The Leech Gatherer

- William Wordsworth

Dr.J. Maria Monaliza Burgess

Assistant Professor of English

ABOUT THE POET

William Wordsworth (7 April

1770-23 April 1850)was an

English Romantic poet who, with

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped
to launch the Romantic Age in
English literature with their joint
publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).

ABOUT THE POEM

o It is the lyrie poemn.
o It is composed in 1802 and published in 1807.
o It has 20 stanzas and 7 lines each.
o

The rhyme scheme is (ABABBCC)

o "The Leech Gatherer" by William Wordsworth is a poem, also

called "Resolution and Independence."
o The author narrates his experience when he meets with a leec
gatherer. The speaker in the poem is the author himself.

O
o In the poem, the author narrates about his walk in the moor one
spring morning. He experiences a strange phenomenon when he
meets an old man, who was a leech gatherer, wandering in the
moor, in search of leeches.

o At this point, the element of nature is already manifesting in the

poem. This is through the use of seasons such as spring morning,
and the use of landscape such as the moor, as well as the presence
of leeches, which are part of nature.

o The leech gatherer had spent most of his past many days looking
for leeches up and down in the moor. Although leeches are scares in
this season, the leech gatherer does not give up searching for them,
as his life depends on them.

The leeches part of nature, William Wordsworth looks beyond

o

are

their physical presentation and thinks of them in a deeper view,

thus, giving them a different meaning, which is more deep and
spiritual.

o The scene of a person hunting is quite fascinating, and is a

representation of nature.

o Therefore, in William Wordsworth's poem, the old man searching

for leeches is an act that considerably reflects on nature.

o This is mainly through the interdependence between human

beings and other elements in nature. Therefore, this scene creates
a natural relationship.

o William Wordsworth compares this relationship between the leech

gatherer and his leech searching to a determined and perseverant
poet.

o Although the season was not favorable for leeches, the leech
gatherer did not give up hope but went ahead to search for leeches,
hoping that he would gather some.

o Therefore, this has a deeper meaning of a poet, who is faced wit

adversity and solitude, but he is strong-hearted enough to end
the adversities before him. 4 of 9
o William Wordsworth the author employs a variety of expressions
symbolizing nature.

o As a wanderer, he experiences happy emotions and is in high

spirits while travelling the moor.

o When he encounters the old man, the leech gatherer and interacts
with him, he learns that the old man's work of gathering leeches
has many things in common with poetry writing.

o William Wordsworth, compares the art of poetry writing to the

practice of leech gathering.

o The leechgatherer searches for leeches in the moor, the poet

searches his or her mind for poems.
o The leeches are not always available for the leech gatherer to
collect, even though he shows up to search for them. This is the
same way a poet might lack inspiration, which sometimes is hard
to find.
o Therefore, by comparing a poet, no matter how discouraged he or
she is, or how much inspiration they lose, they must learn from the
leech gatherer.
o The leech gatherer goes ahead to search for leeches, even when the
season is not favorable for leeches. The same, a poet should go
lack
ahead, even when they they ought to look for it
inspiration;
and continue with their art of poetry.
 Among school children
William Butler Yeats

Dr.J. Maria Monaliza Burges

Assistant Professor of Englis

ABOUT THE POET

William Butler Yeats (13 June

1865-28 January 1939) was an
Irish poet and one of the foremost
figures of 20th-century literature. A
pillar of the Irish literary
establishment, he helped to found
the Abbey Theatre, and in his later
terms as a
years served two
Senator of the Irish Free State.

STANZA- I

*This stanza is about Yeats went to school

and he asked many questions about whaat
children do at school (line1). Then the nun
replied to him (lines 2-6). When Yeats wa
looking at children, from their eyes, he
could see his "old face" (line 8).
oWhen the poet looked at these beautiful
children,
he was reminded of a woman's body.
o Yeats also mentioned the "Plato's parable".
o Yeats wanted to express that Maud Gonne and
him should be together such as "yolk and white off
the one shell". But they did not
marry.(lines 7-8).

STANZA- III

*In this stanza,

by looking at the children,
Yeats thought about that the
child w a s like
Maud Gonne
standing in front of himn. (line 8)

*daughters of the swan'" means "Maud

Gonne," because in the 2nd stanza, Yeats
mentioned that Helen, Leda's
Maud Gonne. (line 4) daughter, is like

STANZA- IV
*Yeats thought
of Maud Gonne and
what she would look wondered
now, and the
image floated into his mind. (line ) beautiful1
He is also reminded
his young
been a age. He has
high-spirited
person who w a s very
famous. However, he is
just a n old m a n
now.(1line5)
man
So
he said to himaedf 1enough- I'm
now, the only thing I'can do is I
toeveryone and be a ca
comfortable kind o
scarecrow." (lines 6-8)
 STANZA- V
oHoney of generation.

o Yeats said a young mother who

got a baby on her
lap. She takes off the baby and hopes the
can baby
grow up happily. However, sometimes life is
painful and full of sorrow.

STANZA- VI
*In this stanza, the
poet mentioned many
philosophers-- Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras.
Even thoughthey werefamous and had
great theory, all of them still had to face many
the
death finally--"Old clothes upon old sticks t o
scare a bird." (line 8)

Here, the poet also talked about himself.

He wrote this poem after
getting his Nobel Prize.
He is a famous but n o w , he is a n old m a n
person,
and going t o die.
Nothing he c a n take after death.

STANZA- VII

H e r e , the poet expresses that mothers idolizee

their children and nuns (prayers) idolize gods.
But he wonders what mother ever pictures her
child at sixty, or as a grown philosopher.
Gods or children won't give compensation ba
t o prayers or mothers. So their hearts break
Ex. The phenomendn Gi Taiwan:
praying
gods in the hope of obtaining wealth, powe
 STANZA- VII

H e r e , the poet expresses that mothers idolize

their children and nuns (prayers) idolize gods.
But he wonders what mother ever pictures her
child at sixtyy, or as a grown philosopher.
Gods or children won't give compensation back
to prayers or mothers. So their hearts break.

(Ex. The phenomenon in Taiwan: praying to

gods in the hope of obtaining wealth, power..

STANZA- VIII
o The last stanza is an emphatic re-affirmation of the poet's maxim that life
is an organic whole made up of opposites.
o Just as chestnut tree is nei er leaf blossom or trunk, but the sum total of
all three, so also man is neither mind nor body nor soul but an untitled
entity of the three.

o Life becomes really fruitful and labor is truly rewarding when the
diligence of the scholar does not make him clear eye.
o Just as a dancer cannot be isolated from the dance, so also the body
cannot be separated from the soul.
o Harmony between the two is indispensable for self-fulfillnment for the
bloom, and beauty of the tree of life.
Ode on a Grecian Urn
- John Keats

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new
More happy love! more happy, happy lo E
For ever warm and still to be
enjoy'a,
For ever nantina and for ever vaung
 She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever
panting, and for ever young,
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and
cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching
tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."