In the latter part of the romantic period, Wordsworth, as a part of his lyrical ballads, wrote “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal.” Although not initially intended, the poem eventually became part of a series labeled as the “Lucy Poems.” The five poems, in some way or another, address loss, separation, and their connection to nature. Recent analyses have yielded interesting results in interpreting the poem. Because of the ambiguity present within the lines, varying interpretations have emerged. As it turns out, “A slumber did my spirit seal” is not just a poem, as most people would have it, of a male speaker lamenting the loss of his love Lucy. Instead what has emerged is a creative narrative about the intertwined lives of three characters, all stemming from the same eight lines of poetic verse.
The first, and most conventional interpretation of “A Slumber,” identify the pronoun ‘She’ in the third line as “Lucy,” who is the subject of the four other poems in the collection. The male speaker (the speaker of a poem must be separate from the poet, in this case Wordsworth) describes how this woman whoever she may be: mother, lover, sister, or friend; has died. The word “slumber” is a euphemism to suggest an easy passing on to the afterlife. The final two lines of the first quatrain point to the tranquility of her death, and the narrator’s consolation that she is beyond the grasp of human mortality.
In the second quatrain, the impact of her death is starting to dawn on the speaker. In the first line, by saying that she has “No motion…no force” (line 5) he is possibly reflecting on how she was in life: a woman in constant movement, one that took part in life, rather than sitting on the sidelines. Now, all of that energy has ceased to ...
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...possibly the Lucy of other interpretations. The woman, or Lucy, is dead. She has “no force” (line 5), and the speaker has left her in a desolate landscape. Her corpse subjected to the harsh elements of the daily course of earth. The third interpretation of the poem is the persona of a sadistic murder that, when placed within the context of the previous two interpretations, the reader experiences the entire narrative.
Works Cited
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Wordsworth, William. “A slumber did my spirit seal.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Vol. D. New York: Norton, 2006. 276-77. Print.
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(ll. 19-24) Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small
Notably, the personification happens to be what “ing” means. Although in the English language “ing” is considered a vowel sound, in this poetic form it falls under the consonance description because of the connotation involved. This is where the twist of emotions with the allusion of being present in the room watching the woman sleeping. Figuratively speaking, allowing this emotional connection and becoming an active part of the beautifully painted picture that the poem portrays, the emotions run free inside. This also emphasizes the emotions involved while dealing with life after such a death is initiated and the present. As far as the poetic critical terms are concerned, the poem could be described as free-verse due to its lack of distinct rhythmic pattern and rhyme scheme. This inconsistency made it sound little off kilter the first read through. However, with emphasis on the intended pauses and a slower reading of the lyrics the emotions of sadness are
In line three “even though the person was alive” she shows the irony of life and the order of life. She shows that for one thing to live another must die. Yet, on the other hand she also shows the important thing that a life means because it says that she does not says if she is alive or not; she still suffering from something, but she still awake. Also, in sentence number four and five she says some similarities “I saw my eyes in the mirror and cried at the sight” I think that she means that she looks back her self and she still in a bad moon. In lines thirteen and fourteen “when I thought about love, I got hit bad” She means that not everything is loosen there is always something that it not there but It could be at any time.
Despite his position, Wordsworth can hear the “soft island murmur” of the mountain springs. As “five long winters” suggests, Wordsworth is cold and dreary—London, we must remember, is a bitter place. He longs for the islands: the sand, sun, and warm waters that those murmurs suggest. The coldness of winter could be brought about by Rebecca’s distance from her brother; they had been, at the time of the poem’s writing, separate for five long years. But he can hear reconciliation coming just at the edge of hearing: he can spot the horizon of friendship. But no sooner does friendship appear in the poem than it is thwarted by these lines:
During the 18th century, two great companion; William Wordsworth collaborated together to create Lyrical Ballad; one of the greatest works of the Romantic period. The two major poems of Lyrical Ballad are Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight.” Even though these two poems contain different experiences of the two speakers, upon close reading of these poems, the similarities are found in their use of language, the tone, the use of illustrative imagery to fascinate the reader’s visual sense and the message to their loved ones.
Moore, Marianne. “Poetry” 1921. Approaching Literature: Reading + Thinking + Writing. Ed. Peter Schakel and Jack Ridl. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 843-844. Print.
Wordsworth, William. “The Thorn.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. 2B. Ed. David Damrosch, et al. New York: Longman, 1999. 319-325.
The first thought that encroaches upon the woman's daydreams and darkens the atmosphere is that of a solemn "procession of the dead" to Palestine. Her interaction with the procession is interesting because it symbolizes the journey she is making in her mind and sets the tone for later religious questioning in the poem.
The poem says that "since feeling is first" (line 1) the one who pays attention to the meaning of things will never truly embrace. The poem states that it is better to be a fool, or to live by emotions while one is young. The narrator declares that his "blood approves" (line 7) showing that his heart approves of living by feeling, and that the fate of feeling enjoyment is better than one of "wisdom" (line 9) or learning. He tells his "lady" (line 10) not to cry, showing that he is speaking to her. He believes that she can make him feel better than anything he could think of, because her "eyelids" (line 12) say that they are "for each other" (line 13). Then, after all she's said and thought, his "lady" forgets the seriousness of thought and leans into the narrator's arms because life is not a "paragraph" (line 15), meaning that life is brief. The last line in the poem is a statement which means that death is no small thi...
“Lucy Poems” by William Wordsworth, portray both sides of love in his “Lucy Poems”. He describes the contrasting feelings that come with love both the, brilliant ups of being in love when the poet describes his love for Lucy, and the deep depressing loss of losing a loved one. Wordsworth is was one of the first romantic poets, having a new, modern approach towards poetry which in his time was unheard of, he felt poetry should be about emotions and feelings, it shouldn’t be inhibited or stifled by politics or city social life and this is reflected in all of his poems. “She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways” is the last in the “Lucy Poems Series” in which Lucy dies. The poet describes Lucy as A Maid whom there were none to praise ; And very few to love” and that “She lived unknown” however, despite the fact that she was not renowned, he still felt great loss and grief over her death, which is a sign of true love. Wordsworth says “But she is in her grave, and oh, The difference to me!” and his life would never be the same after this one single event.
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