Analysis of Wiliams Wordsworth's.Lines Written in Early Spring

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

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

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

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

The budding twigs spread out their fan, D
To catch the breezy air; I
And I must think, do all I can, D
That there was pleasure there. I 20

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

This poem is a ballad which is included in the collection named Lyrical Ballads, a volume published in 1798 along with Coleridge, who had become his friend, although this volume neither had Coleridge’s nor Wordsworth’s name as authors. A second edition was published in 1800 under Wordsworth name which supposed a problem between both authors which threw them apart for a while. In the edition of 1802 Wordsworth wrote a preface as well as some more poems were included. In this preface Wordsworth attempts to explain the poems contained as experiments in which the use of language is different from the classic poems and the complexity and highness of it. He talks about writing poetry for men in the language of men. As he expresses in his preface to the third edition:
“What’s a poet? […] He is a man speaking to men. […]” . Lyrical Ballads, 1802 Volume I, preface.
(cf. http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/William_Wordsworth, http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Lyrical_Ballads, http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/LB/html/Lb02-1.html)

His aim with these poems was to talk about situations in common life, that is why he chose to communicate with an easy language as well as he preferred rural life as, this, was part of his idea that nature surroundings are the ideal place where man could find himself and his essence, and because in this rural environment these passions could be framed in the beautiful Nature. In Nature ambits, far from social vanity, men communicate their thoughts and feelings in a simple language, without the ornamentation used in previous times in poetry where deep human questions where dealt with. It is possible then, that, under Wordsworth’s look, philosophical language, the one used to express human desires and thoughts is more suitable as easier it is since it tries to communicate emotions men have experienced in their inner beings before expressing them. The purpose of the poems is:
“namely to illustrate the manner in which our feelings and ideas are associated in a state of excitement”. Lyrical Ballads, 1802 Volume I, preface.
(cf. http://www.bartleby.com/221/0507.html, http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/LB/html/Lb02-1.html)

Understanding this state of excitement as the state reached by human mind in contact with nature, the representation of what may be seen as God. And a poet is that who knows well about this Nature, the universe, and what surrounds human kind and expresses the passions and emotions it causes on men in a pleasant way to others.
Because he “[…]considers man and nature as essentially adapted to each other and the mind of man as naturally the mirror of the fairest and most interesting qualities of nature.” Lyrical Ballads, 1802 Volume I, preface.
(cf. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/wordsworths_02.shtml, http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Lyrical_Ballads)

The poem we have here is a ballad composed in six quatrains; six stanzas of four lines, being each line composed by four iambic feet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GHGH, DIDI, JDJD.

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

In the first quatrain Wordsworth looks at Nature and through his views sad thoughts come to his mind. Here he expresses his conviction in that knowledge of reality is reached through emotions and intuitions that Nature generates at being observed by man. Being Nature the real representation of reality and godliness as well.

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

In the second stanza the poet uses a figure of speech called personification by which he gives Nature the ability to create at her will elements, what he calls “her fair works”, and make the human soul that lives in the poet feel linked with them. This is a way of humanizing Nature by giving her the feature of being a creator which could be seen as an attribution to the Nature of the concept of God, understood as that who performs reality at his own will. In third and fourth verses, the poet expresses the affliction this knowledge causes to his soul, and he wonders about the direction taken by mankind, as he does again at the end of the poem.

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

In the third quatrain he observes Nature, at its peak, in all its splendour and beauty. He tells about its dynamic development when he describes how the periwinkle trains its branches through the grass. He also displays his implication in this development of natural events expressing his desire for the flowers to rejoice at their existence.

In the third and fourth verses we can see a personification again, when flowers are endowed with particular human abilities such breathing and enjoying.

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

He continues to observe nature and describes the birds playing and hopping around him, he says he cannot measure their thoughts. This again shows how Wordsworth gives human attributes to the elements of Nature being the action of thinking and making elaborate thoughts part of the human condition. But it shows too, how, through his only observation, he cannot reach the knowledge of their thinking. Although by his observations he supposes his last movement was one expressing pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan, D
To catch the breezy air; I
And I must think, do all I can, D
That there was pleasure there. I 20

Again, he provides will to events occurring in Nature: the newborn branches expand to get the air they need, and, once more, attributes to elements the capacity to feel, and enjoy their existence. These opinions derive from his long observations of this place and its nature.

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

He wonders if the will and the ability to enjoy the simple development of life by every natural element which he observes are sent from heaven, and next he considers whether it may be as well a holy plan of Nature. He gives again, as seen in the second stanza, godly attributes to Nature, as creator of life and death, as the force compelling the world. She is able to plan and, moreover, to develop a holy plan. If this holy plan is created deliberately, with its harmony and beauty, the humankind, with their wars and their unnatural activities, have moved away from what stills can be glimpsed in natural events, and it is because of this he regrets what man has made of man.

Wordsworth wrote this poem while he went for a walk in a spot near the village of Alford, he describes the moment and the place as a natural scene in motion, branches looking for the sun trying to escape from the water where its tree had fallen and had remained as a natural bridge and water falling down a sloping rock. Through this image we can imagine the sounds and the moment described in the poem.
(cf. http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww1300.html)
His real communion with Nature is shown in these verses, by his observations and his feelings on the different events, the growing of the periwinkle, the birds’ recreation or the branches’ breathing and his idea of the ability of these elements to rejoice in their existence.
Having been born in the Lake District Wordsworth considered Nature as the representation of creation if it was not creation itself.
(cf. http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/William_Wordsworth)

By the time he wrote this poem, written in the second half of the 1790’s decade, Wordsworth had graduated in 1791 and had gone to France where he became a supporter of the French Revolution and strongly believed in social reforms which mean he was concerned about social and poverty problems. In those years he had economic problems as well as he and his brothers had not been able to get their legacy from his father’s employer and his uncles, who were in charge of him when his father died, did not take care of him after graduating. The war between France and England divided his feelings because he wanted to stay loyal to his country but in his inner self he thought England was fighting liberty. This war was the reason why Wordsworth missed his daughter’s infancy as he could not come to France until 1802. He had ideas based on men’s equality and freedom. These ideas made him relate to radical people such as Godwim and Wollstonecraft.
(cf. http://www.usd.edu/~tgannon/txts/wordsfaq.txt, http://www.bartleby.com/65/wo/WordswthW.html)

In 1795 he met Coleridge and their friendship grew over the next two years until they came to publish Lyrical Ballads in October of 1798. In these moments of his life Wordsworth was concerned about social problems and the development of civilization men were carrying out. We can see these concerns in the poem above analyzed. He frames the scene in a natural environment and thinks about what men have made of man despite all the marvellous surroundings Nature offers us.
Where Nature is the creation/creator and men are her destroying creatures.
(cf. http://www.bartleby.com/65/wo/WordswthW.html, http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/William_Wordsworth, http://www.bartleby.com/221/0507.html)

- Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, by Chris Baldick. Second Edition, 2001. Oxford University Press, 2001

- http://members.aol.com/wordspage/bio.htm.
William Wordsworth: A Hypertextual Biography
All the webs used to develop this research have been used several times in November 2006

Academic year 2006/2007
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Mª Elena Mármol Rodríguez
memaro2@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press