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    About The Poet

    Uploaded by

    baldevplug
    Jai Maharashtra Jai Hind

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    About The Poet

    Uploaded by

    baldevplug
    7 views2 pages
    Jai Maharashtra Jai Hind

    Original Title

    ABOUT THE POET

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    Jai Maharashtra Jai Hind

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    7 views2 pages

    About The Poet

    Uploaded by

    baldevplug
    Jai Maharashtra Jai Hind

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    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).
    Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April
    1850.
    INTRODUCTION
    William Wordsworth's "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" first appeared in the second
    edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800), a groundbreaking collaborative poetry collection
    by Wordsworth and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A Slumber Did My Spirit
    Seal" is the last poem in a short sequence known as the "Lucy poems," in which a
    speaker expresses his love for (and grief over) a mysterious, idealized woman. In
    this poem, the speaker marvels over the strangeness of his beloved's death: having
    always seen her as young and vibrant, he can hardly wrap his head around the fact
    that her body is now as inert as the "rocks, and stones, and trees." The poem
    reminds readers that most people live deep in a delusional "slumber," barely
    acknowledging mortality despite death's inevitability.
    Central Idea of the Poem
    In the poem ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ the 1A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
    the poet tells us that one whom we love very much when leaves us, our life comes
    to a standstill for some period of time. But it is undeniably true that anything can
    happen with anybody. In the poem, the poet’s beloved was a young and beautiful
    woman. Once she was full of life and vigour. But now she is trapped beneath the
    surface of the earth and revolves along with it. Thus, the poet gives an eternal
    message of life.
    ‘A Slumber did my Spirit Seal’ is a short two stanza poem, made up of
    two quatrains, or sets of four lines. The stanzas are simple in their formation and
    follow the rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD.

    Literary Devices in ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’

    Alliteration – A slumber did my spirit seal. – ‘s’ sound is repeated


    Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course. ‘r’ sound is repeated

    Metaphor – ‘A slumber did my spirit seal.’


    The poet’s peaceful state is compared to a state as if he is in a deep
    sleep.

    Personification – ‘The touch of earthly years’


    Here the ‘earthly years’ have been attributed with human qualities.
    Repetition – ‘No’, ‘’and’ – these two words are repeated twice in the same line.

    ANALYSIS
    Diction: It means the type of language. The poem shows good use of formal,
    poetic, and melodic diction.
    End Rhyme: It means to use verses having matching end words. William
    Wordsworth used end rhymes, such as seal/feel and fears/years.
    Rhyme Scheme: The poem shows the rhyme scheme of ABAB in all of its stanzas.
    Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are two stanzas, with each
    comprising just four verses which means that every stanza is a quatrain.
    Tone: It means the voice of the text. The poem shows a thoughtful, metaphysical,
    and nostalgic tone.

    EXTRA QUESTION

    Justify the title of the poem – “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal”

    Ans. According to me, the title of the poem is justified because the poem talks
    about the effect of the sudden and untimely death of his beloved. After his death he
    feels benumbed with grief, as if a deep slumber has sealed his spirit. The
    acceptance of her death makes him fell at peace which seems to close off all
    feelings from his body and soul. His beloved, now a part of nature, will no longer
    be affected by earthly years. She will not feel any motion or force, nor will she be
    able to perceive with her eyes and ears. The poet realises that she is now an
    inseparable part of nature and will eternally roll around with the earth’s rotation on
    its axis; just like rocks, stones and trees. Therefore, the spirit of the poet is
    engulfed in a slumber and has become free from human feelings and fears.

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