Comparative Essay on Wordsworth and Yeats
In “Down by the Salley Gardens” by William Butler Yeats and “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden ways” by William Wordsworth, the poets use a theme of love while applying imagery consistently throughout the poems. Additionally, Yeats uses repetition to show the passing of time through metaphors while Wordsworth comparatively portrays his inner thoughts. Since they are giving their emotions, Yeats applies similes comparing his love for the beauty of nature whilst Wordsworth is commemorating his love, despite her disappearing from his life. “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways” by Wordsworth expresses his emotion towards her as she lives her life only to die isolated. “Down by the Salley Gardens” by Yeats has
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For example, Wordsworth compares “She”(1) to a “violet”(5) in contrast to the “mossy stone”(5). The violet in this context can be understood as standing out, while a mossy stone has the connotation of dullness, ordinary, which is emphasized through the use of visual imagery. Another instance where he utilizes imagery is when he is comparing her standing out to him like “a star, when only one/is shining in the sky” (7-8). As stars are a part of the night sky, it represents imagery but also shows his feelings towards her. Similarly, Yeats compares the beauty of his love for the beauty of …show more content…
Repetition is utilized to reflect Yeats’ inner opinion on how he rushed to the relationship. Ultimately resulting in her leaving him. The use of repetition is dominant throughout as the phrases” little snow-white feet”(2) to “her snow-white hands”, “my love and I did meet”(1) in contrast with “my love and I did stand” showing repetition while also showing imagery of something snow-white. This is important because of how the poem has a parallel structure. Past events have already happened and cannot be changed thus he is reflecting how he regrets not listening to her. As mentioned before, another point of repetition is “take love easy” with “take life easy” which could be interpreted as her message to the narrator about learning to relax and slow down. This is supported by how he is reflecting back to when he was still “young and foolish”(8) thinking about how his life was wasted and not realizing that he is not living life to the fullest, relating back to a theme of regret. However, for Wordsworth, he utilizes metaphors to discuss his feelings. Wordsworth uses a metaphor of being “Half hidden from the eye!”(6) to visualize the obscurity of the woman. This can be interpreted as a contrast with the line above, mentioning the “violet”(5) standing out, while the eye has a connotation of omnipotent power and vision,
The first literary device used by both of the authors in order to portray their thematic objective of loss of innocence is imagery. Imagery is the figurative language used by the author to give the reader a visual description of the objects or situations in their literary work. In the short story “Stones”, Sandra Birdsell uses imagery to describe the physical appearances of one of the main character’s named Mrs.Hallman. Mrs. Hallman was described by the author as “tall and slim, her red toenails sticking the end of her white sandals and she smelled like sweet William that grew in a patch beside the back patch" (pg173). As shown in the quotation the author uses descriptive words to enable the reader to imagine the character of interest. As an example, the authors use of words gives the reader an image of how beautiful and fashionable of a person Mrs.Hallman is and how sweet and strong the smell of her perfume is. On the other hand, in the short story “To Every Thing There Is a Reason” Alistair MacLeod uses imagery to describe places and events that took place in the story. She
Hardy initially uses similes to illustrate the bleak landscape, referring to the “sun [as] white” and leaves as “grey”, to emphasise his sorrowful opinion of love. Specific diction of bleak words strongly communicates his message of love being hopeless and sorrowful. He also uses personification of “starving sod”, to allude that the earth is frozen and desiring nutrients which it lacks. This creates an undesirable setting and mood of despair and sorrow expressing how he perceives love. In contrast, Browning orientates an inviting, cheerful setting through the use of similes. The scene is vibrant with “little waves that leap” and “warm sea-scented beach[es]”, allowing the reader to perceive it as joyful. This illustrates how he regards love as an uplifting experience, which brings people together. He structures his poem with no stanzas, allowing for the reader to follow the radiant journey of love. In contrast, Hardy includes stanzas allowing him to express his message though new topics. They consist of the bleak setting, his former partners eyes, her bitter smile and his message of how all love disappoints. He includes an enclosed rhyme scheme, presenting the entrapment of love, expressing no freedom and joy in relationships. In opposition, Browning uses anaphora of “and” to express how the speaker’s mind is not in the moment, looking ahead to the future where they reunite with their lover. It is evident that Hardy conveys his message of love as sorrowful and full of despair, in contrast Browning message reveals love as gracious and
While both Keats and Longfellow often reflect on their own unfulfilled dreams and impending deaths, the poems however contrast on their own dispositions towards death and the future. Here, Keats expresses a fear of not having enough time to accomplish all that he believes he is capable of doing, but as he recognizes the enormity of the world and his own limitations of life, he realizes that his own mortal goals are meaningless in the long run of things. On the other hand, Longfellow speaks of a regret towards his inaction for allowing time to slip away from him in his past and is at a crossroads for the ominous future that looms ahead of him. Through the use of light and dark imagery, and personification, Keats and Longfellow similarly yet also differently, reflect on their own ideas for death and the futures that lay ahead of them.
In this poem Hughes employs metaphors in comparing the beauty of those different objects; night to faces, stars to eyes, and sun to souls.
Another thing the two sonnets share is metaphorical language; it used to imply a comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common ground. Christina Rossetti establishes an idea of metaphorically remaining “alive” through remembrance. The juxtaposition in line 1, “Remember me” and “gone away” implies that the poet suggests that the memory is the last thing a person has that still ties them to life. Henry Longfellow utilizes metaphorical language when he compares a tangible object to emotions. He includes, “There is a mountain…/that…/displays a cross of snow upon its side. / Such is the cross I wear upon my breast” (lines 9-12). The image of a mountain that bears a cross shape filled with snow manifests an image of the angelic figure going towards heaven. Longfellow purposely used a mountain to further implicate religious ideas; the height of the mountain shows that is closer to heaven because it is going upward. The snow symbolizes the wife and that she is on the peak of the mountain, reaching towards heaven. He wears the pain of the loss of his wife on his chest because she is within his soul.
The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the
Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This
Throughout “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” William Wordsworth shows his relationship with nature through his choice of diction, fantastic descriptions, and shifting mood of his poem. There are also many words and phrases that Wordsworth included into his poem that shows how he feels about nature. These phrases are well written, extremely descriptive, and show how Wordsworth is influenced by the wild: “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, “When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils", “Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way, they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay: ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance”, “The waves beside them danced; but they out-did the sparkling waves in glee”, “I gazed—and gazed—but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought”, and “For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye [...] and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.” Another phrase, which indicates that the flowers were so beautiful that no true poet could be sad in their presence, also builds upon Wordsworth’s relationship with nature. These particular lines in “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” show how Wordsworth’s mood shifts from somber and lonely to joyous and content. The lines also show how the gorgeousness of nature sticks with
Comparing Wordsworth and Keats’ Romantic Poetry. Both Wordsworth and Keats are romantic Poets, they express ideas on nature and send us the message to respect it. They say we have to admire the beauty of nature in different ways. Wordsworh uses simpler language in his poems wether to express simple or complex ideas, by which we understand he aimed his poems to lower classes. Keats instead, uses much more complex language to describe and express his ideas, so we know he aimed his poems to the educated.
I interpreted this poem as a very sad one. A love unrequited by the pursued. In the first two lines the poem tells you to forget about the love you share and hear a tale of this. Not to literally forget, but possibly put aside. The man is a winter breeze, cold and rough and sort of roams the land. The woman is a window flower, shut off from the outside. This sets up the separation.
These three lines are perfect examples of the imagery within the poem because they contain an image of a river with its small peeks and waves trembling and glistening in the afternoon sun. All the while it equates the natural beauty of the river to the beauty that the young man sees in the youthful maiden.
Wordsworth continues to relay his experience in nature as he expounds upon the affiliation between the daffodils and another natural element. Applying simile, the poet connects the flowers to the stars, "Continuous as the stars that shine / And twinkle on the milky way" (7-8). A mental picture of infinite flowers is created, while "shine" and "twinkle" produce an image of light. Wordsworth uses the light imagery to link the two aspects of nature; the luminous stars of the night and "golden" daffodils of the day. The link shows the reader the connection the poet sees in different facets of nature. The second stanza continues the description of the dance "Ten thousand saw I at a glance, / Tossing their heads in sprightly dance" (12). The image created is of large numbers of flowers moving in unison and expresses the harmony the poet finds in nature. The usage of "sprightly" makes another reference to light, but in the sense of movement and weight as "cloud" and "floats" were utilized in the first stanza. Diction in the second stanza provides the reader with a multi-dimensional prospective of Wordsworth's imagery by giving the images action, feeling and weight.
The speaker furthermore conveys the idea that nature is a grandeur that should be recognized by including the element of imagery. The poet utilizes imagery as a technique to appeal to reader’s sense of sight . It is “the darkest evening of the year” (line 8) and a traveller and his horse stop “between the woods and frozen lake” (line 7). By writing with details such as these, readers are capable of effortlessly envisioning the peaceful scenery that lies before the speaker. The persona then draws on reader’s sense of sound. “The only other sound’s the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake.” The illustration allows readers to not only see,
Lines 79-84 represent loss and decay and are another set of themes in this poem. These lines show that his poem itself is a memory; memories can never contain the original content of an experience as it did the first time. Wordsworth's intense emotional pain is displayed throughout these lines. A particular line is: "That time is past/And all its aching joys are no more". The poet clearly tells his reader's that he is extremely upset at the fact that he no longer feels that joys he has felt before, and even though he hears in nature the still, sad music of humanity, he still prefers memory and the sense of nature over intellect and actuality. Wordsworth senses his mortality and realizes that nature ("their colours and their forms...") can not renew his pleasant spirits as much as he wants them to. "Tintern Abbey" also presents the poet to an exploration of identity and self understanding; Wordsworth is in conflict with the natural landscape that is painted in front of him and his mental landscape, two major different forces, and he is trying to find an equal path to both forces so that he can find his self or his destiny. Another explanation of these lines could be that Wordsworth comprehends the way nature functions --the death and renewal of all things and that nature will one day also play a part on him. He is accepting that one day that, like his memories, he will fade and pass
“This loving husband made the garden for his wife Annie, who loved the beauties of nature, perhaps, because she was one of them. The writer uses a metaphor comparing Annie to the “beauties of nature” This is to describe how beautiful Miss Annie was. Imagery is also shown because comparing Annie to the beauty of nature gives the reader a sense of sight imaging you can see Annie