Wordsworth

Notes and questions for further study.

"The Solitary Reaper"

Note the mixture of poetic and simple language. Find some examples of this and comment on the effect throughout the poem.

What is the effect of the rhythm?

What effect does the song have on the speaker?

Why does he speculate on the song's meaning?

What are the differences and similarities between the speaker and the singer?

The experience of hearing the song makes us realise that there is no such thing as perception unshaped by the awareness of the perceiver - the speaker of the poem hears the song with his imagination and with his heart, so that "the music in my heart I bore/Long after it was heard no more"...

Wordsworth is very much the poet of awareness - he calls upon the reader to be still, or gently pass - in other words, to focus attention, to create an inner, meditative stillness that will enable us to hear, or see, with our full faculties. Hence the importance in Wordsworth of solitude. At the end of the poem the speaker stands "motionless and still". In Westminster Bridge, again there is a moment of silent attention, prolonged so that all of the senses, and the whole of the poet's sensibility and awareness, can be brought into focus.

There are similarities and differences between the poet and the singer - they are both alone; they are both creating something. On the other hand he cannot understand her song, and she, presumably, would not be able to read his poem (she probably cannot even speak English). Both of them are utterly absorbed by the moment. But the speaker must pass on - he can recreate the song in his imagination - an imagination so stirred by the event that he hears the music in his heart, fully and concretely - so that the imagined experience is as real as the sensed one - but there is a feeling that his journey must continue. The girl, and her song, and her task, are static - there is no change.

Wordworth's poetry is characterised by silence, (on the part of the speaker), solitude, and a transparent state of awareness, in which feelings and sensations are heightened.

The 'Lucy' Poems

What is the effect of limiting the speaker's audience to the "the Lover's ear alone,"?

Comment on the mood and tone of the opening stanza.

Comment on the choice of language in the poem. (For example: the triteness of the simile in stanza two.) In what ways is this typical of Wordsworth's shorter poems? How effective is this in establishing the setting and atmosphere?

What role does the moon play in the first poem?

How effective is the final stanza?

How successful is this poem in capturing the speaker's feelings?

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Comment on the language, imagery and symbolism of the central stanza.

What are the differences between the speaker's feelings in this poem, and in the first one?

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What do you think are the themes, respectively, of the third and fourth poems in the sequence?

What differences and similarities are there in language, thought and feeling?

In what ways do these poems trace changes in the progress of the speaker?

Comment on the role played by Nature in Lucy's formation. In what ways is this similar to the role played by Nature elsewhere in Wordsworth?

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Comment on the first two lines of this poem. What state of feeling do they convey?

Comment on the effect of the last stanza.

How does this poem complete the sequence?

For me, the 'Lucy' poems are about the way we cope with death - they enact a process of fear and anticipation, coming to terms with the reality of loss, and finally, accepting the loved one as an eternal part of ourselves. This is part and parcel of the process of learning to accept our own inevitable death - as is shown in the last stanza where the speaker has, finally, "no human fears". He finally accepts the absolute fact of her non-existence, and can connect this with the fact that eventually, too, his own "spirit" will be "sealed". Coming to such a state of acceptance is a gradual process and the poems reflect this. He returns again and again to the fact of Lucy's death; in the last stanza of each poem the thought recurs as a reminder - terrible at first, but gentler and gentler for each repetition. Interesting that the strongest feelings connected with her death arise in the first poem, before the event has happened. What we have here is the process, essential to grieving, or of any psychological healing process, of repetition - where we go over the experience of loss, for example, until we have mastered it and can return to a normal state.

There are, of course, other themes, processes - the nature of love, for example; the role of Nature; the choice of subject and setting; the way the speaker is characterised - where only the simplest and most elemental feelings are represented - all other processes of thought being excluded.

We cannot know whether the poems are autobiographical. The Dove, of course, was the stream which ran virtually underneath Wordsworth's cottage near Grasmere - he would have known it before he and Dorothy and Mary lived there. But the mention of it functions to give the poems a more vivid and concrete setting. It doesn't matter who Lucy was - in the poems she is a universal figure, standing for the love that is perhaps deepest and most sincere in respect of simple things - and of course becoming a universal object of grief....

"Lines... Tintern Abbey..."

Comment on the language - the sentence structure, punctuation, use of run-on lines, rhythm, choice of words, in the first section of the poem.

Describe the speaker's state of mind; his feelings, perceptions, memories.

Comment on the description of the landscape. In what ways does the landscape reflect the state of mind of the speaker?

How do the tone and language of the poem change in the section beginning: "These beauteous forms...."? Why?

What has been the importance of nature for the speaker?

Comment on the word choice in "Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart:".

Wordworth repeats the word "unremembered". What is he talking about here?

Comment on the use of language in "Nor less, I trust.... We see into the life of things" (You should look at tone, word choice and imagery, the use of rhythm to build a climax). How effectively do you think Wordsworth communicates his major concerns in these lines?

How does the speaker's tone change in the section immediately following ("If this/Be but a vain belief...")?

What mood is captured in this section?

Comment on the language and choice of words in "when the fretful stir/Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,/Have hung upon the beatings of my heart-"

What do you think Wordsworth measns by "the picture of the mind"?

What state of consciousness is captured in the beginning of this section? Why does WW talk about a state of "sad perplexity"? (notice the effect of "now" - the poem shifts back into the present).

Why "in this moment" is there "life and food /For future years."? Comment on WW's choice of language.

Comment on WW's description of himself as a younger man. What are the changes that have taken place in him since those days? How is he different now?

Comment on the use of language - tone, mood, imagery etc - in the passage from "For I have learned/To look on nature," to "... and rolls through all things."

What is Wordworth's main concern here?

What is the meaning of, "of all the mighty world/Of eye and ear, - both what they half create,/ And what perceive;"?

Why do you think Wordsworth (in this poem and elsewhere) focusses so much on listening?

Comment on the final section of the poem in which WW addresses Dorothy.

Do you find this section weaker than the rest of the poem? Why?

Essay Question:

Discuss the roles played by Nature, imagination, perception and memory in Wordsworth's poetry, basing your discussion on Tintern Abbey, and referring to at least two other poems.