Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth

Wordsworth is a great name for a poet. Changing mine asap.

What’s it about?

Wordsworth is looking around him at the natural world, and as he admires its beauty, he realises how ugly humanity is in comparison. Very cheery.

Structure:

Structurally, this is quite easy to get your head around. It’s told in four line stanzas, or quatrains if you want to be fancy, with an ABAB rhyme scheme. This creates quite a bouncy, upbeat tone, which is ironic when we consider “what man has made of man.” Wordsworth draws us in to the beauty and comfort of nature through his jovial structure, and then deconstructs this perfect image with the lament that humanity has come to ruin. In stanzas 3, 4 and 5, the second line is ends with a colon or semicolon, implying a direct link to the following clause. This draws a parallel between the first and second halves of the stanza, implying that the sublime beauty of nature only heightens Wordsworth’s disdain for people.

The poem is in iambic tetrameter. To remember some of the key themes, you can just see which words fall on the stressed syllable. “sad” “mind” “soul” “faith”

Imagery:

“To her fair works did Nature link” – The poem kicks off with some personification, raising nature to a position of power. She takes charge in the poem, emphasizing the contrasting weakness of humans.

“In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind. “

The juxtaposition of sweet and sad in this poem shows the relationship between Wordsworth’s outer experience and the consequences of enjoying nature. As he spends time with the natural world, it forces him to recognise the weaknesses of humanity by comparison.

Anaphora – “what man has man of man”. The verb “made” suggests shaping or constructing something, in turn implying that we have molded each other and ourselves to be corrupted.

“If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature’s holy plan”

Bit of religious imagery here at the end.  Wordsworth contemplates God’s intentions for the world, vs the reality that we have created. Nature herself has a godlike position of power here, being the one who dictates the plan.

Context:

This poem is in the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads, which focused on the experience and plight of the ordinary man. Wordsworth is exploring how man has turned on himself through the industrial revolution, choosing industry over nature, and leaving the purity of the pastoral world behind. This can be linked to the philosopher Rousseau, who believed that “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” His thinking was that society erases our purity, and that man can only be good in a natural state.

Maria x