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Showing posts from October, 2023

The Clod and the Pebble by William Blake (text and explanation)

  The Clod and the Pebble By William Blake   'Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell's despair.' So sung a little clod of clay, Trodden with the cattle's feet; But a pebble of the brook Warbled out these meters meet: 'Love seeketh only Self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, And builds a hell in heaven's despite.' The poem was first published in William Blake’s collection of poems “Songs of Experience” in 1794. The poem contrasts two opposing views on love, represented by a soft clod of clay and a hard pebble. The clod represents the more optimistic and perhaps a naive perspective, which views love as a kind of radical selflessness and the willingness to sacrifice. On the other hand, the pebble declares love as pure selfishness. However, the poet does not validate any of the two view points and leaves it to th

The world is too much with us (Line by line explanation and themes)

The World Is Too Much with Us BY  WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; — Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn. “The world is too much with us” is a  sonnet  by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth who is one of the central figure of Romantic Movement in English Literature. It was first published in 1807. The poem laments the withering connection between humankind and nature, blaming industrial society

Daffodils (Themes and line by line explanation)

  I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils) WILLIAM WORDSWORTH I wandered lonely as a cloud That 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 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: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:   For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. Line by Line explanation. Line 1- the speaker describes ho

We Are Seven (Summary and Themes)

  The English poet William Wordsworth wrote and published “We Are Seven” in 1798. This poem first appeared in  Lyrical Ballads , a poetry collection that contains works by both Wordsworth and his friend and collaborator Samuel Taylor Coleridge. While it was originally published anonymously,  Lyrical Ballads  was highly influential and is now widely considered the springboard for British Romanticism. Indeed, the speaker of “We Are Seven” debates a young girl who believes that her two deceased siblings should be counted among her family members, staging a battle between and emotion and logic that is typical of Romantic concerns. The speaker and the child never reach an agreement, leaving behind additional questions about the nature of death and the power of familial bonds. “We Are Seven” Summary The speaker wonders what a sweet, living, breathing child, who is totally full of vitality, might know about death. The speaker explains that he once met a little girl who lived in the coun