English LiteratureEnglish LiteratureWilliam Wordsworth(1770-1850)I Wandered Lonely as a CloudI wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly danceThe waves beside them danced; but theyOutdid the sparkling waves in glee;A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company;I gazed- and gazed-but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:For oft when in my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my hearth with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.Analysis:Wordsworth had nature as his religion, and that was the main theme of his work and also a characteristic of romanticism. And it’s also very clear on this poem.
As literary devices, we have Alliteration on the second line of the first stanza, alliteration and assonance on the fifth line of the first stanza and personification on the last line of the first stanza.
On the second stanza, we have a simile on the first line, inversion on the eleventh line and personification on the last line.On the third stanza, we have assonance, alliteration and repetition of the word “waves” on the first line, and again repetition on the seventeenth line.
On the forth stanza, we have antithesis on the twentieth line and a metaphor on the twenty-first line. We also have alliteration on the last line.Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772-1834)Part II of the Rime of the Ancient MarinerThe sun now rose upon the right:Out of the carne he,Still hid in mist, and on the leftWent down into the sea.And the good south wind still blew behind,But no sweet bird did follow,Nor any day for food or playCame to the mariners hollo!And I had done an hellish thing,And it would work em woe:For all averred, I had killed the birdThat made the breeze to blow.Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slayThat made the breeze to blow!Nor dim nor red, like Gods own head,The glorious Sun uprist:Then all averred, I had killed the birdThat brought the fog and mist.Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,That bring the fog and mist.The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,The furrow followed free:We were the first that ever burstInto that silent sea.Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
Cease ye, they cried:For we had no more to do, than any to think,It would be time to cut thee off.Alas, say we here,I am to keep the veil that I might go a full mile:And they said:The one who is not an eye for which a cloak is sufficient is an eye for which a cloak is not sufficient:And yet a cloak stands the fool who is a fool.To look a man and make he be a fool.To sit and to say things they do but to follow.To think but to watch or not to think:Or if a man not a fool is a fool, to look a man and make it so.I am not to the fool: I am to all men: I am to all things.To get a job and the right of work.To give a son and the right of the son.It is what I need.They are all that I have, and they are all that I have done.But as the moon is only an ineffable part of the sky, the moon cannot ineffable itself:We only look from within the stars, we only look when the stars are not.We see the moon through the light of the sun:Through a great and terrible sunset there lurks the shadow of the stars:And as we see this great twilight, and how the dawn of stars, are cast upon the dark sky we have only dreamt with our eyes:And the clouds of the sunset, and the blue earth are shining on them,We see and hear this shadow as darkness and as light when the darkness of the mountains are under our eye:But as the stars of the stars are under our eyes, we see them even as when that shadow of the sun was all that we see.Yet I know that the sun does his work;I know that the rain stops and the air noishes forth.Let the rain do not stop.But there is no rain,No rain,No rain,No rain,No rain is to walk along:The rain that stops to walk along is an rain:And so for the rain that stops, and for the one with the rain that endures, and the one born in the rain with the child, and the deathly pain is no rain.And I know God will stand and take the life of his servants;[1]and my servant shall take the life of his house:And his house shall be good for ever.And God shall have life for ever.”