Monday, September 6, 2010

Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth

I HEARD a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

In the poem, ‘Written in Early Spring’, Wordsworth feels sad about the fact that man alone among all creation is neither in harmony with his own kind nor with nature.

The poet is seated relaxed against a tree in a shady clump of trees listening to the music of the breeze, the chirping of birds and the creaking of insects. He is in the sweetest of moods. But along with pleasant thoughts in his mind at that moment, sad thoughts too arise.
Nature seems to have linked his soul with her soul in perfect communion. In that blessed mood, he is saddened to realize what man has done to his fellowmen and to nature. Man has inflicted pain on his own fellowmen and has destroyed nature.

The periwinkle intertwines itself on the primrose in perfect coexistence and the poet believes that every flower seems to enjoy the air it breathes. The poet is trying to say that the plants and the flowers coexist peacefully and seem to derive pleasure from their living.
Similarly, the birds seem to be in harmony and seem to derive pleasure in their movements of hopping and playing. In the same way the poet feels that the fresh branches seem to experience pleasure as they spread out into the air to catch it.

In the last stanza, the poet sums up what he has said. He feels that if the divine plan or ‘Nature’s holy plan’ is pleasurable and peaceful coexistence, he wonders why man alone has moved away from this plan. Only man lives in discord with himself and the rest of creation.

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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

A series of comments from me, but not all of them will b received kindly. Those which r unkind may not b released in ur blog. May b taken for private perusal only.

//In the poem, ‘Written in Early Spring’, Wordsworth feels sad about the fact that man alone among all creation is neither in harmony with his own kind nor with nature. //

The above can b rewritten as follows:

In the poem, '...', Wordsworth feels sad about the fact that among all creations, it s man who lives neither in harmony with his own kind nor with nature.

Anonymous said...

//The poet is seated relaxed against a tree//

When he himself says he sat, why to say he is seated. Who has seated him ?

Can say as follows:

The poet was sitting under a tree. OR The poet was sitting reclined against a tree all alone.

The importance of his solitariness needs to b emphasized because Wordsworth by nature was a lonely man. In this poem, it s anybody's guess that he s sitting in verdant surroundings somewhere in the Lake District as u know well.

Further please note, I hav used pres cont tense. The tense needs to b continued in the summary. U hav used different tenses, haven't u?

Anonymous said...

//The poet is seated relaxed against a tree//

When he himself says he sat, why to say he is seated. Who has seated him ?

Can say as follows:

The poet was sitting under a tree. OR The poet was sitting reclined against a tree all alone.

The importance of his solitariness needs to b emphasized because Wordsworth by nature was a lonely man. In this poem, it s anybody's guess that he s sitting in verdant surroundings somewhere in the Lake District as u know well.

Further please note, I hav used pres cont tense. The tense needs to b continued in the summary. U hav used different tenses, haven't u?

Anonymous said...

//He is in the sweetest of moods//

Pl read the third line of the first stanza. It is singular that he uses: In that sweet mood...

Then y to use plural?

Anonymous said...

/But along with pleasant thoughts in his mind at that moment, sad thoughts too arise//

Ok. Yet it cd b written thus:

The natural sights and sounds have brought a sweet mood in him. But, along with it some sad thoughts too come to his mind.

Anonymous said...

//Nature seems to have linked his soul with her soul in perfect communion. //

Careful writers don't use the same word more than once in a sentence.

Y to say 'seems' when he himself acknowledges it?

The poet believes that he is in perfect communion with Nature and the soul that runs through him is shared with that of Nature.

Nature here s personified. Coz. he says, 'her'

// In that blessed mood, he is saddened to realize what man has done to his fellowmen and to nature. Man has inflicted pain on his own fellowmen and has destroyed nature.//

He s happy in that realization of a spiritual companionship with Nature. But his happiness s spoilt when he realizes that man's greed has destroyed the biodiversity of the earth. He has made the lives of fellow humans miserable by his thoughtless and inhuman acts (Pl note that the poem was written with the memory of French Revolution during which WW was present in France)

Anonymous said...

//The poet is trying to say that the plants and the flowers coexist peacefully and seem to derive pleasure from their living.//

No he is not trying to say.

He says.

Anonymous said...

//Similarly, the birds seem to be in harmony and seem to derive pleasure in their movements of hopping and playing. //

So many 'seem' r used annoyingly.

U r here attempting to foist ur opinions upon the poet. He does not say the birds 'seem to b in harmony'(whatever that mean?)

When he himself confesses he does not know what the birds thought, y r u saying 'the birds derive pleasure'?

Or do u say the poet derives pleasure on seeing their hopping and playing?

If indeed it is ur meaning, then ur sentence is clumsy. syntactically erroneous.

The poet sees the birds hopping and playing and, although he cannot fathom their thoughts (humanly an impossible feat, isnt ?), he is not bothered abt that. For him, their mere presence near him hopping and playing is a thrill of pleasure.

Anonymous said...

//In the same way the poet feels that the fresh branches seem to experience pleasure as they spread out into the air to catch it.//

In this sentence, the word, 'the poet feels' saves your sentence from being error prone.

Anonymous said...

Ur last para is ok.

Anonymous said...

the last stanza is very nice but the fourth stanza should be more detailed

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Unknown said...

Trailed its wreaths has not been explained properly

Unknown said...

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