Savannah Gilman
Mrs. Jernigan
English IV AP Literature
February 28, 2011
Wordsworth’s poem follows the format of a traditional Italian sonnet. Though the narration is not that of a typical love poem with a story between a man and a woman, it instead recounts a man’s passion for nature. The poem consists of the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDE CDE, and it is split into an octave and a sestet.
In the beginning section of the octave, where Wordsworth introduces the problem, he lays out his issues with humanity’s treatment of the world. He admonishes the actions that have greedily and wastefully been conducted against nature and for the essential betrayal against nature that occurred when gave “our hearts away, a sordid boon!” He personifies nature, giving her the role of a lover, but bemoans that her best qualities have been compromised or “gathered” by humankind, attributing this to the reason “we are out of tune.”
The sestet picks up with the transition where Wordsworth is aghast at the apathy of mankind. He claims that he himself would prefer to be stripped of religion, reduced to paganism, than suffer man’s fate of disregard for beauty. In order to not be cut off from nature, he would undergo anything, even if it would result in him experiencing the terrible, ancient forces of nature from the romantic Greek mythology.
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