Comparing two poems - Binsey Poplar by Hopkins and I wandered lonely

Comparing two poems - Binsey Poplar by Hopkins and I wandered lonely

as a cloud' by Wordsworth.

Compare the two poems and comment on:

- The overall feelings of the poem

- How they use language effectively

- What the poems suggest about the characters of the authors.

The two poems 'Binsey Poplars' by Hopkins and 'I wandered lonely as a

cloud' by Wordsworth both contain very strong, emotive feelings.

However, the feelings that they contain are very different.

The 'Binsey Poplars' poem has an overall feeling of anger. Hopkins is

openly enraged by the removal of the trees which is clearly seen in

the poem as it stresses the sudden shock that Hopkins experiences as

he sees his trees have gone. There is also a great feeling of sadness

as Hopkinshas clearly lost something he cared for.

'My aspens dear'

The opening word of 'my' tells us that Hopkins thinks of the trees as

his own which show his care for them and the attention he must have

given them. They were clearly very important to him which explains his

protectiveness over them and also why he used the 'my' and 'dear.

On the other hand, the Wordsworth poem is more joyful. It has an

overall feeling of happiness which is seen from the word 'dance'. This

word is repeated in every stanza of the poem to continually remind the

reader of the joyous feeling throughout the poem. The poem also comes

across as carefree which can be seen by the description of the

jubilant mood the author is in:

'on my couch I lie in a vacant or in pensive mood'

Wordsworth writes that he 'lies' on his couch it immediately shows the

calm and peaceful state he is in. There is then confirmation on his

carefree state of mind when he describes himself in a 'vacant or ...

... middle of paper ...

...rates the number of plants as well

as the fact that the daffodils are 'stretched in never-ending line'

The 'Binsey Poplars' poem contains a lot of anger and rage, this

reflects on the author, Hopkins. So, from this poem we can see that

the character of Hopkins can be very hot-tempered and vengeful.

However, the fact that he acted in this outraged fashion means that he

cared for the trees very much and therefore we see a loving and caring

side to Hopkins. On the other hand, Wordsworth does not show any anger

in his poem but only positive feelings such as happiness and elation.

In conclusion, we can see that the two poems differ greatly in the

feelings they project through mood and literacy devices. However, the

poems do have one thing in common in that they both portray the same

sentient of concern over plants that the authors clearly care a lot

about.