Stylistic Analysis of Wordsworth’s Lines Written in Early Spring

Lines Written in Early Spring

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 ’its 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?
1798

I. Introduction

Wordsworth is famous for his nature poems. He believes that in nature, man’s essential feelings can find better soil and can be better cultivated and strengthened. And he also thinks that man should find beauty, power and knowledge from nature. Nature is also the inspiration for most of his poems. So in his nature poem, we find vivid descriptions of mountains, rivers, flowers and birds etc. which are full of colors and imaginations. At the same time, his nature poems also reveal his spontaneous joys and thoughts in seeing and hearing the creatures of nature, often with boyish enthusiasm, and contrast his love of nature and his dissatisfaction with human society.

The poem consists of 6 stanzas, each stanza containing 4 lines. Thus the whole poem basically has strong and lively rhythmictiy indicating the early spring’s bright and light foot, as if nature is dancing to a piece of music with quadruple time in the early spring. All the creatures of nature—the primrose, the green bower, the periwinkle, the hopping and playing birds, the twigs swinging in the breezy air are dancing in pleasure.

II. Body

a. Rhythm

The basic rhythm is iambic tetrameter. And if the poem rhythm is all the same, the whole poem will be deadly and monotonous. What is more, the poet’s gloomy thoughts of mankind’s disharmony cannot have been indicated. A sensitive reader can easily find out that the rhythm changes somewhere. Firstly, the rhythm of each stanza’s last line changes into iambic trimeter. This means that the rhythm becomes slower and heavier. Almost each stanza’s last line is concerned with the thoughts of the poet. In the first two stanzas, “Bring sad thoughts to the mind” and “what man has made of man”, they are obvious belong to the thoughts of the poet provoked by the beautiful nature.

The next three stanzas’ last line, though they seem to be the pleasure of nature, in fact it’s the poet’s mind that thinks them happy and at the same time, contrasting with his deeper dissatisfaction with human society. All these show the poet’s sorrow deeper-mind provoked by nature. The changed slower and heavier rhythm complies perfectly to the poet’s grief. So in the poem, wherever concerning the poet’s mind, the rhythm changes to iambic trimeter.

b.Stress

The stress mostly adheres to the rhythm of iambic × / │× / │× /│× / │ (×stands for unstressed), which is just like the dancing tempo of the early spring. The stress also has some variations. In the last line of the first stanza “Bring sad thoughts to the mind”, the stress changes into × / │/ ×│× /│. Here both “sad” and “thoughts” are stressed, because at first the poem offers a happy picture of sitting in a grove hearing “a thousand blended notes” which makes a “sweet mind”, while the “pleasant thoughts” bring “sad thoughts to the mind”. The stressed “sad thoughts” emphasizes the change of mind, and draws readers’ attention, and let them wondering why in such attractive setting, there will be sad thoughts. And later in the next stanza the answer is offered—that is “and much it grieved my heart to think/ what man has made of man.” From the third stanza to the fifth stanza, the poet focus on the vivid descriptions of early spring, containing both the still and the active: tufts of primrose, full blossoming periwinkle, birds and the budding twigs. The next changed stress appears in the fourth stanza where it describes the birds. “The birds around me hopped and played,” here the rhythm changes into × / │× /│ /│× / │. It shows as if energetic birds were jumping lively and lightly, free of sorrow and sadness.

c. Semantic and Syntactic Deviation

In the first stanza, the poet introduces the attractive and striking grove where he enjoys nature and at the same time also has “sad thoughts”. The second stanza explains why there are “sad thoughts”. The reason is because nature linked human soul to her fair works, and the soul run through me and the thought of “what man has made of man” makes me grief.

The next deviation appears in the third line “And much it grieved my heart to think”. Here the adverbial “much” is marked. That strengthened the sorrow mind of the poet. We can imagine how sad the poet will be, while in such glorious natural world thinking of the disharmony of human society. From the third stanza to the fifth stanza, the poet describes the beautiful scenery of early spring, implying the most harmonious world of nature.
In the third stanza, different flowers in “that green bower” are pictured. “Through primrose tufts” indicates that primrose is just the background, the focus is on periwinkle, which “trailed its wreathes”. Here Wordsworth personifies flowers, the verbs “trail, enjoy and breathe” shows that the poet considers them as something full of thoughts and lives. And no matter what kind of them, no matter what role they are playing, “every flower enjoys the air it breathes.” See how harmonious the flowers are. In the fourth stanza, the birds are depicted. They hopped and played. Here again the poet uses personification to show how the birds are in accord with nature and how happy they are. Now let’s pay more attention to the second line “Their thoughts I cannot measure—”. In ordinary life, we usually will express it in this way “I cannot measure their thoughts”.
The fifth stanza is devoted to “the budding twigs”. Personification is used again. We see the twigs “spread out” their fan to “catch” the air and the twigs must be in pleasure as well. In these three stanzas, the flowers, birds and twigs are all personified and they are all greatly pleasant in the harmonious natural world. The sixth stanza comes back to the sad thoughts of the poet. After the descriptions of the beauty and harmony of nature, when we think again “what man has made of man”, we cannot but lament. The sorrow here reaches its climax. So here the poet uses a rhetorical question “Have I not reason to lament/ what man has made of man?” to show his powerful feelings.

III. Conclusion

Lines Written in Early Spring firstly introduces the charm and harmony of nature. Wordsworth offers a lively picture of flowers, birds and twigs, all being in harmony with nature by means of personification. In the attractive setting, Wordsworth then introduces his sad thoughts caused by the thought of “what man has made of man” with the variations of the rhythm, the stressed word and the deviations of syntax. In this paper, all the above has been analyzed in order to appreciate Wordsworth better and more easily.