Page 185 - DENG201_ENGLISH_II

Unit 11: Poetry: William Wordsworth’s Ode on Intimations of Immortality

Below is a graphic illustrating the iambic feet and meter of each line in the first stanza. Numbers Notes
appear above each iambic foot in the lines on the left. On the right is the name of the meter. Line 1 is
in iambic pentameter, line 2 in iambic tetrameter, line 3 in iambic dimeter, and so on.
Title Information
When Wordsworth completed this work in 1804, he called it simply “Ode,” and the poem carried this
title when it was published in 1807. In 1815, when the poem was republished, Wordsworth expanded
the title to “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.” Intimations means
hints, inklings, or indirect suggestions. Most readers and critics today use the title “Intimations of
Immortality” when referring to the poem.
“Intimations of Immortality” is a lyric poem in the form of an ode. A lyric poem presents deep feelings
and emotions rather than telling a story; an ode uses lofty language and a dignified tone and may
contain several hundred lines.
Composition and Publication Information
Wordsworth completed the first four stanzas of “Intimations of Immortality” between March and
April of 1802. He completed the rest of the poem by early 1804. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme
published the poem at Paternoster Row, London, in May 1807 as part of a collection of Wordsworth’s
works, Poems, in Two Volumes.
Self-Assessment
1. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: It takes its origin from emotions recollected
in tranquility. Who defines poetry in these work.
(i) Matthew Arnold (ii) Coleridge (iii) Wordworth (iv) Shelley
2. The “Ode on Intimation by Immortality” in the water-mark of English poetry of the ...............
period.
(i) Victorian (ii) Metaphysical (iii) Romantic (iv) Classical
3. Wordsworth started write the ode’ in the spring of .............. .
(i) 1802 (ii) 1805 (iii) 1804 (iv) 1801
4. Stanzas IX-XI is the third part which tries to vindicate the ............... from which the vision is fled.
(i) Value of life (ii) Value of death (iii) Value of vision (iv) None of these

11.3 Summary
• The entire earth—all its fields and streams and trees—seemed like heaven to me when I was a
child. Now, however, as spring begins to unfold its splendor, I no longer perceive the world
this way. True, there is much beauty around me: rainbows, roses, moonlight, sunlight, the
reflection of the stars on evening waters. But these sights, magnificent as they are, lack the full
glory of what I once saw.
• At this moment, while the birds sing and the lambs frolic, my inability to perceive the fullness
of this glory makes me sad. But the sounds of nature—the wind and the waterfalls—cheer me
as I realize all the earth is happy, land and sea.
• Even the beasts revel in the spirit of spring. Shepherd boy, let me hear your shouts of joy!
• You creatures of the forest, I hear the calls you make to one another, and I hear the heavens
laugh with you in your joy. I feel your happiness—all of it. How could I be sullen on such a fine
May morning. Children are picking fresh flowers in a thousand valleys, the sun shines brightly,
and babies leap in their mother’s arms. But even amid all this joy and wonder, there is a tree
and there is a field that speak to me of something that is missing. So, too, does the pansy at my
feet. Where is that heavenly glory I once perceived?
• When we are born, our souls—which previously existed in the celestial realm—go to sleep
momentarily. When they awake to the new world around them, they forget almost everything
about their heavenly existence. But a hint of that existence remains in our souls even though the

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