LitAide

According to the narrator, nuns, who dedicated their lives to God, don't complain about their small rooms in the convent. Neither do hermits ask for more than an ordinary cell to stay. It is more than what they ask for.  A student, who is a devotee of his studies, who is busy in his books in his limited confinement, shuts himself away from distractions in his "citadel" i.e. a solitary place to study and think deeply about it and to arrive at new findings. Whether one looks at maids who spin wheel or the weaver who works on his loom, they work without making a fuss and remain happy in it.  Even minute creatures such as bees also take flight as high as the "highest peak of Furness-fells", and then murmur (means working tirelessly) inside the bell-shaped flowers of fox-glove. A bee going inside fox-glove He adds that it is us that put ourselves into our own mind-generated prison of a sort. We desire excessive liberty, which is not good for us, in reality. We need r...

The Thorn  The narrator mentions an old-looking thorn but he says that it is not very old, its height is same as that of a two-year-old child. It has no leaves, nothing noteworthy, it is meagre "a mass of knotted joints, A wretched thing forlorn." According to the narrator, the thorn is under attack by mosses and lichens, that intend to "bury this poor Thorn forever." This thorn is situated on a high ridge where sharp "scythe" (blade-like tool) like winds blow and drag clouds from one valley to another. The thorn lies on the five yards left from the mountain path on it. Three yards left, the narrator, points to a "little muddy pond" which never dries despite lying below  "thirsty suns and parching air." Near the thorn, lies a small mound of a foot's height. It is covered by moss and looks beautiful. It seems a fair lady crafted it with her hands. Also, he praises the cup lichens (a cup-shaped fungus) whose vermillion colour looks ex...

This poem written by Wordsworth brings a story of an old Huntsman dealing with old age and absence of everything he possessed in his prime days. He was gifted with great physique and speed. But in his later life, he lost not only his youth but fame, friends, animals and resources. The narrator narrates his story and describe his encounter with the old man and aiding him and earning his praise and gratitude Explanation In the town of Cardigan, an old Huntsman lived for thirty-five years. He was a successful Huntsman in his time. His physique too was tall which diminished with time and now he is an old "little man". His countenance is still "red as a ripe of cherry" showing the image of his past awesomeness. He was a productive Huntsman who never had to take agriculture work to support him. His magnificence ruled the vicinity. His horn's halloo (sound) echoed throughout hills and valleys, instructing his hounds in their pursuit of the hunt. Simon was the fi...

Keats reveals that in his journey, he has travelled in some of the most prominent and prosperous cities and kingdoms of the world. There, he also meets many poets who have the grace of Apollo, the Greek god of music and poetic inspiration. He has heard that the great poet, Homer, author of Odyssey and Iliad resided in this great land (ancient Greece). Keats couldn't believe if this land belonged to the bard. It doesn't have "pure serene". Only when he read George Chapman's translation of Homer's work, he comes to imagine the glory of the work and the ancient place which it represents. George Chapman was a 16th-century playwright and a translator. His realization is just like an astronomer when he discovers a new planet. He resembles himself like Hernan Cortez (establisher of Mexico city) when he first envisages a land beyond the Pacific and take a brave step in seeking this land and afterwards this land hosts people from other lands. Keats' fascination...

The poet mentions a girl named Lucy about whom he has heard from various sources. She is a mysterious character who resides alone in the woods. When the poet crosses the woods at the end of the day, he sees a mysterious figure there. It is not mentioned who is this Lucy and how can she survive in the forest on her own. She has no friends and no one to give company to her. According to the narrator, she dwells "on a wide moor". He calls this residing "the sweetest thing that ever grew/ Beside a human door", perhaps because of nature's association and we know how much Wordsworth loves nature. It is difficult to discover Lucy in comparison to fawns (young deer) and hares which roam in the green surroundings. We don't know at this point that why her face "will never more be seen". In the next stanza, we get to travel back to the story of this girl. Her father asks her to go to town to accompany her mother. He hurriedly tells her to take the lante...

The poem "To the Cuckoo" is written by William Wordsworth, the famed Romantic poet who is also known as Nature poet. The poem is all about the admiration of Cuckoo bird and how its voice affects positively on the poet. It cheers the mood of the poet and takes him to his childhood memories. It again confirms Wordsworth's known love for nature. It has eight-stanza with a recurring rhyme scheme of abab. Wordsworth addresses the Cuckoo bird and praises its lovely voice which fills him with joy. He calls it a "wandering Voice" because it sings its song wherever it goes. Cuckoo flies from hills to hills mesmerizing the landscape with the song. He can hear the bird's voice while lying on the grass. It occurs to him that the cuckoo is communicating with the valley of sunshine and flowers but it also arises visionary tales in his mind, for hours he sit and visualize. For Wordsworth, the cuckoo is not just an ordinary bird, he finds something mysterious in th...

The poem “The Tables Turned” hails the philosophy of “back to nature”. Wordsworth instructs his friend and perhaps the readers to learn from nature itself, it has more wisdom than the books we read which will only make us “double.” Everything a human being needs is already present in nature — good health,wealth and peace of mind. Even the great sages lag behind the Mother Nature in terms of possession of wisdom. Our human intellect, by overhauling and transforming the exquisite surrounding into something of his own choice, is destroying what truly nurture and relieve us. In a sort, Wordsworth was an environmentalist in his days, he was very ahead of his age, a foresighted being. Wordsworth's well known love for Nature and rustic arena is visible in the poem. His denouncing of the books may strike a chord in the readers' mind, particularly children's. Children, see now, why Wordsworth is your friend? The speaker addresses his friend and urges him to stop reading books....

Wordsworth remembers John Milton, the famed Puritan literary master who is also known as "man of thought" during his age. The poet believes that England, his country is in dire need of Milton at the time. England has become "a fen of stagnant waters" It has lost all her ancient glory and inherent joy. Britons have become selfish and immoral. He pleads with Milton to return to his motherland and instill the old virtuous temperament in people in again. He praises Milton and calls his soul "a star" who lives far from the material people of England. His voice was majestic and magnanimous like the sea (simile). According to Wordsworth, Milton's voice is pure and unusual. Despite being a special person he is, Milton still walked and lived among common men in his pious way. He pulled the duty of reforming British people on himself.

The poem was written by William Wordsworth on 3 September in 1802 standing on Westminister bridge. Unlike his other poem where he sings his hymn dedicating to nature, this poem is the praise for the urban life and its features of London. Explanation The narrator says that the view in front of him is undisputably exquisite and the person who is not moved by such sight must be soulless. The city i.e. London in the narrator's words, "wear the beauty of the morning." Here Wordsworth uses metaphor to describe the morning as a garment for the city. As the morning symbolises freshness and quietness. The man-made objects like ships, towers, domes etc. are laid open to the sky. The freshness in the "smokeless air" makes the atmosphere "bright and glittering" i.e pleasant. The first sunrays of the day falling on the earth looks charming. Rivers too flow with its own slow pace.  All these mesmerizing visuals make the narrator filled with serenity. Som...

The poem "A Thing Of Beauty" is written by John Keats, a famous Romantic poet. Keats died at a young age who wanted to see himself become a great poet and he achieved it. The poem is an excerpt from the Keats' "Endymion: A Poetic Romance". It deals with the poet cherishing the beautiful objects which give pleasure to the on-lookers. Certainly, he hails these natural creations of God which relieve us from all distresses. Keats hails the things whose beauty mesmerize the on-lookers and its impact will last long for a long time because we can imagine the pleasure of something beautiful long after in our mind. So it will be alive in our memories. A shade of a tree gives coolness and rest to one who comes under its hood. The cherished beauty will ensure peace of mind in a person and he/she will have a sound sleep full of joyous dreams. With it, his health will also improve due to peaceful mind away from distresses. One will breathe fresh air in the lap of flora....

The poem "The World Is Too Much With Us" is written by William Wordsworth, the leading literary figure of the Romantic Era in Britain. It was published in a collection titled Poems, in Two Volumes in 1807. The poem laments the negative implications of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. It is structured as a petrarchan sonnet, having the rhyme scheme: abba cdecde. Wordsworth complains about the human beings' transition from being a unique and social creature to a mechanical and materialistic one. He grieves that human beings now no longer enjoy the Nature which gives us a everlasting joy and serene atmosphere. People have become gross and machine-like in their thought process. For saving himself from such a "disease", Wordsworth takes refuge in Nature and imagination and find utmost respite. According to the poet, we human beings, are fed up with our natural surroundings. We forget to live fruitfully and without purpose. We are wasting our energies and poten...

The poem "Ozymandias" is written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a Romantic poet. It describes the power and authority of the time. All living and non-living things have to die or fade away after a certain age. Even an ambitious king such as Ozymandias who boasts of himself as king of all kings can't live forever nor his conquests and creation. The narrator tells an incident which he was told by a traveller who was a native of a land that has nothing but ancient ruins. The traveller describes a sculpture of a man whose torso portion is removed and can be found in the sand nearby, it is half immersed in the sand. The statue of the carries a cold and angry look on its face and it can be inferred by it that the man upon whom this statue is built was a ruthless and ambitious ruler. The sculptor captured the actual expression on the ruler's countenance and turned the non-living thing such as stone into the man himself and gave his physical and facial features to it. The maste...

This poem is penned by William Wordsworth. The poem is inspired from his sister Dorothy’s journal, describing the walk of Wordsworth and her around Glencoyne Bay, Ullswater in the Lake District. Lake District is a mountainous region in North West England. It is famous for its lakes, forests and mountains (or fells) and its associations with the early 19th century writings of Wordsworth and other Lake poets. In this poem, the poet describes how he walked lonely without any purpose to places like a cloud which fly high over valleys and hills. While his wandering, he noticed a bed of golden daffodils beside the lake. The daffodils were dancing with the breeze just as the fluttering of wings of a bird. They were moving as the continuously twinkling of stars in the Milky Way. They are endless in numbers and spread to the edge of the bay. He reckoned the numbers of daffodils in tens of thousands. The daffodils move their heads in their energetic dance. The waves along with the daffo...

A beautiful sonnet written by William Wordsworth, leader of the Romantic Movement along with S.T Coleridge in Britain founded the movement in 1798. Again in this poem too, we can highlight the poet’s admiring and praise of nature and common things. In the poem, there is a description of him taking a walk in the evening over the ocean with Caroline, his daughter with Annette Valon with whom he had a relationship while residing in France during (French) Revolution in 1792. The poet describes the evening as a beautiful, calm and free from any hassle. He personifies the time as “nun/ Breathless with adoration” and symbolizing it as a beauty and divine. The sun is setting down in a calm way. He says listen to the awakening of mighty being, here he is pointing to the ocean tides which with its strong force and motion create a sound like thunder endless times. Up to this point, we were unaware about his companion who walks with him, his daughter Caroline to whom he addressed as “Dear...

This poem is written by William Wordsworth, the leader of the Romantic Movement launched with S.T Coleridge with their Lyrical Ballads  in 1798 in Britain.  Through this poem, readers come to know about Wordsworth’s love for nature and its entities.  In this poem, the poet briefs a lonely young girl who is working as a harvester in a field situated at an area of high or mountainous land, the mountainous part of Scotland.  At the same time, she sings her beautiful song and poet is mesmerized with her song. The poet saw the young girl, reaping the crop lonely in the field. Alongside she is singing a song, the poet urges passers-by to either stop or pass silently through the place. The girl works alone in the field and reciting a song filled with sadness and grief. The whole valley is echoed with her song. There is no nightingale who can chant with such exquisiteness than her.  Her voice is a welcome note to all those tired travellers who took shade in the ha...