Words with Hidden Values
Words can be used for many things such as describing, depicting, or disguising a person’s thoughts or ideas. In a lyrical ballad called Strange fits of passion have I known by William Wordsworth, he does a great job of using different words to give out many thoughts and ideas. This is why poetry is used as a freedom of expression. Any poet can use wordplay to create and inspire readers to think, and dig deep for a certain meaning or purpose.
Wordsworth , I thought was very good a using words to create a different meaning than what the words actually meant. His words if looked at closely could have meant a million and one different things.
But in the Lover’s ear alone,
What once to me befel.(Wordsworth 3,4)
These few lines in the first stanza of his poem are pretty basic and do not give much to think about. They do give the start to the poem and the basic tone or idea. Line three could represent some sort of secret that only one would tell to someone they really love or trust. With line four it states that he was the one trusted with some sort of secret.
The lines of stanza two become a little more creative and give some good starting ideas.
When she I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening moon. (Wordsworth 5-8)
These lines are were the reader can now start becoming creative and coming up with possible ideas of what Wordsworth is trying to say. It is pretty obvious the first two lines are talking about how beautiful this girl is that Wordsworth is in love with. Then the next two lines are interesting to me. The idea I came up with is that Wordsworth was away from his lover doing something, but suddenly for some reason had to drop what he was doing and go to her. I was able to think of these because “I to her cottage bent my way” means that he had to change what he was doing. Then with “Beneath an evening moon” could mean he was in a rush since he is traveling at night and could not wait for morning to come about.
With stanza four I became a little more creative with Wordsworth’s wordplay.
First of alll, the poem is divided into nine stanzas, where each one has four lines. In addition to that, one can spot a few enjambements for instance (l.9-10). This stylistic device has the function to support the flow of the poem. Furthermore, it is crucial to take a look at the choice of words, when analysing the language.
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities; it is solely used to evoke emotive feelings in the reader in which to convey a message or story. This form of literature has a long history dating back thousands of years and is considered a literacy art form as it uses forms and conventions to evoke differentiating interpretations of words, though the use of poetic devices. Devices such as assonance, figurative language, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve a musical and memorable aspect to the poem. Poems are usually written based on the past experiences of the poet and are greatly influenced by the writer’s morals values and beliefs. Poetry regularly demonstrates and emphasises on the
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
,“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity" as William Wordsworth, the English Romantic poet, stated. Poetry is a way to express vast emotions and feelings in a way which is unique to the poet. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
Written on the banks of the Lye, this beautiful lyric has been said by critic Robert Chinchilla to “pose the question of friendship in a way more central, more profound, than any other poem of Wordsworth’s since ‘The Aeolian Harp’ of 1799” (245). Wordsworth is writing the poem to his sister Rebecca as a way of healing their former estrangement.
When she feels sad or lonely, he wants her to remember what he told her about nature because he believes that if his sister where to recall him, he will gain eternal life. The idea of “Lines composed of a few miles above Tintern Abbey” expresses Wordsworth sensational admiration for nature and feels a deep power of delight in natural things. He exclaims how at a moment of sadness, he turns to the nature for peace of mind and inspiration. As he becomes serious about the nature, it gives him courage and spirit enough to stand there with a sense of delight and pleasure. He lets the reader know that even though his boyish days are gone, he doesn’t ponder on it or mourn for its loss.
Stanza one is a ballad that uses symbolism as a technique, ‘grinned at life in empty joy’, this symbolises the boys’ youth when he was pleased by anything, and life was easy, he had no worries, as he would grin at anything. This phrase gives an outlook at life before joining the war, it is demonstrating the boys’ life when he was contented with anything. Another symbol is found in the first stanza, ‘whistled early with the lark’. The phrase suggests the boys’ youth in the early days, oblivious to the future laying ahead oh him. The lark symbolises cheerfulness and the beginning of the day. The boy whistling with the lark shows how he is excited for every new
By reading Wordsworth, one can gain a better grasp of Whitman through this similarity, which D.J. Moores argues. He states, “Although both poets had an intense distrust of language...they nevertheless believed language, particularly their own poetic language, could be a stimulus of consciousness expansion”(“Gangs” 96). In this way as well as in their mutual use of common language, the influence of Wordsworth on Whitman can be seen in the Romantic influence on the American poet. This idea of expanded consciousness is also much like the sublime, as Wordsworth says in his essay “The Sublime and the Beautiful” that the sublime is when the mind attempts“ to grasp at something towards which it can make approaches but which it is incapable of attaining” (Waldoff 124). Through the language both Whitman and Wordsworth utilize, the sublime is reachable and the consciousness of the reader expands because of it. Thus, one can further see the influence of Wordsworth on
In the first line a question is asked: "I have to say poetry and is that nothing and am I saying it?" The second line is simply a paraphrase of the first question. The poet wants to know if writing poetry is worth anything, or if it is "nothing." The poem explores and wanders while developing the entire theme until the opening question is answered by the final couplet. The first two lines are followed by two more corresponding lines. Lines 3-4 state that the author has nothing, but that he has poetry to say and he must say it. To summarize the first quatrain, the author asks what the meaning of poetry is, but before he has answered his initial question, he continues by explaining that, regardless of his condition, or the meaning of poetry, he has something he must say through poetry.
These poems are not as complex when compared to other poems, and with that being said they do not take an abundance of inference to determine the theme of the poem. Because they are not as complex as others all 3 of these poems are capable of being paraphrased to better understand the main idea of the poem. When putting the poem into different words, one can
The character of this poem, right from the beginning feels a sadness that comes from the inner struggle between what society depicts as "should" and what a person really feels, "I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll,/ yes, yes, we know that we can jest,/ we know we, we know that we can smile!/ But there's a something in this breast/ to which thy light words bring no rest." (3-7) There is the beginning sense here that he is starting to see conflict within himself, first characterized by his emotions.
To conclude, William Wordsworth uses form and syntax and figurative language to stress on his mental journey, and to symbolize the importance of the beauty and peace of nature. In my opinion, the poet might have written this poem to show his appreciation towards nature. The poem has a happy mood especially when the poet is discussing the daffodils. In this poem the daffodils are characterized as more than flowers, but as humans “fluttering and dancing in the breeze” (line 6). In addition, the poet mentioned himself to be part of nature since nature inspires him to write and think. Therefore, the reason that the poet wrote this poem was to express the feeling of happiness in his mental journey in nature.
Wordsworth had two simple ideas that he put into his writing of poetry. One was that “poetry was the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” The second idea was that poets should describe simple scenes of nature in the everyday words, which in turn would create an atmosphere through the use of imagination (Compton 2).
His poem recognizes the ordinary and turns it into a spectacular recollection, whose ordinary characteristics are his principal models for Nature. As Geoffrey H. Hartman notes in his “Wordsworth’s poetry 1787-1814”, “Anything in nature stirs [Wordsworth] and renews in turn his sense of nature” (Hartman 29). “The Poetry of William Wordsworth” recalls a quote from the Prelude to Wordsworth’s 1802 edition of Lyrical ballads where they said “[he] believed his fellow poets should "choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them.in a selection of language really used by men” (Poetry). In the shallowest sense, Wordsworth is using his view of the Tintern Abbey as a platform or recollection, however, this ordinary act of recollection stirs within him a deeper understanding.