Wordsworth - study questions (adapted from a guide by Al Drake)

Tintern Abbey

1. Quote from the poem to explain the attitude of the speaker toward the physical setting.

2. In what ways has nature been a source of comfort to the speaker (lines 23-57)? How do these lines reflect Wordsworth's credo (see above)?

3. Explain what you feel Wordsworth means by "that best portion of a good man's life" (line 33)

4. How does the speaker respond to smoke which he sees rising from the trees? Why is this response significant? What ideas does the image of the Hermit suggest?

5. See line 40 - why has the world become "unintelligible" to the speaker? What has happened to him over time?

6. Briefly, what are the joys of nature that the speaker describes as having experienced in his youth (1ines 65-83)? How do these images reveal his feelings about Nature at this time of his life (age 28) as opposed those of his youth (i.e., at age 23)?

7. In lines 84-111, the speaker describes two stages in his life, as a youth (line 91) and as mature person (line 95). Why does the speaker think the third stage (lines 93-4) is the best? What is the "presence" which disturbs him (line 94)?

8. Briefly explain how Wordsworth depicts Nature as a moral teacher in this poem.

9. In 1ine 116, the speaker addresses his sister. Why is it important that she be there with him? What message does he give her in lines 122- 151?

10. This poem is one of the great examples of contemplative poetry, both in content and in form. Identify the predominant meter of the poem, scanning several lines. Propose reasons why this verse form is appropriate to this kind of poem.

11. For general discussion: What evidence does the poem present that William Wordsworth was a "pantheist"?

12. The actual title of this piece is "Lines", the rest is subtitle. Wordsworth frequently gives us very precise information about the circumstances in which he composed his poems. Why does he locate this poem so precisely in time and space?

13. Throughout the first half of the poem, we hear about the poet's joy in revisiting this particular site and what his recollection of it has meant to him during the PAST five years. Now he stands there again,

not only with the sense
Of PRESENT pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For FUTURE years.

But this re- visiting turns out not to be a simple recharging of his esthetic batteries. Time has passed, and he has changed. Try to summarize line 66-110: what has he lost, and what is the "abundant recompense" for that loss?

14. "I have learned/ To look on nature, not as in the hour/ Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/ The still sad music of humanity . . . ." He looks on nature and hears the music of humanity? How? What are the intermediate steps in this association? What is that music?

"Lucy Gray"

1. Why is it important to Wordsworth's speaker that Lucy (along with some characters in his other poems) is solitary? What is the value of solitariness?

2. What is the meter of this poem? What effect does it have upon the subject matter?

3.This poem turns into a "ghost story" of sorts. What point may be drawn from this turn of subject concerning Lucy's value or qualities when she was alive?

"I wandered lonely as a cloud" (a. k. a. “The Daffodils”)

1. In what sense is this poem an epiphany for the speaker? How permanent is the feeling he describes - to what extent can it be sustained or revived? What role does memory play in this poem?

2. Is it unusual to use a word like "host" in connection with daffodils? What is the word's biblical connotation?

3. Why does the speaker connect daffodils with the stars?

“We Are Seven”

1. The poem is a conversation. Who are its participants? What qualities do they represent?

2. Why does the girl insist in including her dead siblings when asked about her family? How does she describe their graves? Where does the boundary lie for her between the two worlds?

3. How do you feel about the adult speaker in the poem and his insistence on setting the girl right? Does anybody win the argument eventually?

4. The poem uses a trope which was very popular in Romantic literature all over Europe. Can you think of any other examples of texts in which the message delivered by the people perceived for various reasons as inferior (uneducated, children, insane etc.) turns out to be as valid as the “official” voice of the educated elites? (The examples do not have to be in English.)

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