William Wordsworth Multiple Phases Grief Poetry Analysis

Why and How Does William Wordsworth Show Multiple Phases and Faces of Grief?

William Wordsworth has passed through serval grieving phases in his own life reflected in his poems. Although he is known as a ‘poet of nature’ he has presented works that depict that “passion of men are incorporated with” grief (William Wordsworth 175). Since childhood, he liked living near nature as he believed that nature has healing powers for humans that he used with his “responsive imagination.”

His grief phase could be seen when he separated from his first wife and had a daughter out of wedlock. He had financial difficulties as well. He produced not reviewed works and others that impacted his mind. Lucy’s poems were also taken as an emblem of grief in which death remains the dominating subject of his poems. Afterward, when he married for the second time, his life became better, though it was not free of grief then too. Two of his five children died, and he lost his brother to the sea. For example, in the poem “We Are Seven,” a verse was written by him “their graves are green, they may be seen” (William Wordsworth 178). The poem displays grief and tragedy as it represents an argument between a girl and the speaker itself, which could be the poet himself. The poem does start with a cheerful tone but soon progresses to sadness when the mention of siblings is observed. The poet used imagery where the grief comes to life within the carefully selected words, such as greenery of the graves, depicting the grief is still fresh. The utilization of obvious words, such as ‘death’ and ‘graves,’ signifies the themes and tone of the poem that come later in the verses. It shows that Wordsworth tried to be cheerful as he does in his other generic nature poems to characterize nature’s beauty; however, it is not the case in this poem, showing evident signs of grief. It also revealed that having endured all the tragedy, the girl in the poem, though still a child and seeming naive initially, exhibits wisdom despite having lost great treasures, her siblings.

Similarly, some lines from his poem “Lines Written in Early Spring” mention the nature and misery of a woman side by side, showing his grief as well, such as “And when the whirlwind’s on the hill, or frosty air is keen and still, and to herself, she cries, oh misery! Oh misery” (William Wordsworth 180). Like the previous poem, it starts with a jolly tone; It also discusses the doings of one human to another, which is mournful. The poet is sad about how humans themselves have made the world a miserable place as they have taken away pleasures from one another. For this reason, Wordsworth has again used imagery from beginning till end. The choice of words has depicted the very presence of grief, such as the ‘grieved’ word in the second stanza. Human senses are shrewdly matched with nature’s landscaping, a masterful piece of literacy and a poetic device used in his grieving sounds within the lines. The contrasting match-making of nature’s beautiful icons, such as birds, has been described with tragic incidents done by humans on Earth that instantaneously catches the reader’s attention to the grief in humanity Wordsworth explains in this poetic work.