![]() HE alluded to the carnal nature of his youth “(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days/and their glad animal movements all gone by,) (74-5) and welcomes his appreciation of nature and the calmness it brings “…other gifts/Have followed, for such loss, I would believe”(87-8). In stanza 4 Wordsworth becomes like a preacher in tone and when he says, “That at this moment there is life and food/For future years”(65-6) he seems to be teaching the reader a lesson that youth is spent in concrete form. Wordsworth’s wish for his sister in this poem is that she be happy and joyous in her surroundings and protect her from the gossip and cruelty of the outside world and that the serenity and calmness of nature keep her at peace “Therefore let the moon/ Shine on thee in thy solitary walk” (l35-6). The autobiographical fact that Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy returned to live in the Lake District at the end of l799 reinforces how important the locale meant to him and his sister. The freedom to be himself and enjoy the beauty and tranquility that nature can provide, in a treasured place which was sacred to him, set away from the city gossip and fast life, the ironic greetings of people who don’t care “Nor greetings where not kindness is, not all” (13l). He feels protected in the woods, a place of refuge which is reinforced by the dearness and closeness of his sister’s presence. The irony of the strengthening of his relationship with his sister, Dorothy takes place with his return to the abbey with Dorothy and he feels freedom which he had lacked in the “outside” world. He uses obvious, but knowing adjectives in “round ocean” and “living” air: “And the round ocean and the living air” (99) and attributes that are obvious to the conditions of the ocean and air, but to reflect upon the obvious and constancy of nature. In lines 89-92, “For I have learned /To look on nature, not as in the hour/Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes/The still, sad music of humanity,”(89-92) his tone becomes morose in reflecting upon the lack of human appreciation of nature. In the third stanza of the poem his tone changes and he almost becomes angry at the fact that he had left the abbey and returned to a life which had left him unfulfilled “How often has my spirit turned to thee!”(58). The life of the woods surrounding the Abbey is almost given human-like qualities to show how man is and must be part of nature. He gives the woods an almost human personality with the use of the verb, “run” in line l7 “Of sportive wood run wild these pastoral farms” (l7). ![]() The plots of land surrounding his dear land are lovingly described with the color, green. The tone of the poem is calm and meditative and Wordsworth describes the “landscape” and compares it to the “quiet” of the sky: “The landscape with the quiet of the sky.”(8). The gentle, quietness of the river Wye which Wordsworth adored, and the visual picture of the rolling of the water from the mountain springs give the reader a feeling of serenity. ![]() ![]() The poem starts immediately with an adjective, “rolling” referring to the waters coming down from the mountain springs which do not disturb the “murmur” of the river: “These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs/With a sweet murmur.” (3-4).
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