Analysis of Personal Talk
William Wordsworth 1770 (Wordsworth House) – 1850 (Cumberland)
I AM not One who much or oft delight
To season my fireside with personal talk.--
Of friends, who live within an easy walk,
Or neighbours, daily, weekly, in my sight:
And, for my chance-acquaintance, ladies bright,
Sons, mothers, maidens withering on the stalk,
These all wear out of me, like Forms, with chalk
Painted on rich men's floors, for one feast-night.
Better than such discourse doth silence long,
Long, barren silence, square with my desire;
To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,
In the loved presence of my cottage-fire,
And listen to the flapping of the flame,
Or kettle whispering its faint undersong.
'Yet life,' you say, 'is life; we have seen and see,
And with a living pleasure we describe;
And fits of sprightly malice do but bribe
The languid mind into activity.
Sound sense, and love itself, and mirth and glee
Are fostered by the comment and the gibe.'
Even be it so; yet still among your tribe,
Our daily world's true Worldlings, rank not me!
Children are blest, and powerful; their world lies
More justly balanced; partly at their feet,
And part far from them: sweetest melodies
Are those that are by distance made more sweet;
Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes,
He is a Slave; the meanest we can meet!
Wings have we,--and as far as we can go,
We may find pleasure: wilderness and wood,
Blank ocean and mere sky, support that mood
Which with the lofty sanctifies the low.
Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good:
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
There find I personal themes, a plenteous store,
Matter wherein right voluble I am,
To which I listen with a ready ear;
Two shall be named, pre-eminently dear,--
The gentle Lady married to the Moor;
And heavenly Una with her milk-white Lamb,
Nor can I not believe but that hereby
Great gains are mine; for thus I live remote
From evil-speaking; rancour, never sought,
Comes to me not; malignant truth, or lie.
Hence have I genial seasons, hence have I
Smooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought:
And thus from day to day my little boat
Rocks in its harbour, lodging peaceably.
Blessings be with them--and eternal praise,
Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares--
The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays!
Oh! might my name be numbered among theirs,
Then gladly would I end my mortal days.
Scheme | ABBAABXAXCDCDB EFFEEFFEGHXHGH IJXIIJXIXKXXXK LMNLLNMEOPPOPO |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111101 11011011001 1111011101 111010011 0111010101 11010100101 1111111111 1011111111 1011101101 11010111010 1101010111 00110111010 0101010101 110100111 11111111101 0101010101 0111010111 0101010100 1101010101 1101010001 10111110111 1010111111 10110100111 1101010111 0111110100 1111110111 1111011111 1101010111 1110111111 1111010001 1100110111 11010101 1111010111 1001011101 111111101 10101010011 1111001011 1001110011 1111010101 1111110001 0101010101 01001010111 1111011101 1111111101 110101101 1111010111 1111010111 1101100101 0111111101 1011010100 1011100101 1111010101 0101111111 11010111001 1111110011 1101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,404 |
Words | 444 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 14, 14, 14 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 474 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 108 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 23, 2023
- 2:13 min read
- 177 Views
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"Personal Talk" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42304/personal-talk>.
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