The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact. ~William Shakespeare, Mid-Summer Night's Dream, 1595, this quote by Shakespeare is a definitive illustration of Wordsworth’s persona in his poem Strange Fits of Passion I have known. In the poem the speaker embarks on a moonlight horse ride to his lover lucy’s cottage; it is during his ride there that the speaker engages in “lunatic” thoughts imagining lucy being dead when he arrives to see her. The poem is uniquely characterized by the adverse effects of love on a person, as well as how nature has an effect on human emotion; the latter being a staple theme in many of Wordsworth’s literary pieces. In the first stanza the speaker begins to vocalize the thought he had experienced while travelling to his lover’s cottage. Strange fits of passion have I known: And I will dare to tell, But in the Lover’s ear alone, What once to me befell. The speaker describes his sudden outburst of emotion as “strange” as he is keenly aware that his thoughts of lucy being dead are peculiar. It is common that when in love a person may pay heed to their imagination moreso than reality ; The line “But in the Lover’s ear alone“(Line three) is the speaker saying that he will share his “strange” thoughts but only to those who, like him, are in the throes of passion for they would understand the affects love can have on a person Wordsworth is known for his references to nature in many of his poems , the second stanza in this poem doesn’t stray from that commonality. When she I loved looked every day Fresh as a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, ... ... middle of paper ... ...n his chest. The final stanza at last reveals the speaker’s thoughts that have been accumulating throughout the poem. What fond and wayward thoughts will slide Into a Lover’s head! “O mercy!” to myself I cried, “If Lucy should be dead!” Appalled at this final revelation it is apparent that the speaker has experienced similar thoughts and that sometimes despite great efforts your imagination can steer your thoughts to the contrary of rational thinking “What fond and wayward thoughts will slide ( Line 25) Into a Lover’s head! “(Line 26). Strange fits of passion is another poem by Wordsworth that uses nature as a medium when conveying human emotion but provides a unique portrayal of the absurdities of emotional experience that can evolve from passionate love.
Every action made in A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around the idea of love. It is a concept which few people can understand because of the extremity a person can go through to go after their love. “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.” Lovers see the world in a way which everyday people cannot comprehend. The idea of love leads to them making irrational choices which may seem
, how it drowns to his attention how much he had longed for his sister/future wife to be. Yet he never felt so lonely whilst within her company. Whether it was the fact that the burning desire driven him away. Or just his sheer highly intelligent curiosity got in the way of settling for second best.
Despite the beauty described in the first few stanzas of the poem, it was the feeling of doubt and pondering that approached at the end of the poem that truly was the most thought provoking. Instead of just writing of beauty, Poets must realize that they may be leading people to false ideals, and in doing so that they may actually be causing individuals to believe in something that is nothing more than a dream. This realization makes the image of the questioning poet by far the most important in the piece.
Love can be quite chaotic at times. As much as poets and songwriters promote the idea of idyllic romantic love, the experience in reality is often fraught with emotional turmoil. When people are in love, they tend to make poor decisions, from disobeying authority figures to making rash, poorly thought-out choices. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses various motifs to illustrate how love, irrationality, and disobedience are thematically linked to disorder.
John Muir and William Wordsworth use diction and tone to define nature as doing a necessary extensile of life. Throughout Muir’s and William’s works of literature they both describe nature as being a necessary element in life that brings happiness, joy, and peace. Both authors use certain writing techniques within their poems and essays to show their love and appreciation of nature. This shows the audience how fond both authors are about nature. That is why Wordsworth and Muir express their codependent relationship with nature using diction and tone.
Wordsworth desires nature only because of his separateness, and the more isolated he feels the mor...
The first stanza sets an overall impression of this fragment that love is so complex and powerful for it turns a lover with incompatible mixed-feelings. The speaker opens this poem by
Two brilliant Romantic literary works by William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immorality from Recollections of Early Childhood and I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, express in captivating detail the unforgettable joy one experiences in their lifetime. This joy can never be erased from memory, nor destroyed by present or future evils. The joy communicated in these stories conveys a sense of peaceful bliss that gives the reader a sense of inner harmony in the speaker’s soul. This peaceful certainty makes the reader believe that the speaker is content in his inner being in whatever may happen, for the joy he has found can never be taken from him. And though his memory is calloused with the pain and sufferings experienced on Earth, the delight that he had once experienced overshadows the darkness so that what shines within him is unforgettable joy!
William Wordsworth wrote the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” in the year of 1802 while he was walking home with his sister Dorothy, and they discovered and saw a patch of daffodils (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/). This poem deals with the interchange between human and nature, and then due to the comparison between the poet and the daffodils, the poet makes himself a piece or part of nature. Furthermore, the daffodils are portrayed as heavenly and spiritual creatures who “dance” (l 6) which makes the poet become one as well. This symbolizes the poets mind’s overflow of ideas which inspire him to write, and it leads to his mind’s rebirth. Hence, the poet uses figurative language and form to show the overflow of ideas and rebirth that is achieved through the exchange between man and nature.
In the last line of the second stanza, the subject enters dramatically, accompanied by an abrupt change in the rhythm of the poem:
All in all, throughout all the history of American poetry, we can easily find numerous poems concerning nature from different angles, for nature will never betray a nature-loving heart just as William Wordsworth says.
When a man becomes old and has nothing to look forward to he will always look back, back to what are called the good old days. These days were full of young innocence, and no worries. Wordsworth describes these childhood days by saying that "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?"(190) Another example of how Wordsworth uses nature as a way of dwelling on his past childhood experiences is when he writes "O joy! That in our embers / Is something that doth live, / That nature yet remembers / What was so fugitive!" (192) Here an ember represents our fading years through life and nature is remembering the childhood that has escaped over the years. As far as Wordsworth and his moods go I think he is very touched by nature. I can picture him seeing life and feeling it in every flower, ant, and piece of grass that crosses his path. The emotion he feels is strongly suggested in this line "To me the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." (193) Not only is this showi...
William Wordsworth has respect and has great admiration for nature. This is quite evident in all three of his poems; the Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey and Michael in that, his philosophy on the divinity, immortality and innocence of humans are elucidated in his connection with nature. For Wordsworth, himself, nature has a spirit, a soul of its own, and to know is to experience nature with all of your senses. In all three of his poems there are many references to seeing, hearing and feeling his surroundings. He speaks of hills, the woods, the rivers and streams, and the fields. Wordsworth comprehends, in each of us, that there is a natural resemblance to ourselves and the background of nature.
Through the poems of Blake and Wordsworth, the meaning of nature expands far beyond the earlier century's definition of nature. "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." The passion and imagination portrayal manifest this period unquestionably, as the Romantic Era. Nature is a place of solace where the imagination is free to roam. Wordsworth contrasts the material world to the innocent beauty of nature that is easily forgotten, or overlooked due to our insensitivities by our complete devotion to the trivial world. “But yet I know, where’er I go, that there hath passed away a glory from the earth.
In poetry the speaker describes his feelings of what he sees or feels. When Wordsworth wrote he would take everyday occurrences and then compare what was created by that event to man and its affect on him. Wordsworth loved nature for its own sake alone, and the presence of Nature gives beauty to his mind, again only for mind’s sake (Bloom 95). Nature was the teacher and inspirer of a strong and comprehensive love, a deep and purifying joy, and a high and uplifting thought to Wordsworth (Hudson 158). Wordsworth views everything as living. Everything in the world contributes to and sustains life nature in his view.