Page 287 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes with our fellow man. The poem relies on the concept of pre-existence, the idea that the soul existed
before the body, to connect children with the ability to witness the divine within nature. As children
mature, they become more worldly and lose this divine vision, and the ode reveals Wordsworth’s
understanding of psychological development that is also found in his poems The Prelude and Tintern
Abbey. Wordsworth’s praise of children as the “best philosopher” was criticised by Coleridge and
became the source of later critical discussion.
Modern critics sometimes referred to Wordsworth’s poem as the “Great Ode” and ranked it among
his best poems, but this wasn’t always the case. Contemporary reviews of the poem were mixed,
with many reviewers attacking the work or, like Lord Byron, dismissing the work without analysis.
The critics felt that Wordsworth’s subject matter was too “low” and some felt that the emphasis on
childhood was misplaced. Among the Romantic poets, most praised various aspects of the poem
however. By the Victorian period, most reviews of the ode were positive with only John Ruskin
taking a strong negative stance against the poem. The poem continued to be well received into the
20th-century, with few exceptions. The majority ranked it as one of Wordsworth’s greatest poems.

27.1 Ode: Intimations of Immortality

27.1.1 Text

I
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen
I now can see no more.
II
The Rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the Rose,
The Moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare,
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where’er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.
III
Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor’s sound,

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