What Is The Theme Of William Wordsworth's The World Is Too Much With Us?

Analysis of Tract by William Carlos Williams The poem “Tract” by William Carlos Williams, on the surface, is a criticism of an ostentatious funeral (Geddes 37). However, the poem does have a strong hidden message. “Tract” could very well be a direct criticism of Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”(Geddes 123) and any other poem like it. In his poem, William Carlos Williams criticizes poets like Thomas for using too many stylistic formalities, thereby obscuring their poetry’s true literal content. He also scolds them for placing themselves into the poetry when, in his view, there really is no place for them there.

Although they recognized nature as a model for human life, they did not believe humanity could rise above its inherent flaws and predestination for disaster. Frost's work reflects a troubled romantic view of the world. He attempts to reconcile these competing views of the world in his poems, "Mending Wall" and "Birches." "Mending Wall" is a narrative of Frost and his neighbor mending the wall between their properties. However simple the poem seems, it serves as a complex argument between the two competing schools of thought.

While the speaker stops to watch the woods “fill up with snow,” he thinks his horse “must think it queer” (Frost 245). A poet, like Frost, must once in a while stop and reflect before writing. The horse finds it odd to stop and reflect on the beauty of nature because this is only a human behavior. According to Cleanth Brooks, an American critic whose work helped establish the New Criticism movement, in Frost and Nature, describes the speaker’s decision to stop and observe nature as solely a human trait, as only humans “can find a place for aesthetic appreciation.” There is no rational reason to stop and appreciate one’s surroundings because only humans happen to do “detached contemplation” (Brooks). A poet must use “detached contemplation” in order to be a successful poet, as it takes time to write (Brooks).

For Robert Frost, the simple scene of a wood (forest) filling slowly up with snow. As for Wordsworth the scene is very much a more vibrant picture as he describes the daffodils in their 'sprightly dance'. To you or me, to see these things is just something that happens and we don't notice it. In today's society such events are not even acknowledged, and there fore people don't normally take the time to experience the occasion. We realise that both Wordsworth and Frost where alone as Wordsworth states 'I wandered lonely' and Frost states-: 'Whose woods these are I think I know.

He describes us as "out of tune," which means that we are not completely doomed, that there is hope to be reconciled with nature. In "The Eve of St. Agnes," Porphyro demonstrates the passion that Wordsworth is talking about. Porphyro is surrendering to the desire, "the fire," of his heart; meanwhile the people in Wordsworth's poem "give their hearts away." Nature is proved to be vulnerable to alienation and indifference by the people in Wordsworth's poem; but, for Madeline is it overwhelming desire and longing by Porphyro. Instead of being cautious and holding back, Porphyo also takes a risk in following his burning heart, a quality admired by both Keats and Wordsworth.

In discussing song number 6, Stein asserts that "the ridiculous rhymes...ought to have warned Schumann away from his straight-faces, pompous, patriotic-religious treatment." Stein seems to be admonishing Schumann for ignoring what he thinks is an obvious sign in the text and therefore not capturing the essence of that poem. Midway through the chapter, Stein points to two more weaknesses in Schumann's composition: that he ignores the importance of the form of Heine's poetry and that he omits and rearranges poems, breaking up closely linked pairs of poems. Most of Stein's analysis struck me as valid and well-supported. Much of the charm of Heine's poetry from Lyrisches Intermezzo comes from its elements of irony and wit; although the cycle starts with a beautifully simple love poem, the text becomes, as Stein puts it, "more and more bizarre" as it unfolds.

Henry James accuses Whitman of refusing to deal with challenging moral questions in his poetry. Whitman speaks of the evils of war, suffering, and senseless death in graphic detail in "The Wound Dresser", but to James these evils are obvious targets for lesser poets. "A great deal of verse that is nothing but words has, during the war, been sympathetically sighed over and cut out of newspaper corners because it possessed a certain simple melody." (James, p.16) James denies Whitman's poetry even a simple melody. Whitman is more an emotional opportunist than a poet.

(Biography.com). Perhaps his own frustration at being unappreciated telegraphed into his poetry as many of them are shrouded in morose feeling. ‘The chimney sweeper’ in songs of experience nicely shows Blake’s concept of innocence and experience. Although the poem is included in the book ‘Songs of experience’ it is quite an innocent poem, with decidedly darker undertones. It is quite pessimistic about the afterlife and again has a religious undertone.

Hardy also focused on the idea of war, but not as much as the others. He mostly answers the question of why. This question is answered with a simple “because I am told to,” which does not please Hardy. Housman mentions the idea of society and how they are looking at poetry in the wrong perspective. Hopkins also agrees, because he thinks that society is looking at the world in an incorrect way.

This greatly affected the way I perceived this stanza. I feel that the brutal images evoked by references to “Dachau, Auschwitz” and “Belsen” juxtaposed against this childish tone makes the reference appear superficial and tasteless. While I understand that Plath is attempting to issue blame for her father’s absence and is issuing part of it on her ‘ethnicity’... ... middle of paper ... ... The final stanza could easily be followed by the first and support my notion of a cyclic metaphor without appearing out of place because the rhyme allows it to flow. Prufrock holds a modernist view of himself, declaring that he is no hero and is “not Prince Hamlet”.