Essay about Analysis of Wordsworth’s Surprised by Joy

Analysis of Wordsworth’s Surprised by Joy Death, like ink dropped in a glass of water, taints ones perception of life by coloring every experience with a sad shade of grief. In his poem, Surprised by Joy, William Wordsworth relates how a moment of joy caused him to remember the death of his four-year-old daughter, Catharine. The memory effectively crushed any positive feelings he had during his encounter with joy and replaced them with quilt and sadness. This sonnet, though Italian in rhyme scheme, abandons the typical conflict-to-resolution form of argument for one which begins with the desired end-result and progresses towards the heart of the problem. Throughout the sonnet, Wordsworth shifts from expressing raw emotions†¦show more content†¦However, his action is stopped short after the word transport with a caesuric dash and the exclamation, [o]h! with whom (2). The distressed Oh! and the accented whom give the end of the line just enough lift to suggest the question with whom? The answer, of course, is his daug hter whom he proceeds to address in line 3: [b]ut thee, deep buried in the silent tomb. Wordsworth expresses helpless disappointment in this statement because his daughter, the first person with whom he instinctively wants to share his joy, is dead. The enjambment of the lines rushes us to But thee where a caesura, combined with the repetition of the long, extended e sound in thee, deep buried, gives a sense of depth and finality to her death and effectively halts the energetic free-thought flow of the previous lines with its ominous tones. The unspoken b in tomb and swallowed t in silent contrast the power of the spondaic deep buried with a softer, sadder image of her grave state. Wordsworth adds that she is in [t]hat spot which no vicissitude can find (4). The word vicissitude, meaning a change in fortune for the worse, is an ironic description of her grave considering that death itself is one of the worst kinds of fortunes to befall a person. The fricative v sound followed by the hissing s sound in vicissitude give the word a sinister spin which implies, along with its misplaced polysyllabic elegance, his bitter and ironicShow MoreRelatedAmbiguity in Robert Frosts Works2796 Words   |  12 Pagesfeels doubtful whether or not he chose the best one. Frost travels into the human mind in this poem, portraying how his speaker is an unreliable narrator to compensate for his anxiety. For means of comparison, the speaker in William Wordsworth’s poem, â€Å"Surprised by Joy†, can safely be assumed to be Wordsworth himself because the loss of his daughter, seen in the poem, was an unfortunate reality for the poet. Frost’s â€Å"The Road Not Taken†, in addition to many of his other works, provides no such indicationRead MoreFrankenstein Study Guide14107 Words   |  57 Pagesengineering †¢ Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Frankenstein, edited by Stephen C. Behrendt, 1990. Classroom-tested methods for teaching Shelley’s novel For the Student †¢ Mary Shelley’s Monster: The Story of Frankenstein by Martin Tropp, 1976. Engaging analysis of all facets of the novel including related literature and films (Photographs) Be sure to preview all media links to determine whether or not the material is appropriate for your class. Frankenstein Study Guide For the Teacher 3 Teaching