Preview

Lines - William Wordsworth Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
870 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lines - William Wordsworth Essay Example
In his poem, “Lines Written in the Early Spring,” William Wordsworth gives us insight into his views of the destruction of nature. Using personification, he makes nature seem to be full of life and happy to be living. Yet, man still is destroying what he sees as “Nature’s holy plan” (8). The entire poem is about the interaction between nature and man. Wordsworth is clearly not happy about the things that man has done to the world. He describes Nature in detail in the second and third stanzas when he personifies the periwinkle and the flowers. He is thinking about the bad things that man has done to nature and he wants the reader to sit back and think about the fact that there used to be something so beautiful and alive, and because of man’s ignorance and impatience, there is not a lot left. He also wants him to go sit in his own grove and actually see what is living and breathing and whether or not he enjoys it. Wordsworth makes it seem appealing to want to go and do this through his descriptions and thoughts, so that you get a feeling of what is there and what is being lost. He makes the reader want to go and see if those things, the budding twigs, the hopping birds, and the trailing periwinkle, really do exist and if they really are as alive as he says. Wordsworth’s line “What man has made of man” (7) refers to what human men are doing to the other man on Earth, Nature, whom man is fighting for the top spot. To Wordsworth, Nature is alive and has feelings, the same as the human man. He proves this by making everything so full of life and happy to be alive, such as the little birds, throughout the poem, starting from the first stanza to the last. In the first stanza, he is listening to the sounds of Nature while he is relaxing. He describes everything around him in the rest of the poem. Wordsworth gives life to everything in this poem. He sees periwinkle, trailing its wreaths

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the first poem by William Stafford, a person kills a deer while coming around a curve in the road. This person feels very horrible about the mistake and feels like they need to do something about the deer. When the speaker finds out that the dead deer is pregnant they feel even worse about the accident. The car in this poem is personified which makes the reader come to the conclusion that technology is killing nature or the theme of man versus nature. The language is very sympathetic both for the driver and the deer. The author uses the word “group” on line 16 making more than just the driver, deer and baby bee there but also the car and all of nature. Following this with “I could hear the wilderness listen” on page 16 also personifies the woods.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, the poem shows several examples of how man should become one with nature. The poem states that nature has a voice of gladness and eloquence of beauty. This excerpt, "The golden sun, the planets, all the infinite host of heaven are shining on the sad abodes of death," is a good example of being a part of nature. Another good example is, "Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim thy growth." Basically, nature is described as a cause of happiness and wise doings.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In these lines Wordsworth writes about when he was younger and the memories he has which he can never replicate. He's haunted by the beauty of the the rocks, the mountains and the woods. He thinks about the charms of the scenery, how it looks at the time, how it looked in the past and it’s gifts. He gains pleasure from the scenery and reminisces about how nature inspired him even in his younger days, how it what he was looking at would possibly inspire him in later days.…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Papa's Waltz

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages

    He states in the first stanza that he wanders “lonely as a cloud/That floats on high o’er vales and hills,” which, in just reading the first line, may seem a bit melancholy. However, interpreting the vision of a magnificent cloud alone in the sky puts a positive spin on the idea. Additionally, the second line serves as a reminder of that positivity. He then refers to a vast expanse of flowers as “a crowd,/a host, of golden daffodils,” suggesting that the amount of flowers is overwhelming, but in no way is it a sign that one should not venture further. On the contrary, it seems a lot more like an invitation to join in on the ‘party’ that the flowers are having. If Wordsworth had simply called it “a bunch/a group of flowers,” it would not have had nearly the same effect, because ‘group’ and ‘crowd’ have very different implications as far as size goes. He furthers the hyperbole in the second stanza by calling the flowers “Continuous as the stars that shine/And twinkle on the milky way.” For most, the number of stars in our galaxy is entirely unfathomable. Furthermore, the idea of that many things existing in just one area on our planet is almost overwhelming, and it puts a great sprightly feeling into the reader’s…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poems, “Mont Blanc” and “Tintern Abbey” their is a description of a landscape that, for the writer, the sight brings upon a philosophical questioning and reflection in which both writers gain a better and deeper relationship with nature. In “Tintern Abbey”, Wordsworth writes:…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Society seemingly gets worse and worse each year by becoming too worldly, and Wordsworth openly criticizes this situation about how mankind loses sight on how significant Mother Nature and her ways are. "The sea that bares her bosom to the moon" (line 5). With this line, the author uses personification and alliteration to set a tone of urgency to show that even the sea, whom is blatantly exposing her bosom to all, goes unnoticed and unappreciated. "The winds that will be howling at all hours, and are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;" (line 6-7). Wordsworth evaluates that even the winds that howled out its throat were striving to get humanity's attention, only to give up and rest "like sleeping flowers," in a subdued manner. With these faults of society, Wordsworth criticizes that mankind has been using the ecosystem for goods for themselves, and not for its beauty. "We have given our hearts away" (line 4), he describes that with this unjust exploit from humankind, they have only given their gentle hearts away in replace with greed for materialistic goods, and he utters about what an awful trade they have made, "a sordid boon!" (line…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the beginning of the poem, information is given that states it is taking place in a “(War Time)” (Teasdale). This information enables the reader to interpret the poem in a way in which it relates to war. Generally, readers view war as a conflict between two opposing bodies of people, but my interpretation was that this war was a conflict fought between man and nature. The blunt truth regarding the role that humanity holds is expressed when Teasdale writes, “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree/ If mankind perished utterly;…” This quote expresses and portrays who and what the conflict is between (Teasdale 9-10). In a time of war between man and nature, man assumes that they are always superior to other forms of life. Due to the dominant nature of the humankind, one can possibly infer that this war was…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We see in the prelude that nature changes the narrator and that he is forced to realise that nature is more powerful than him; this extract definitely shows the reader that we haven’t controlled nature as humanity claims as the narrator thought at the beginning of the extract. At first Wordsworth comes across as being naïve and confident as he first sets across the lake “It was an act of stealth/And troubled pleasure”. But slowly towards the end his upbeat mood changes to fear as he realises that nature is more powerful and that “No familiar shapes/Remained, no pleasant images of trees”. The reader can notice a sense of rites of passage of the narrator as he goes from a naïve ‘boy’ to a more understanding ‘man’. His journey across the lake is a metaphor for life, as he is forced to overcome obstacles just like any of us in life which is why many would relate to this. There is also a sense of guilt in this poem as the narrator feels he is perhaps punished by nature for his actions at the start of the poem by almost underestimating the power and relentlessness of nature.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When he grew older his view on nature sculpted more into a spiritual aspect, and he realized that without nature there would be no living as the two go hand in hand. Although Wordsworth realized the world was more corrupt than he imagined as a child, his love for nature never vanished. Wordsworth stated: “Therefore am I still / A lover of the meadows and the woods / And mountains; and of all that we behold”. He later wrote: “In nature and the language of the sense / The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, / The guide, the guardian of my…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robert Frost Depression

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The poem tells of a man who is walking somewhere with his horse one night, and stops to ponder the sight of the woods for some time. Then, he is reminded of his duties, and continues on his way. The man in this poem is depressed, much like the man in "Dust of Snow". When he looks into the woods, it serves as a metaphor for the man contemplating his own suicide. Frost describes the woods as "lovely, dark and deep". This description makes the woods seem very appealing, to the point where one would want to step into the them and walk through them. Frost is likening these woods to embracing one's depression and committing suicide. This is because the thought of ending one's life might seem appealing to one stricken with deep depression. But, the man does not embrace his depression. Instead, he carries on and continues with his life, saying to himself, twice, that he has "miles to go before [he] sleeps". The repetition in this line seems to be a mantra for the man, which he repeats in order to convince himself that he must go through with his life. But what ultimately brings this man out of his depressed state? It is the "promises" mentioned in line 10, which the man feels he needs to uphold. So, it is society and other people who save the…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” seeing God through Nature is depicted as a gain when Wordsworth says, “well pleased to recognize/In nature and the language of the sense,/The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/Of all my moral being,” (783-784). Through Nature, Wordsworth now senses the presence of something far more subtle, powerful, and fundamental in the light of his “purest thoughts,” “guardian of his heart,” and “all of his moral being.” (783-784). While Wordsworth continues to connect with God through Nature, his younger sister, Dorothy, begins to…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Robert Frost is often referred to as a poet of nature. Words and phrases such as fire and ice, flowers in bloom, apple orchards and rolling hills, are all important elements of Frost 's work. Remove them and something more than symbols are taken away. These ‘benign ' objects provide an alternative way to look at the world and are often used as metaphors to describe a darker view of nature and humans. In Frost 's poetry, the depth is as important as the surface. The darker aspects of Frost 's poetry are often portrayed through the use of symbolism, vivid imagery, and selective word choice. Frost 's poems appear to be simple on the surface, yet upon further scrutiny the poems reveal themselves as elusive. Frost utilizes ordinary objects to create a deeper meaning. For example, the poem Mending Wall, appears to be about the differences between two neighbors and their ideas on rebuilding a wall. On the other hand, the wall may be viewed, in a more general sense, as a symbol to represent all the antagonistic or mistrustful barriers that divide man from man. The gaps I mean / No one has seen them made or heard them made / But at spring mending-time we find them there (lines 9-11), illustrates the point that people become separated without even realizing it because we become so caught up in what is happening in our own lives. The darkness, held within the afore mentioned quotation, is the feeling of sadness. The fact that we do not take notice of one another creates a place that becomes more and more divided by differences. Likewise, the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay seems to represent the change of seasons. But further analysis reveals that the speaker is also paralleling the cycles of life with the change in seasons. So dawn goes down to day (7) illustrates that in life as in nature, golden moments fade away. Then leaf subsides to leaf (5) implies autumn, when the leaves begin to turn gold and fall to the ground. The color gold represents…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. Little we see in Nature that is ours; […]” (Wordsworth lls. 1-3”). In these lines, Wordsworth is complaining about how people put too much attention on the material world instead of things that really matter such as nature. Consequently,…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author also talks about imagery with, “the winds that will be howling at all hours / and are gathered now like sleeping flowers,” (Wordsworth, 6-7). These lines demonstrate how individuals may interpret nature to be rough and rugged, but he sees the flowers in a calm state. It also further expresses what he tries to say. Flowers generally become associated with love and…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though Browning needs a human companion, as many people do, to make her happy, Wordsworth finds conclusive happiness in the inanimate things of nature. Thinking back to a time of complete content, Wordsworth describes daffodils "tossing their heads in sprightly dance” (12). In this particular line of the poem, Wordsworth uses personification to describe the daffodils in an upbeat demeanor. He knows that the daffodils and things of nature will stay with him constantly through his life. Therefore, through the simile “continuous as the stars that shine” (7), Wordsworth shows why he depends on nature for his happiness through a careful selection of figurative language. As he describes the beauty and grace of the daffodils, Wordsworth “could not but be gay In such a jocund company”, using enjambment to show that the daffodils bring him a happiness he cannot help nor deny (15-16). Although Browning needs the aid and presence of a human being, Wordsworth relishes in “the bliss of solitude” (22), using only the things of nature to brighten his mood and devote his life. In addition, when in “vacant or pensive mood”(20) he thinks about the daffodils and is immediately consoled just by the memory of their beauty, thus reiterating his infatuation with…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays