Symbolism is used often in the poem, such as the ‘oak’, the oak is obviously a part of nature, after the house has gone, and all memories of the occupants disappeared, the tree remains, nature moves on “The cottage was named the ‘Evening Star’ is gone- the ploughshare has been through the ground on which it stood; great changes have been wrought in all the neighbourhood: - yet the oak is left…”. The sheepfold is also a strong symbol. When nature prevails with the tree, the sheepfold does not, the stones are there but man does not triumph, since the sheepfold, despite all efforts was never completed “…and the remain of the unfinished sheep-fold may be seen…”.
The poem is narrative, the persona of the author comments on events, and describes them, as he wants. Dialogue is scarcely used, but it does appear more and more by the end, “Thou must go”. The dialogue is used so we can hear them, when reading their exact words our imagination pictures them. Wordsworth has given Michael a noble voice; the words used are not affected by dialect. “Nay, don’t take it so, I see that these are thing I need not speak”. There is an example of interior monologue, strangely by Isabel, who does not appear much in this poem, I believe this monologue is there to introduce her point of view, and fears. “There’s Richard Bateman” she thought to herself.
I believe this poem to be a very effective one, portraying its view through the means of a short story. Wordsworth’s range of literary skills is made obvious. They add to the interest and enjoyment for the reader. Yet I don’t agree. I’m sure that city goers are just as close to God as farmers are, some even closer, but one thing I do agree with, praying in an old stone church in a beautiful green valley is much nicer than praying in a dark brick chapel, in the middle of the smog of London. Not because I believe a valley is closer to God than a London street, but because of the peacefulness of the valley, it’s quiet there. Which gives you more opportunity to pray.
Next I will discuss “Tis a beauteous evening…” It’s a sonnet. A sonnet has clearly defined rules. It has fourteen lines, an octave and a sestet. There are ten syllables in each line. There is a rhyme pattern, but poets vary this.
The theme in this sonnet is of a young girl, who is walking the coast with Wordsworth’s persona. They look out over the sea, and the natural world. It’s beautiful, and even though Wordsworth’s persona appreciates it more, and thanked God for it, he still thought that the young girl is closer to God than he.
‘Beauteous’, is an archaic word, and probably was the day Wordsworth wrote it, he used it because of the romance attached to it. ‘Beauteous’, it sounds so calm and loving. The next two adjectives reinforce this; they being ‘calm’ and ‘free’. In the second line the holy dimension is introduced for the first time, using an adjective, which is ‘holy’ and a noun, ‘nun’. Again reinforcing the calmness is the word ‘quiet’. The man is ‘breathless with adoration’ at the beauty of the view. There is an use of enjambment here, “…broad sun,
is sinking down in it’s tranquillity”. This is used because the sun will sink regardless, it is constantly there, the sun will always rise and fall on earth. Repeatedly the calm atmosphere is strengthened, using ‘tranquillity’. The emphasis is now shifted from sight to sound. Starting the line with ‘listen’. With sound a strong theme arises; nature is everlasting, people die, ho uses crumble, and cars break down, but nature prevails. This theme is introduced through the form of the sea. Which is personified by “...the mighty being…”, it’s continued existence is displayed by the words ‘eternal’ and ‘everlastingly’. Here is the Volta, again changing the emphasis, from the view to the child, this major shift in emphasis is purposely put here, since in after Volta the story is given, in the octave the situation is described. In this line we find out the child is a female child, it explains even though the child doesn’t think of God, “Untouched by solemn thought”, it doesn’t mean that she is therefore less ‘divine’.
This sonnet, in my view, is very effective; it succeeds to portray a beautiful evening, with the red musty light reflecting off the shimmering cold sea. It succeeds by using words like ‘beauteous’, ‘calm’, ‘sun’, ‘tranquillity’ and ‘thunderous’. The rhyme, in my judgment, is not effective, it doesn’t satisfy any particular job, and other than creating a slight sense of harmony, it doesn’t contribute to the final product.
I enjoyed this reading this poem, it evokes many emotions, the sun being happiness and tranquillity, thunder being fear and strength. It also transfers the message clearly, I thoroughly enjoyed this sonnet.
The next poem I will discuss is ‘The world is too much us…’. Again, it is a sonnet, and it does follow the rules. It a sonnet about Wordsworth’s personas views about modern society, well modern when it as written anyway. In this poem, Wordsworth or his persona expresses his disgust. According to the poem he believes that since the industrial revolution, that this country and its society has deteriorated, “The world is too much with us, late and soon”. He believes that these days, where we earn money, and spend it on food and luxuries, “Betting and spending, we lay waste our powers”, before the industrial revolution people grew their own food, plucked their own chickens and so on, which he believes made us closer to nature. Of late our ability to relate with nature has disappeared, “Little we see in nature that is ours”. He explains that we are too shallow these days; we have sold our relationship with nature. Now the sea is personified, it’s a very sensual personification “The sea that bears its bosom to the moon”. He lists the natural events, and then says, “It moves us not”. Now the Volta comes, and we shift our attention from physical nature to God. He says, he’d rather be a pagan, believing in a religion that no one believes in other than he, than to have no religion at all, he believes that religion gives you hope of better things to come, in life and in death.
The use of the first person plural pronoun is a conscious decision by Wordsworth; it is used to include the whole world in its generalizations. In the octave the rhyme scheme is ‘a.b.b.a.a.b.b.c’. The last full line in the octave does not have a rhyme. And coincidentally the words are “…out of tune…”. Nature in the middle of the third line is given capital letter, this is important since it gives nature a near Godly status. When talking of humans words like ‘waste’ and ‘sordid’ are used. But when talking of nature words like ‘bosom’ and ‘sleeping’ are used. There is a definite contrast between the effects of these words. There is a simile in the octave, “..like sleeping flowers..”, referring to the wind, which is often ‘howling’ violently. But, for a short period it has calmed. Now, after the Volta a religious dimension is included. Wordsworth does this simply by placing the first two words as “Great God…”. Earlier we read “..the sea bearing it’s bosom to the moon”, now we have “..a pagan suckled in a creed outworn”. A natural image arises in people’s minds, an image, and so reinforcing the description of the beauty of the view. The use of ‘wreathed’ as the penultimate word is interesting, not only dos it describe the horn, but it also suggests the curvy lines of nature. Nothing organic is totally straight and square. Titan is a God who was overthrown by the Olympian Gods, so Titan is an outworn God, so obviously, Titan has been cleverly chosen by Wordsworth. This connection is again reinforced by the suggestion that to be close to nature is to be close to God. The rhyme scheme in the sestet is ‘c.d.c.d.c.d’. Again this is a very rhythmic rhyme scheme and suggests the prolonging of nature.
While reading these poems I noticed their amazing similarities. All are very romantic poems, suggesting love for nature, for example ‘bosom’ in ‘The world is too much with us…’ and in ‘It is a beauteous evening…’, and the word ‘heart’ in ‘Michael’. Wordsworth was a poet during the romantic period, when attention was given not to nobles and Kings, but to nature and the working folk. By these poems you can see that Wordsworth believed that normal people are important, and just as noble in a different way as Kings are. Michael is a poem celebrating nature, blaming the city for corrupting natures children “The dissolute city gave him to evil sources”. ‘The world is too much with us…’ is a sonnet discussing the downfall of the human race. We are no longer close to nature; we are no longer able to relate to the natural system, it doesn’t affect us emotionally any more, “It moves us not...”. This is blamed on the industrial revolution, which made people move to the city, to major industries. This is what it refers to when saying “…late and soon”. It also complains that since we are not close to nature, we are no longer able to partake in religious prayer, we have no spiritual dimension, our only real love is for money, “Great God, I’d rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn..”. The main aim of the poems is to portray that children are closer to nature and so God than adults even though they are not aware of this, and do not pray. I agree, when children are young their brains are not fully developed, they haven’t got enough intelligence to understand society’s complex layers, they don’t understand money or lust, the only thing they understand is love for their parents, and their hunger for food, their instincts are at their most primal state, they know nothing of God, “God being with thee when we know it not”. All these themes and ideas are fairly similar; all include religious dimensions, ‘God’, ‘Nun’ and ‘covenant’. Both ‘It is a beauteous evening..’ and ‘Michael’ have prominent child characters. The little girl in ‘It is a beauteous evening..’ is what ‘Luke’ was when he was young, innocent, happy, and close to God. But ‘The world is too much with us..’ is what ‘Luke’ was after leaving for the city; he wasn’t close enough to be guided in good by nature. This theme has a strong link to George Elliot’s ‘Silas Marner’, ‘Eppie’ was a little innocent girl, untouched by evil, who was close to God, and also brought God back to Silas’ life. All have ten syllables in each line; this is one of the main grammatical similarities. All have very little similes, only one in ‘The world is too much with us..’, only two in ‘It is a beauteous evening..’, and, to my knowledge, only one in ‘Michael’. All Wordsworth’s philosophy can be summed up in these four lines written by him:
“An impulse from a vernal wood,
can teach you more of man;
of moral, evil and of good,
than all the sages can.”
Wordsworth believes that nature is all-good, and, as the oak tree in ‘Michael’, it persists to live on, even after all the ruminants of Michael, Isabel and Luke have gone. From nature we can learn to be good people, to be calm and aware of our beautiful surroundings, and so, aware of God. In the city we think of only money, lust and greed.
I find all the poems to be enjoyable and quite entertaining. They also express Wordsworth’s philosophy in very simple stories. The stories are all assumed by me to be true, due to the use of names of places, and their correct detailed descriptions. All poems are similar in theme, using love, nature and God as prominent aspects. My favourite poem is ‘It is a beauteous evening..’, a sonnets format is very attractive to the ear, with regular rhyme and beat. The theme is very relaxing and beautifully written, words like ‘calm’, ‘quiet’, ‘nun’ and ‘gentleness’ are all used, they give a loving image of nature and people. Using contrast between words also evokes emotion, such as ‘thunder’ to describe the rowdy sea. The moral of the sonnet a good one too, it is introduced in the sestet, while the octave describes the surroundings and the mood. In the sestet it describes a girl who, despite appearances, is as close to God, and appreciative of nature as her companion is. For all these reasons, in my personal opinion, I believe ‘It is a beauteous evening..’ is best at sending over it’s message, while also giving entertainment, though I thought all were very good.
