Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ is a long complex poem by William Wordsworth, written in 1804, and published in 1807, in his collection Poems: In Two Volumes. The full title of the poem is “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" and it is also known as "Ode", "Immortality Ode" or "Great Ode." In the first four stanzas of the poem, the speaker remembers his childhood and mourns the loss of his youth and the deeper connection he used to have to the natural world. The speaker reflects on what it means to age. The next seven stanzas of the poem expound the personal sentiments and musings of the former part into a more general exploration of changes that transpire as one moves from childhood into adulthood.
Structure of Ode: Intimations of Immortality:
It is a 206-line poem set in 11 stanzas of varied length that may appear like a Pindaric ode but the pattern is much more complex. All the eleven stanzas follow varying rhyming schemes, patterns of meter, and lengths. Each of these stanzas deals with a different angle on Wordsworth's central questions about childhood, memory, and the soul, and each builds on the stanza that came before it. The free-verse nature of the ode makes it appear like a record of developing thoughts. While the poet vividly uses iambic meter throughout the poem, there are variations as trochees have been used in shorter lines. Some lines follow a hexameter, and some are written in trimeter. There are lines written in iambic pentameter and tetrameter and some in Alexandria meter (lines composed of twelve iambs). Assonance, Apostrophe, Aporia, Caesura, Imagery, Metaphor, Personification, Repetition, Allusion, and Parallelism have been used in the poem.
The poem deals with the themes of Time, Youth, Aging, Nature, and Changes and includes Spirituality and a sense of immortality in Nature.
Summary of Ode: Intimations of Immortality:
Wordsworth begins the poem with a short epigraph, three lines taken from his other poem My Heart Leaps Up.
The child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety. (My Heart Leaps Up)
Stanza 1 Lines 1-9
“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore;— Turn wheresoe'er I may, By night or day. The things which I have seen I now can see no more.” The speaker begins by declaring that there was a time when nature seemed mystical to him, like a dream, "Apparelled in celestial light." There was something spiritually elevating, and almost religious about the landscape. The “common sights” were not common, they were wondrous. But now all of that is gone. No matter what he does, "The things which I have seen I now can see no more."
Stanza 2 Lines 10-18
“The Rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the Rose,
The Moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare,
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.”
In the second stanza the speaker says that even though he can still see the rainbow, the rose, the moon, and the sun, and even though they are still beautiful, something is different...something has been lost: "But yet I know, where'er I go, / That there hath past away a glory from the earth." The alternating patterns of the meter mimic the fluctuating perception of space. The speaker is saddened by the birds singing and the lambs jumping in the third stanza. Soon, however, he resolves not to be depressed, because it will only put a damper on the season's beauty. He declares that all of the earth is happy, and exhorts the shepherd boy to shout.
Stanza 3 Lines 19-36
“Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound,
To me alone there came a thought of grief:
A timely utterance gave that thought relief,
And I again am strong:
The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;
I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,
The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep,
And all the earth is gay; Land and sea
Give themselves up to jollity,
And with the heart of May
Doth every Beast keep holiday;—
Thou Child of Joy,
Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy.”
In the third stanza, the speaker says that, while listening to the birds sing in springtime and watching the young lambs leap and play, he was stricken with a thought of grief; but the sound of nearby waterfalls, the echoes of the mountains, and the gusting of the winds restored him to strength. The speaker also mentions the “cataracts” in this stanza. They are loud and personified to emphasize the racket their waters make. He determines that he’s no longer going to feel sad. His “grief” has been wronging the season. He knows he should be celebrating so he’s going to try. He declares that his grief will no longer wrong the season's joy and that all the earth is happy. He exhorts a shepherd boy to shout and play around him.
Stanza 4 Lines 37 – 58
“Ye blessèd creatures, I have heard the call
Ye to each other make; I see
The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;
My heart is at your festival,
My head hath its coronal,
The fulness of your bliss, I feel—I feel it all.
Oh evil day! if I were sullen
While Earth herself is adorning,
This sweet May-morning,
And the Children are culling
On every side,
In a thousand valleys far and wide,
Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,
And the Babe leaps up on his Mother's arm:—
I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!
—But there's a Tree, of many, one,
A single field which I have looked upon,
Both of them speak of something that is gone;
The Pansy at my feet
Doth the same tale repeat:
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?”
In the fourth stanza, the speaker continues to be a part of the joy of the season, saying that it would be wrong to be "sullen / While Earth herself in adorning, / And the Children are culling / On every side, / In a thousand valleys far and wide." He’s fully in, ready to participate alongside the lovely life around him. The repetition “I hear, I hear” has been used to emphasize the speaker’s attempts to give himself over fully to the joy he hears. In the forty-second line the speaker stutters, as if overcome with that same joy. However, when he sees a tree, a field, and later a pansy at his feet, they give him a strong feeling that something is amiss. He asks, "Whither is fled the visionary gleam? / Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"
Stanza 5 Lines 59 – 77
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.”
The fifth stanza contains arguably the most famous line of the poem: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." He proposes the possibility that the human soul exists before birth, “elsewhere” and “cometh from afar” when we are born. He says that as infants we have some memory of heaven, but as we grow we lose that connection: "Heaven lies about us in our infancy!" As children this connection with heaven causes us to experience nature's glory more clearly. As children, we still retain some memory of that place, heaven, which causes our experience of the earth to be suffused with its magic—but as the baby passes through boyhood and young adulthood and into manhood, he sees that magic die. Once we are grown, the connection is lost. As we grow old, the splendor of “Heaven” disappears and fades in the “light of common day”. It is this “Heaven” that the speaker has been missing in the first four stanzas.
Stanza 6 Lines 78-85
“Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
And, even with something of a Mother's mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely Nurse doth all she can
To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.”
In the seventh stanza, the speaker continues to stress that as we grow old and become men, we lose and forget all the glories of heaven that we had as children. The speaker says that as soon as we get to Earth, everything conspires to help us forget the place we came from: Heaven. "Forget the glories he hath known, and that imperial palace whence he came." He also explains the role of Earth. He describes how Earth works as a mother to humankind. It has something of a “Mother’s mind” as it fills its lamp with “pleasures”. The earth is pure in its pursuits, none of its aims are unworthy. The Earth is also a nurse to humanity. “She” does all she can to “make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man” forget “Heaven” of the pre-birth time. It is best, the nurse-earth thinks, for humankind to forget about the “imperial palace whence” they came from.
Stanza 7 Lines 86 -108
“Behold the Child among his new-born blisses, A six years' Darling of a pigmy size! See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies, Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses, With light upon him from his father's eyes! See, at his feet, some little plan or chart, Some fragment from his dream of human life, Shaped by himself with newly-learn{e}d o A wedding or a festival, A mourning or a funeral; And this hath now his heart, And unto this he frames his song: Then will he fit his tongue To dialogues of business, love, or strife; But it will not be long Ere this be thrown aside, And with new joy and pride The little Actor cons another part; Filling from time to time his "humorous stage" With all the Persons, down to palsied Age, That Life brings with her in her equipage; As if his whole vocation Were endless imitation.” In the seventh stanza the speaker sees (or imagines) a six-year-old boy, and foresees the rest of his life. The child learns to love, he’s cared for, and is taught how to act by his mother and father. The boy imitates what it’s going to be like to grow older with charts. Planning “A wedding or a festival,” and so on. The boy is shaped by their influence. As the child will grow old he will imagine various roles to fill and he can fill them by learning the “dialogues of business, love, or strife”. But, before long he will change his mind and he will “con another part”. The speaker wants to know why this child is choosing to grow up and cast aside the joys of youth. Why would one want to engage in “endless imitation”. It seems to the speaker that his whole life will essentially be "endless imitation."
Stanza 8 Lines 109 - 129
“Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie
Thy Soul's immensity;
Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep
Thy heritage, thou Eye among the blind,
That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep,
Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,—
Mighty Prophet! Seer blest!
On whom those truths do rest,
Which we are toiling all our lives to find,
In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;
Thou, over whom thy Immortality
Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a Slave,
A Presence which is not to be put by;
Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,
Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke
The years to bring the inevitable yoke,
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?
Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight,
And custom lie upon thee with a weight,
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!”
In the eighth stanza, the speaker speaks directly to the child, calling him a philosopher. It is only this boy and by default those of his age, that have access to “those truths”. He could tap into the Heaven of his birth if he chose to, a fact the speaker is trying to get across to him. Those who are older are toiling to find that time before birth in which everything was illuminated. The speaker cannot understand why the child, who is so close to heaven in his youth, would rush to grow into an adult. He asks him, "Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke / The years to bring the inevitable yoke, / Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?"
Stanza 9 Lines 130 – 169
“O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live,
That Nature yet remembers
What was so fugitive!
The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction: not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest;
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:—
Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;
Blank misgivings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not realised,
High instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:
But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may
Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,
Are yet a master-light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,
To perish never;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy!
Hence in a season of calm weather
Though inland far we be,
Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the Children sport upon the shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.”
The ninth stanza is the longest, containing 38 lines. In this stanza, the speaker changes his tone to optimism and experiences a flood of joy when he realizes that through memory he will always be able to connect to his childhood, and through his childhood to nature. He thinks of the past that he has lost, and how he intends to move forward. His past is remembered in nature and he can take pleasure in the fact that this is always going to be the case. There is nothing that can “abolish or destroy” his childhood (memories). It establishes our connection with Heaven eternally no matter what the season or difficulty of the present. No matter, he adds, how far “inland we may be” there is a connection. The “immortal sea” is the insight that “brought us hither” to life on earth.
Stanza 10 Lines 170 – 188
“Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young Lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound!
We in thought will join your throng,
Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day
Feel the gladness of the May!
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.”
In the tenth stanza the speaker harkens back to the beginning of the poem, asking the same creatures that earlier made him sad with their sounds to sing out: "Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!" He also brings back the image of the lambs bounding and the drum sounding. The speaker knows now that he can take comfort in the past, in “primal sympathy”. It happened, so it cannot be undone. It will always exist in memory. He celebrates “In the soothing thought” that faith exists through death and years bring “the philosophic mind” and spring will come out of suffering. Even though he admits that he has lost some of the glory of nature as he has grown out of childhood, he is comforted by the knowledge that he can rely on his memory.
Stanza 11 Lines 189 – 206
“And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Forebode not any severing of our loves!
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquished one delight
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I love the Brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they;
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day
Is lovely yet;
The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”
In the final stanza, the speaker addresses the Landscape, the mountains, meadows, hills, and groves, and says that nature is still the stem of everything in his life, bringing him insight, fueling his memories, and his belief that his soul is immortal. He says that when he was young, as the six-year-old in previous stanzas, he believed himself immortal. He felt as though he could push past youth and adulthood would be better and forever. He’s smarter than that now and takes joy in his mortality. He knows he’s going to die and that he must accept and love his human heart. The speaker loves nature all the more because he knows he won’t last within it forever. However, his soul is immortal and that is why the smallest and least significant flower can stir up in him deep and moving thoughts.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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