AAALYSIS OF 1HE POEM:

" Intimations of Immortality"

In 1807 William Wordsworth published 'Poem in Two Volumes,
in
which we can Iind that poem, whose Iull-name is 'Ode: Intimations oI
Immortality Irom Recollections oI Every Childhood.
Many oI Wordsworth`s poems, including this, deal with the
subjects oI childhood and the memory oI childhood in the mind oI the
adult in particular, childhood`s lost connection with nature, which
can be preserved only in memory.
In this poem Wordsworth uses a lot oI imagination to get his
point through to the reader. He wants us to be able to see what he
sees and to Ieel what he Ieels.
The structure oI this poem is unique in Wordsworth`s work, I
mean, unlike his characteristically Iluid, natural spoken monologues,
it is written in a songlike cadence with Irequent changes in rhyme
scheme and rhythm. It is written in eleven variable ode stanzas with
variable rhyme schemes, in iambic lines with anything Irom two to Iive
stressed syllablesThe rhymes occasionally alternate lines:
I
'There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
the earth, and every common sight,
to me did seem
apparelled in celestial light,
occasionally Iall in couplets:
II
'Turn wheresoe`er I may,
by night or day,
and occasionally occur within a single line:
'But yet I know, where`er I go.
II we analyse the title, we have to say that its Iull name
is 'Intimations oI Immortality Irom recollections oI early
childhood, although it is better known as 'Intimations oI
Immortality.
In this poem Wordsworth explains how humans change over time. In Iact,
when we are a child we are connected with nature, but as we get old we
tend to Iorget nature and become more interested in other
responsibilities oI adulthood, and that connection with nature stays
as recollections oI childhood in our memory. So, in my opinion I think
that the title oI this poem is good and right, because reading it we
can guess more or less about what we are going to be told in the poem;
at least we can guess that the poem deals with recollections oI
something about the childhood.
As we have said beIore, the poem is divided in eleven stanzas,
which we are going to explain one by one.
In the first stan:a, the author says wistIully and sad
that 'there was a time (childhood) when all oI nature seemed
dreamlike to him ('Apparelled in celestial light). So, here what is
described is the poet`s lamentation on not being able to see any more
the glory and the Ireshness oI a dream that his childhood had ('The
things which I have seen I now can see no more).
In the second stan:a, he says that he still sees the good and
beautiIul things oI nature: the rainbow coming, the rose, the moon,
the sunshine... Nevertheless the author Ieels that a glory has passed
away Irom the earth.
In the third stanza, while listening to the bird`s sing in
springtime and watching the young lambs leap and play, he suddenly
becomes sad and IearIul ('To me alone there came a thought oI grieI);
but this sadness doesn`t last too long, because the sound oI nearby
waterIalls, the echoes oI the mountains. restored him to strength. He
ends saying that all the earth is gay, because oI that he exhorts a
shepherd boy to play around him.
In the fourth stanza, he declares that is impossible to Ieel
sad in such a beautiIul May morning, with children playing around him
and among the Ilowers. Although, suddenly, he looks at a tree and a
Iield which said to each other that something is gone ('both oI them
speak oI something that is gone). The same is made by a pansy.
Because oI that he asked himselI what has happened to appearance oI
nature ('whither is Iled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the
glory and the dream?).
In the fifth stanza, Wordsworth says that human beings are
asleep and should Iorget important things ('Our birth is but a sleep
and a Iorgetting). Moreover it is said that human beings live in a
purer, more glorious realm beIore they enter the earth. He says that
as children, we still retain some memory oI that place, which causes
our experience oI the earth to be suIIused with its magic; but as the
baby passes through boyhood and adulthood and into manhood, he sees
that magic die.
In the sixth stanza, the author declares that because oI
earthly materials human beings tend to Iorget what is need in liIe
('Forget the glories he hath known, and that imperial palace whence he
came).
In the seventh stanza, the author is looking at a six years
old boy, and imagines his liIe and the love that his parents Ieel Ior
him. Wordsworth describes the way in which a young boy leaves nature,
because he has to deal with adulthood and a whole diIIerent kind oI
liIe. That is reIlected when he sees the boy playing with some
imitated Iragment oI adult liIe ('little plan or chart, 'a weeding or
a Iestival, 'a mourning or a Iuneral). At the end, the author says
that all liIe is an imitation.
In the eight stanza, the poet addresses the boy as iI he was a
prophet oI the lost truth ('mighty prophet! Seer blest! On whom those
truths do res). And, rhetorically asks him why he hurries toward an
adult liIe oI custom and earthly Ireight, iI he has access to the
glories oI his origins and to the pure experience oI nature.
In the ninth stanza, the author goes back into memories oI his
childhood , which grant him a kind oI access to that lost world oI
innocence and instinct, to that world with nature.
In the tenth stanza, aIter that thoughts he has become very
happy, because oI that he urges the birds to sing, and urges all
creatures to participate in what he says 'the gladness oI the May.
Then, again, he is stricken by the thought that he I old now, but that
sad doesn`t last too long because with the thought that he has been
with nature all the years makes him happy again, because he has a lot
oI recollections oI his childhood with the nature so, he can Ieel the
joy like he Ielt beIore.
In the Iinal stanza, Wordsworth claims that he will Iorever be in love
with nature and all its beauty; and he will in love with it until the
he dies.

So, what we can said aIter reading that poem is that Wordsworth
believed that, upon being born, human beings move Irom a perIect,
idealized realm into the imperIect, un-ideal earth. As children, some
memory oI the Iormer purity and glory in which they lived remains,
best perceived in the solemn and joyous relationship oI the child to
the beauties oI nature. But as children grow older, the memory Iades,
and the magic oI nature dies. Still, the memory oI childhood can oIIer
an important solace, which brings with it almost a kind oI re-access
to the lost purities oI the past. And the maturing mind develops the
capability to understand nature in human terms, and to see in it
metaphors Ior human liIe, which compensate Ior the loss oI the direct
connection.

Finally, iI we talk about the characteristics oI Wordsworth,
we can see that there are some oI them in that poem. Firstly, nature,
in all its Iorms, was important to Wordsworth, who concentrates on the
ways in which he responds and relates to the world. He uses his poetry
to look at the relationship between nature and human liIe, and to
explore the belieI that nature can have an impact on our emotional and
spiritual livesThat Ieature is Iound in the
poem, because in it is related the nature with the human being.
Moreover, all the poem goes round nature.
Secondly, Wordsworth saw imagination as a powerIul, active Iorce that
works alongside our sense, interpreting the way we view the world and
inIluencing how we react to events. He believed that a strong
imaginative liIe is essential Ior our well-being.
. We can see imagination in the poem when the
tree are talking between each other, or when the pansy is also taking.

COACLUSIOA

Wordsworth`s poems initiated the Romantic era by emphasizing
Ieeling, instinct, and pleasure above Iormality and mannerism. He gave
expression to inchoate human emotion
'Intimations oI Immortality is one oI his most important
works, together with 'The Prelude and 'Lyrical Ballads. The Ode
deals with childhood`s lost connection with nature as human beings get
old. That connection only can be preserved in memory.
Talking about Wordsworth`s inIluences, we have to say that he
not only inIluenced the people who worked with him, but also to some
authors that presented their plays aIter Romanticism, such as
Spencer, Calvert, Coleridge.

To end this essay about the poem 'Intimations oI Immortality,
I want to give my opinion. I didn`t know that poem, and when I Iound
it on the internet I thought that my essay had to be about it. I liked
this poem, because I think that all that is said in it is true, at
least Ior me. When we are children, we are innocent, we like to play,
we haven`t got problems; but when we are adult, we have to deal with
problems in the job, in the Iamily. because oI that we Iorget the good
and beautiIul things oI our childhood.
What more can I say? I just want to say that I recommend that poem to
everybody, because it`s really interesting, beautiIul and because it
is a masterpiece oI the Romantic English Literature