William Wordsworth

Earlier I spent alot of my time on Coleridge's poem "The Rime and the Mariner," but I found out it was only one of the many books of Wordsworth collection that he called "The Lyrical Ballads." These are said to have started the change in British literature as well as American literature. Coleridge only added four poems to the deal where Mr. Wordsworth took up the slack. It is no surprise that these poems are easy to read. They are like that because that is the way he in tented them to be. He wanted these poems to be poems for the people and he toned down his level of vocabulary so that the common people could enjoy such works. This was one of the many changes that helped shape a new age of literature. In these ballads there is a theme of returning back to nature, a theme in which he finds very important. In the poems I read which were "There was a Boy," "Strange Fits of Passion have I known," "Song,""Three years she grew in sun and shower," and a few others it seems that he ends in a similar way. The way is that each character dies or is dead and they die with some similar activity of nature.

A full half hour together I have stood,
Mute- for he died when he was ten years old
(from "there was a boy")

O mercy! to myself I cried
If Lucy should be dead!
(from "Stranger fits of passion")

But she is in her grave, and Oh!
The difference to me!
(from "a Song")

She died, and left to me
this heath, this calm and quiet scene,
The memory of what has been,
And never more will be.
(from "Three years she grew in sun and shower")

With all these references to death it got me thinking. Lots of poets like to think of death in different ways. Some see it as reaching a new place of spirituality, some see it as some sort of sexual act such as an orgasm, while some see it as simply death in itself. As I read over these poems i ask myself what did the poet mean by each one and quite honestly I feel I could argue either way for all of the for mentioned poems. I wonder what you think. If you could read over the poem and let me know that may give me a better insight of what makes more sense..............haha look I feel like a teacher now.