How do you feel when you see flowers growing on the roadside? To the author, William Wordsworth, in his immortal lyric poem, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, flowers and all of nature’s richness is a spiritual reality, bearing witness to the beauty and goodness of God. The poem expresses the writer’s personal feelings and emotions.
The poet used an apt comparison of the speaker to a lonely cloud willing to be carried anywhere without direction, just floating away anywhere, wherever. The simile used is a kind where the quality is inferred, comparing a person to a cloud, without naming the quality similar to the compared objects. Although the stanzas were written in six lines, the poem follows a rhyme of four verses with each stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse; usually rhymed having four metrical feet. While in his lonely mood, the speaker in the poem sees a crowd. A crowd of flowers, personified as human beings, golden daffodils all over the lake, under the trees flapping up and down as if dancing in the cooled wind and snatches away the solitary mood of the speaker in the poem, and joyfully found himself not all alone but at peace in the company of God’s other beautiful creations. What an “identity-switching technique” with its simple plot about nature, memory and musical eloquence! (Racadio, Reyes & Ribo 75).
While revisiting the banks of the Wye, “Tintern Abbey” was written in l798 and like Wordsworth’s other famous poems, its theme is focused on the beauty of nature and memory. The poem was written in blank verse; unrhymed verses having five metrical feet like a piece of prose, flowing, very natural and read easily. Similar to “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, “Tintern Abbey” is a monologue where the speaker talks to himself, addressing others at times. Flushing in the scene in the idea of an abbey is a faint breed of religious thought although the actual form of the structure is not contained in the poem. Wordsworth uses romanticism by describing the pleasure brought by nature. This poem is all about past memories as he tries to bring back those lost memories. In the few lines of the poem, the poet experiences emotional pain in reminiscing his childhood, his communion with nature. In his last paragraph, Wordsworth wished that her sister Dorothy survived his death to share and continue his memories so that his love for nature will live on. But one thing is definite that Wordworth will be remembered for his poems and his memories will live on (Ches)
“Nay, we are seven!” a famous last line in William Wordsworth poem, We Are Seven”. Wordsworth, known for his works about nature, “We Are Seven” is centered on the supernatural. Its theme is about innocence and how it regresses because humanity destroys it. The supernatural beliefs of the main character in the poem that her dead siblings still exist, subjected the poem to ridicule. Several revisions were made but the theme remains despite its initial criticisms. The poem has gained popularity since its release.
“We Are Seven” is about a little girl insisting on the narrator that there are seven boys and girls in the family contrary to her statement that some were already dead. Despite efforts of the narrator to make the child understand that deceased brothers and sisters cannot be counted anymore as they are no longer alive, the girl insisted, they are seven. Without realizing, the narrator is forcing his beliefs on the child and trying insistently to change her conceptions instead of learning from the child. “We are Seven” is the embodiment of Wordsworth’s childhood’s innocence that he misses and gone forever (Ridenour).
Anyone who reads the poems would appreciate the spectacular elegance of the language, simple and candid. The poet used a wide range of metaphors in his poems, from architectural to maritime, like the mind to “a mansion of memory”, and memory to “the anchor” of the poet’s “purest thought”. In another poem, he describes himself as a “lonely cloud” and the daffodils to “a crowd of dancing people”. When reading the poem, “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud”. Anyone can still feel the gracefulness of the dancing daffodils and the cool breeze of the countryside. In “We Are Seven”, the reader is left in an uncertain cognitive state, waiting for what will happen next, apprehensive to know in the end that the siblings are not really seven. The answer however, remains unanswered. Who could forget then the firm stand of a child who cannot in her innocence denies the presence of her siblings though they are gone forever?
Those who have read the poems will appreciate the style used in the poems, metaphoric phrases are laudable, the slow rhythmic movements of his verses are soul-penetrating and touching, simple and very natural. Thematic concepts used impart divine influence on the mind and soul, be it natural or supernatural. He writes with passion and most of his poems are from his experiences, the reason why it is from the heart, full of feelings and emotions. The lyrics are magnificent, very descriptive of the images, places, events, pleasure and emotion, Wordsworth wants to convey to his readers. Readers would feel as if they were transcended into another dimension, spirits fleeting like clouds traveling with the writer, feeling what the writer feels. The reader is left expectant of what will happen next, expecting mostly for the highlights or climax that never comes, what a style!
Work Cited
Ches, Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” Classic Network http://www.literatureclassics.com
/essays/1217/
Racadio, B., Reyes D and Ribo L. (2005) Language Literature, Anglo-American
Literature, Revised Edition, Vibal Publishing House, Inc., Manila, Philippines
Matt, R. (2000) Wordsworth’s we are seven, losing innocence. Ashes Sparks and
Hypertext Phillipson/UC Berkeley 2000 http://www.clayfox.com/ashessparks/
reports/matt.html
