Lines Written in Early Spring
Introduction: Lines Written in Early Spring is a ballad written by William Wordsworth during the Romantic Period. This poem exemplifies the ecological philosophy of “the Lake Poets,” which is to appreciate nature’s beauty and to form a harmonious relations with it. Like most of his poems, Wordsworth writes this poem too about nature and strengthens the bond by placing the speaker amid nature with plants and animals all around him. In the poem, Nature is everything right as the centre of life. We can see and learn about it through images. Wordsworth presents the beautiful images of roses, trees, birds, and all beings in love and purity by incarnation. But in the beautiful environment, Wordsworth expresses his dark thinking caused by the idea of “man-made from man” with some differences in words, melodies and syntax deviation. He asks what man’s
position has become in this modern world. Wordsworth saw poetry as a means to an end—it allowed him to produce a natural landscape, void of machinery and institutionalism, where man could contemplate the natural world and come to grips with his soul. Wordsworth finds the true complexities of life in the natural world—nature is where one will find himself.
Summary
The poet once sat in a grove in a very calm and relaxed mood. He hears a wide range of sounds and songs. He finds solace and pleasure in the songs of birds and the music of the woods. At the same time, some melancholy thoughts enter his mind, and he becomes pensive.
In the bower, he notices the primrose and periwinkle making wreaths. He believes that every flower enjoys the air it breathes. The birds in the grove around him show their delight by hopping and playing. He also notices how the budding twigs spread their tender leaves to catch the breeze. In short, the poet sees thrilling sights and hears pleasant songs in everything he sees in the grove, and he feels the utmost pleasure of the natural world.
But when he considers the human world, he becomes depressed. What man has done to both mankind and nature makes him uneasy and unpleasant. Nature’s holy plan is for all living things to coexist in perfect harmony. The poet recognises that humans commit all atrocities amongst themselves as well as cruelties to nature by destroying the ecosystem. They sow discord and disharmony, and then fight and kill each other. All of these wrongdoings are against nature’s holy plan.
The poem becomes much more appealing as a result of the sublimity of its theme, the beauty of its lines, and the extensive use of various poetic devices. When the poet says he heard a thousand blended notes, he is using hyperbole. He addresses Nature as if she were a person, referring to her as “her.” He causes the flowers to breathe the air and the tender leaves of budding twigs to catch the breeze. These are all excellent examples of personification. The line ‘What man has made of man’ is a beautiful example of Alliteration.
Paraphrase of The poem
The first stanza reveals that Wordsworth relaxes in a small grove of trees, listening to the birdsong. Although birdsong inspires happy thoughts, man has returned the favour by making a mess of his relations with his fellow man. The speaker is concerned about the state of nature because it is linked to human actions in some way. It disturbs his mind, whereas he is enjoying the nature panorama at the time.
In the second stanza, the speaker describes how, despite being civilised, mankind has an innate spiritual connection to Nature and her fair works. The speaker implies that man can be both a part of nature and a rational being, in control of himself and his surroundings. The speaker is a thoughtful being, a philosopher of sorts, and is certainly reasonable, but he is at peace with nature in a way that many of his contemporaries would find odd. He argues that while humans are part of nature, they sure don’t act like it.
