling emotional power or intensity. In
Wordsworth’s “Ode,” the poet has taken his readers
through the celestial exuberance of youth and the regret of
the adult in the first two stanzas. And in the third stanza
the poet has quickly moved from grief to joy.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 51
The remaining lines of the third stanza are much
like a simple song: the speaker delights in the glories and
pleasures of nature. It is a song about the joy one can find
in nature.
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 shepherd boy mentioned in the last line of the stanza
refers literally to boys who work as shepherds and who are
thus more closely connected to nature. But the shepherd
boy is also symbolic of any child who is connected to
nature, including the speaker himself when he was a child.
Understanding the Poetry of 52 William Wordsworth
STANZA 4
The song of the joy in nature continues into the
fourth stanza. The adult speaker witnesses the joy around
him.
Ye blessed 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 word creatures can refer directly to the shepherd boys
mentioned previously. They are like wild animals in nature,
enjoying it, fully part of it. The word coronal refers to a
crown of flowers. Shepherds might wear such crowns or
circlets of flowers during festivals and holidays. Of course,
it is a naturally-made crown. It is a crown symbolizing the
beauty of nature. In stanza four, the adult speaker states
that he is wearing such a crown. He is indicating that he
feels the beauty of nature within himself.
Thus, the speaker shares the joy and the bliss that
the younger boys experience. He declares the following:
I feel--I feel it all.
Their joy rubs off on him. The speaker then suggests that
feeling grief – feeling sad or sudden – is wrong or perhaps
even evil when there is so much joy going on all around
him:
Oh evil day! if I were sullen.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 53
No one should be sad, the speaker is saying, when the
pleasures of nature surround him every day. The speaker
even uses the word joy directly a few lines later:
I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!
Nature still provides the adult with pleasures and joy.
However, a change or shift occurs in line 51
(beginning with the word but). There is a shift in both tone
and direction. There is also, once again, a shift in
emotional intensity. The emotion moves from joy to
regret.
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?
In looking at nature, the adult speaker realizes that
something is different. Nature no longer appears the same
to him. Nature no longer produces the same feelings or
emotions within him. He has looked at the tree and the
field before, as a child. Then such objects in nature
produced marvelous sensations and remarkable passions
within him. The adult speaker wonders why he can no
longer feel the same way.
Understanding the Poetry of 54 William Wordsworth
The words glory and dream (in line 57) connect the
poem back to line 5, back to the first stanza. The speaker is
wondering how that celestial or heavenly experience and
connection with nature that he had as a child could
disappear. “Where did it go?” he is asking. The speaker
wants to feel the full joy of nature; he wants to be like the
shepherd boys. But the bliss he feels is only temporary. It
begins to disappear.
The speaker ponders the memories of his childhood
experience with nature. He wishes he could enjoy nature as
he did then. He would like to be fully integrated with
nature, to be one with nature once more. But as an adult,
that is impossible.
Thus, the speaker feels a sense of regret. He also
feels a sense of longing for the past. He wants to be a
child once again. He would like to have that special dreamlike
magic that a child has in his connection to nature.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 55
STANZA 5
In the fifth stanza, William Wordsworth becomes
metaphysical. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that
covers, among other topics, the study of being – the study
of existence.
In the beginning of the fifth stanza, Wordsworth is
no longer talking about the relationship between man and
child. Rather, he is talking about the nature of the soul.
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.
Departing from Christian beliefs, the poet is stating that the
soul exists long before the birth of the body. The soul
exists long before we are born, even before we are
conceived.
Thus, when Wordsworth states that “birth is but a
sleep,” he is suggesting that the soul itself has been asleep.
At birth, the soul wakes up. But it has forgotten its earlier
existence.
Wordsworth also uses the metaphor of the star to
describe the soul. The soul is a bright heavenly light that
has been in existence for thousands of years. When we are
born, according to Wordsworth, this bright heavenly light –
our soul – travels down from the heavens, from its place
near God, and enters our body.
Understanding the Poetry of 56 William Wordsworth
Yet, the soul has not completely forgotten
everything about its earlier, heavenly existence. The soul
still has vague memories of its earlier existence when it was
a light up in the sky, without a body.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
Thus, the soul still remembers its spiritual or heavenly
nature, and the mind of the young child shares that
memory. And, so, the poet declares …
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Our physical or earthly existence is still connected to that
heavenly spark, the soul. And when we are infants,
Wordsworth is declaring, we are closest to that heavenly
part of the soul.
But as we get older, the connection diminishes and
eventually disappears. A shift in stanza 5 then occurs (at
line 67):
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy.
Earth, and especially the human body, is a prison of the
soul. The soul is trapped in the body and is unable to
ascend into the heavens where it came from.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 57
Yet, in our childhood, we are still able to see the
heavenly light that is shining within us. The child is still
connected to his soul and is able to see or feel the heavenly
light of that soul. And the light of that soul fills the child
with joy (as noted in line 70).
Wordsworth then uses a metaphor to describe the
process of growing up:
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel …
The poet metaphorically describes growing up as a journey
that everyone must take – a journey from the east to the
west. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The
east thus symbolizes the beginning of the day, and the west
symbolizes the end of the day. And, by extension, the east
can symbolically represent the beginning of life, and the
west can symbolize the end of life or death.
The sun is, of course, an extremely appropriate
symbol for this particular poem since it is, after all, a
heavenly light.
At the end of the fifth stanza, Wordsworth notes
how the heavenly light of the soul disappears as a child
grows into manhood.
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.
Understanding the Poetry of 58 William Wordsworth
STANZA 6
In the short sixth stanza, the poet now focuses on
the adult. Although the heavenly light of the soul is gone,
although the adult can no longer experience the heavenly
pleasure and joy of the soul, he has earthly pleasures to
take their place.
The earth is described metaphorically as a gentle
mother and a friendly nurse. Yet earth is not the true
mother. She is only a foster mother. Man’s true essence is
his soul, and the soul is born in the heavens, not on earth.
But since the adult man no longer can remember his
heavenly existence, the earth comforts him and helps him
to …
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 59
STANZA 7
The speaker returns to the child again in stanza
seven. Even as early as age 6, the child begins to move
away from his spiritual or heavenly self and move into his
earthly existence. Wordsworth describes the child as
being …
Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,
With light upon him from his father's eyes!
The mother here is Mother Earth, the father is the
Heaven. The earth troubles or disturbs the spiritual nature
of the child. The heavenly light of the soul thus begins to
fade at an early age.
And so, from about age six, the child begins to
adapt to his new earthly environment. The child begins to
plan and shape his life. He becomes involved with earthly
concerns, and his spiritual nature becomes unused and
forgotten.
Wordsworth describes human existence as a series
of events:
A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral.
Life is just an ongoing series of events that everyone
becomes involved or enmeshed in. The activities of life are
merely ones of “business, love, or strife.” Every life is
similar, Wordsworth suggests. The lives of the present are
not unlike the lives of the past.
Understanding the Poetry of 60 William Wordsworth
Wordsworth uses the metaphor of the actor on a
stage to describe life. The stage as a metaphor for life in
the world was often used by William Shakespeare. In his
comedy As You Like It, for example, one of the characters
asserts the following:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
Shakespeare suggests that life is extremely short, not unlike
the length of time that it takes for a play to be presented on
stage. On stage the actor speaks his lines, expresses
emotions such as grief or joy, and acts according to the
directions set in the play. Then the play ends. The
character exists no more. Similarly, all of us in life express
the same kinds of emotions, act according to the pattern set
by life, and then pass away.
In Wordsworth’s poem, a child is an actor. He
imitates the adults around him, expressing the same
emotions, acting in ways that are the same or similar to that
of the adult. But as the child becomes an adult, he is still
an actor. He is still going through the same kinds of
emotions and engaging in the same kinds of activities that
have gone on before for countless generations.
Wordsworth compares life, earthly existence, to an
actor playing his part on the humorous stage. Here, the
word humorous does not mean funny, even though there
may be a certain ironic humor about life. Rather,
Wordsworth is referring to bodily fluids called the humors.
During the Middle Ages, people believed that there were
four dangerous fluids – sanguine, phlegm, choler, and
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 61
melancholy – that somehow entered the blood and caused
people to act in highly emotional and negative ways.
Too much sanguine would cause a person to be
bloodthirsty or violent; too much choler would make him
angry or bad-tempered; too much melancholy would make
him depressed or gloomy; and too much phlegm would
make him lazy, sluggish, and unemotional.
During the Renaissance writers of plays would
often utilize this concept in their comedies where they had
overly emotional characters. Such plays were simply
called Humor Comedies. The playwright Ben Jonson is
especially noteworthy for writing several of these plays and
even wrote one such play in 1598 entitled Every Man in
his Humour.
Perhaps, then, Wordsworth is comparing life to a
comedy of the humours. Life is full of strong and violent
emotions. But the Renaissance comedy always had a
happy ending. And, so, by extending the metaphor,
Wordsworth might also see life as having a happy ending.
Understanding the Poetry of 62 William Wordsworth
STANZA 8
In Stanza 8, the poet describes the other side of the
child’s nature. In the previous stanza, the child is an actor
or imitator. But in stanza eight, he is a philosopher and
prophet.
The child thus has a dual nature, an earthly side
and a heavenly side. He is equally both body and soul.
The stanza begins by addressing the child with these lines:
Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie
Thy Soul's immensity.
The young child’s exterior semblance, his human body, is
quite small. This size is in startling contrast to the size of
the soul, which is immense. The soul is, metaphorically
speaking, much larger than the body that contains it.
The speaker also notes how the child retains his
heritage (in line 111). The word heritage indicates what
the child has been able to keep within himself regarding his
true heavenly nature. The child knows and innately
understands that he is connected with the infinite. The
child is fully aware of his spiritual existence. The
speaker then refers to the child as …
Mighty Prophet! Seer blest!
The child naturally sees and understands the truth about
human life and existence. The poet uses the word truths, in
the plural (at line 115), to indicate the answers to the many
questions which men continuously ask regarding the nature
of life and the soul and our relationship to the infinite. The
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 63
child knows or inwardly senses the answers to all of these
questions. But men, adults, have forgotten these answers,
these truths.
Regarding these truths, the speaker tells us that
adults may constantly struggle or toil to find the answers,
but such answers are lost in the darkness.
Which we are toiling all our lives to find,
In darkness lost.
Adults are just not capable of seeing these truths.
But for the child, the truth is always present. His
immortality always surrounds him:
Thou, over whom thy Immortality
Broods like the Day.
The word broods means to surround and envelop.
Immortality wraps around the child like a blanket. It is
always with him. The child understands that he has a
spiritual nature, and he realizes that this spirit is immortal.
The speaker then asks a question of the child:
Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke
The years to bring the inevitable yoke,
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?
The question is rhetorical: there is no answer. A yoke is
literally a device used by farmers. It is a leather or wooden
harness that is placed over a horse or ox to pull a plow or
wagon. Wordsworth uses the word yoke as a metaphor for
Understanding the Poetry of 64 William Wordsworth
life. All people, like the animal pulling the plow, struggle
and sweat in life. Life is a struggle. Life is difficult.
So, the speaker in the poem is questioning why the
child is in such a hurry to grow up. Because, once he
does grow up, his life will be difficult. His life will be a
struggle.
This is the puzzle or mystery of life. The adult has
only hardships and problems to contend with. But the child
has a blessed and highly spiritual life.
So, the speaker cannot understand why the child –
why any of us – wants to give up his blessed and spiritual
happiness and replace it with hardship and toil.
The eighth stanza ends with several metaphors to
describe the burden of adulthood. One of these is
“earthly freight.” Freight more generally refers to heavy
goods carried by a ship or train. Thus, it symbolizes
something heavy and burdensome. Life is also heavy and
burdensome. It is a burden that is extremely difficult to
carry.
Wordsworth also describes life as a “weight, heavy
as frost.” Thus, adult life is not only a heavy burden, but it
is also cold and cruel, like an icy frost that shocks us and
chills us.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 65
STANZA 9
Although the eighth stanza ends on a negative note,
the ninth stanza quickly raises our emotions back up to a
positive one. As noted earlier, in the ode there is a rise and
fall of emotional power. In stanza eight there is a definite
fall, but the emotions quickly rise in the ninth stanza.
The cause of that joy is the vague or distant
memory of what we once were. Somehow there is still a
faint memory of our spiritual essence. That spiritual
essence has not entirely disappeared as we become adults.
Even though the memory or thought of that spiritual
essence is very small or slight, the speaker asserts that it
gives him a perpetual or everlasting benediction.
A benediction is a blessing. Like a blessing from
God, the memory or thought of his childhood spirituality
brings him comfort and solace. It calms him even though
he faces the struggles of life everyday.
The speaker clarifies his position. He states that it
is not the simple pleasures of childhood that he is referring
to. These pleasures, delight and liberty, are important and
wonderful. They are “worthy to be blest.” But the speaker
is referring to something far deeper. He tells us …
Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise.
Instead, the speaker is referring to the faint memory of our
childhood past that raises “obstinate questionings” and
“blank misgivings” within us.
Understanding the Poetry of 66 William Wordsworth
The questions he asks are obstinate or stubborn
because he never stops asking them. These questions about
life are always within him. They are part of his spirit.
A misgiving is a feeling of uncertainty. And the
speaker’s feelings of uncertainty are blank because there is
no answer to be seen. The uncertainty remains uncertain.
The feeling never goes away.
Yet these doubts, these questions, and these
misgivings bring joy to the speaker. The speaker describes
himself as a “creature” who is …
Moving about in worlds not realised.
An unrealized world means here an unreal world. Because
of our shadowy memory of our spiritual nature, the
physical world around us does not quite seem quite real.
We sense that there is something more, something
greater, beyond the mere physical world.
By contrast, the real world is the world of spirit.
Even though it is beyond our physical comprehension, it is
there. And that spiritual world is the true world for all of us.
The poet also refers to the memory or thought of
childhood spirituality as instinct. He states that our
memories or thoughts are …
High instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did tremble like a guilty Thing surprised.
There is something deep, internal, and instinctive within all
of us – a spark of our spiritual nature – which surprises or
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 67
frightens our mortal nature. It frightens or surprises us
because we are not sure what it is.
Nevertheless, this memory or instinct is a positive
quality. These memories or instincts …
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
Are yet a master light of all our seeing.
Like a fountain of water, there is a nourishing and
cleansing quality to these instincts that are continually
bubbling forward without ceasing. Like a master light or,
perhaps, like a sun, these instincts illuminate what is
otherwise dark. They help us to see or understand life.
They help to clarify what is otherwise confusing or unclear.
Thus, the instincts or memories of our childhood …
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence.
The instincts provide us with strength and courage. Our
instincts help us to realize that the “noisy years” of
adulthood are brief and matter little when one sets them
along side of the millions and billions of years that make up
all eternity.
Wordsworth then adds that the truth or reality of
these instincts, the truth of our spiritual essence, will
never perish. It will never end. Nothing can abolish or
destroy this truth.
Understanding the Poetry of 68 William Wordsworth
Stanza Nine ends with the following lines:
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 season of calm weather is a metaphor for those times
when we are feeling calm and at peace with nature and
everything around us. At such times our spirits or souls
can then get a glimpse, a sight of the spiritual world.
For a very brief moment our souls or spirits can travel
upward from earth to the heavens and get a look at the
children, the bodiless souls, that frolic and play in those
heavens, in that spiritual world.
In other words, for an extremely brief moment we
can, as adults, connect to that spirit world and
experience the delight and joy that, as children, we had
constantly enjoyed.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 69
STANZA 10
The joy of that connection, the joy described in
stanza nine, continues into stanza ten. In fact, the entire
stanza is a simple one wherein the speaker rejoices for his
connection to the spiritual world.
The pastoral imagery indicated earlier in the poem
also occurs here. Lambs are frolicking and birds are
chirping amidst the grass and flowers on a beautiful spring
day.
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!
The adult speaker has not forgotten that his connection to
his own spiritual nature is less than that of the child. But he
is not sad about that or feels any regret.
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight.
For the speaker, the loss of that childhood pleasure is not
something to be sad about. He will not grieve about it.
Instead, the speaker notes three other gifts or
pleasures that the adult retains because of his spiritual
connection:
Understanding the Poetry of 70 William Wordsworth
(1) The first gift is the strength from “primal
sympathy.” Primal indicates or means first. The poet is
referring to that first connection we have with the spirit
when we are children. Even though that connection seems
lost to the adult, he still receives strength from it. Because
the connection was once with us, the speaker indicates that
it has never completely left us. The connection “must ever
be” – it continues into our adulthood.
(2) The second gift is “soothing thoughts.” As
adults we suffer the turmoil and tribulations of life; we
suffer many rough moments. But our spiritual connection
provides us with an ability to calm or soothe ourselves
during those rough times.
(3) And the third gift is “faith.” This is a faith in
our own spiritual essence. It is a faith in our own
immortality. And because we do have such a strong faith,
we are able to look upon death with a “philosophic mind.”
In other words, we are able to look upon death without
fear. Our bodies will die, but we know that our spirit will
live forever.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 71
STANZA 11
In the final section, stanza eleven, the poet returns
to the adult’s earthly connection, his physical connection,
to nature.
And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Forebode not any severing of our loves!
The word forebode means to predict or foretell. The
speaker is directly addressing nature. In a way, he is
making a request of nature. The speaker is asking nature
not to predict or suggest any break in the love he has for
nature. Even though the speaker no longer has the spiritual
connection to nature that he once did as a child, he still
loves nature nevertheless. The love for nature remains in
the adult.
Furthermore, as an adult, the speaker can still feel
the power of nature.
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might.
And, so the speaker still loves nature. In fact, he even adds
that his love for nature is stronger now than it was when
he was boy.
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.
Understanding the Poetry of 72 William Wordsworth
But the brightness of that day is darkened by a
heavy cloud (in line 196). The cloud symbolizes our own
mortality. It suggests the death of our physical beings. But
even this dark cloud is part of nature. Even death is part
of the natural process.
The poets adds that …
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Other people have lived before us. Other people have died
before us. It is all part of the progression. It is all part of
nature. The word palms refers to a branch or wreath made
from a palm tree. Such a branch was traditionally given to
the winners of foot races in ancient Greek times. The palm
symbolizes the prizes or goals that all of us aspire to or
hope to achieve in life. All of us are after a “palm” of one
sort or another.
But whether we achieve those goals or not, life goes
on. And death comes for all of us. One race or people
disappear, and another race takes its place. Such is the
cycle of life, the cycle of nature.
Toward the end of the stanza, the speaker gives
thanks to nature:
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears.
By “human heart” Wordsworth is referring to human nature
and human understanding. Our human nature, our physical
or bodily presence, allows us to have a greater
understanding and appreciation of our spiritual selves.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 73
Our humanity, our physical being, allows us to
recognize and value both nature and the spiritual
connection that we have to it.
The child is connected to the spiritual essence, but
does not fully appreciate it. But as adults, we can more
fully appreciate the connection. And that is why
Wordsworth, through his speaker, gives thanks to nature.
In the last two lines of the poem, the speaker
connects nature to his thoughts regarding the spirit of man.
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
By “meanest flower” Wordsworth is suggesting that even
the simplest or most common object in nature stirs
within him deep thoughts. Those thoughts are the subject
matter of this entire “Ode.” Those thoughts are about
man’s spiritual essence. And those thoughts are about our
own spiritual connection to nature.
The word intimations in the title of this poem
suggests subtle signs or clues. Wordsworth, in this “Ode,”
ponders over or wonders about the signs or evidence in our
lives that indicate our spiritual core, that reveal the true
nature of our beings.
In conclusion, in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,”
Wordsworth examines memories of his early childhood and
the relationship of those memories to adult life. The
relationship formulates his philosophy of life.
Understanding the Poetry of 74 William Wordsworth
According to Wordsworth himself, he was inspired
significantly by Platonic philosophy. The Classical Greek
philopher taught pre-existence. Plato believed that the
soul existed in a perfect spiritual state before entering a
human body. He further believed that the soul will return
to that perfect state after the body's death.
Thus, in the title, “Intimations of Immortality,”
Wordsworth declares his focus on the immortality of the
soul. Wordsworth asserts that there are signs or indications
in nature that allow us to perceive and understand our
spiritual nature and that prove to us the existence of our
immortal souls.
Understanding the Poetry of William Wordsworth 75
FINAL COMMENT
“Tintern Abbey” and the “Intimations Ode” are
only two of Wordsworth’s many great poems. Readers
who appreciate these two poems may also find poems like
“Michael” or “The Ruined Cottage” to be equally delightful
and enchanting. There is no shortage to the delight that
Wordsworth has left his readers.
After his death in 1850, another work by
Wordsworth appeared in print. This long work, simply
entitled The Prelude, is an autobiographical poem that
Wordsworth actually began in the beginning of his career,
back in 1798. Many critics consider The Prelude to be his
magnum opus, his greatest work, the crowning
achievement in a brilliant career.
In The Prelude Wordsworth examines the
connection and interaction between the mind and nature.
This connection is similar to what appears in the
“Intimations Ode.” However, in The Prelude the poet
develops the idea even further and extends it into a
discussion of the creative imagination.
Yet, even if The Prelude did not exist, literary
critics and all lovers of poetry owe Wordsworth a debt of
gratitude for his many fine contributions to the art.
William Wordsworth changed the direction of poetry and
influenced all other poets who came afterwards. Poetry
would not have been the same without him.

THE
POEMS

LINES COMPOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN
ABBEY, ON REVISITING THE BANKS OF THE WYE
DURING A TOUR. JULY 13, 1798
[Stanza 1, Lines 1-22]
FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.--Once again
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 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. 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!
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.
80 Tintern Abbey
[Stanza 2, Lines 22-49]
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
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:--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. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; 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:--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:
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
Tintern Abbey 81
[Stanza 3, 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,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!
[Stanza 4, Lines 58-111]
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:
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. And so I dare to hope,
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first
I came among these hills; when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led: more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all.--I cannot paint
What then I was. 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,
82 Tintern Abbey
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from the eye.--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. For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. 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;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. 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; 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.
Tintern Abbey 83
[Stanza 5, Lines 111-59]
Nor perchance,
If I were not thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial spirits to decay:
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! 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. 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; 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,
84 Tintern Abbey
And these my exhortations! 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!
ODE: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM
RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
I (lines 1-9)
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.
II (lines 10-18)
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.
86 Intimations Ode
III (lines 19-35)
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!
Intimations Ode 87
IV (lines 36-57)
Ye blessed 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?
88 Intimations Ode
V (lines 58-76)
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.
VI (lines 77-84)
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.
Intimations Ode 89
VII (lines 85-107)
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 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.
90 Intimations Ode
VIII (lines 108-28)
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!
Intimations Ode 91
IX (lines 129-67)
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
92 Intimations Ode
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.
Intimations Ode 93
X (lines 168-86)
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.
94 Intimations Ode
XI (lines 187-203)
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.