William Wordsworth's
"Lines Written in Early Spring": Analysis

A BESTWORD ANALYSIS

One of William Wordsworth’s first poems, “Lines Written in Early Spring” (1798) carries with it the budding philosophical air of poetic Romanticism.  By building an emotionally sensitive atmosphere, Wordsworth describes the light hearted scene of an open glade and uses this setting as the basis of a comparison between the natural world and the unnatural “civilized” world.  Wordsworth, in writing “Lines Written in Early Spring”, one of his first in a life’s work of Romantic poetry, speaks of a wayward spiritual digression that mankind has brought upon itself.  Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” is a wonderful work of peaceful natural contemplation, but sadly it finds itself a reverie in a dynamic of natural grace and a lamentation for how far man has displaced himself from it; his repeated lines of “What man has made of man” (8 and 24), perhaps some of the most powerful writing of Romantic literature.

William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) was one of the true great Romantic poets, and could be argued as being the forefather of the 19th centuries’ Romantic Age of poetic literature.  Outstanding in many ways, Wordsworth poetic taste can be seen, though somewhat prematurely, in “Lines Written in Early Spring” by how it captures the spirit of Romanticism: a focus on embracing nature for its mystical beauties and expressing the emotions and feelings of the poet as a central key to Romantic art.  Most notably, and refreshing, however, is the first, second, and final stanzas that, though “Lines Written in Early Spring” was one of Wordsworth’s first works, it can still be identified as characteristically “Wordsworth”’ in its inward contemplation of “What man has made of man” (4 and 24).

William Wordsworth would later open “Lines Written in Early Spring” with the following note: “Actually composed while I was sitting by the side of the brook that runs down from the Comb, in which stands the village of Alford, through the grounds of Alfoxden.  It was a chosen resort of mine.  The brook fell down a sloping rock so as to make a waterfall considerable for that country, and across the pool below had fallen a tree, an ash if I rightly remember, from which rose perpendicularly, boughs in search of the light intercepted by the deep shade above.  The boughs bore leaves of green that for want of sunshine had faded into almost lily-white; and from the underside of this natural sylvan bridge depended long and beautiful tresses of ivy which waved gently in the breeze that might poetically speaking be called the breath of the waterfall.  This motion varied of course in proportion to the power of water in the brook.  When, with dear friends, I revisited this spot, after an interval of more than forty years, this interesting feature of the scene was gone.  To the owner of the place I could not but regret the that beauty of this retired part of the grounds had not tempted him to make it more accessible by a path, not broad or obtrusive, but sufficient for persons who love such scenes to creep along without difficulty.” (The Complete Poetical Works of Wordsworth, Cambridge Edition, 1904)

LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING

I HEARD a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;                         10
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.                                20

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
 What man has made of man?     

                                            William Wordsworth, 1798

(“What Man has Made of Man”: Analysis of the Second Stanza of William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring”)

The opening stanza of William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” sets the tone for the underlying theme of the poem: Wordsworth’s narrator reclining in a grove where his thoughts are allowed to flow uninterrupted in what Wordsworth describes as “In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts / Bring sad thoughts to the mind.” (3-4).  Importantly, these last two lines of the first quatrain easily catch a reader off guard.  The quiet and descriptively serene setting seems to have brought Wordsworth’s narrator to a state of uninhibited inward contemplation of the external civilized world, and found this subject of thought emotionally disturbing.  Indeed, one of Romanticism’s greatest virtues is found in its appreciation for intimate and emotional deliberation, and Wordsworth, staying true to what seems to be an inherit disposition, finds himself overtaken by his otherwise distracted worries thanks to the peaceful setting in which he finds himself in “Lines Written in Early Spring”.

It is the second stanza of William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” that we are given the theme of the poem when Wordsworth writes “And much it grieved my heart to think / What man has made of man.” (7 and 8).  Wordsworth, in his reflection of “What man has made of man” (8), is describing how mankind, though civilized, has an innate spiritual connection to “Nature” and “her fair works” (4).  Essentially, Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” revolves around this Romantic theme of how beautiful and essential our intrinsic connection to nature is, and how unfortunate and painful our self-inflicted disconnection has become.  Wordsworth writes in “Lines Written in Early Spring” of how nature offers a wholesome and natural lifestyle that Wordsworth feels has been lost to the pointlessness and monotonous of civilization and the pursuit of contemporary capitalistic gain.

The following three stanzas of William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” describe the natural scenery around Wordsworth’s narrator as he sits in his emotionally sensitive mood, contemplating how life in the forest seems so beautiful and satisfying compared to life in civilization.  Wordsworth goes on to describe what he sees as “pleasure” as “every flower / Enjoys the air it breathes” (11-12), and the birds that hopped and played around him were written with every “least motion which they made” (15) “seemed a thrill of pleasure” (16).  Wordsworth goes so far as to describe “pleasure” in the very “budding twigs” (17) that spread their leaves to catch the “breezy air” (18).  Wordsworth sees blissful life and vitality all around him as he sits in the glade, so ignorant of factories, human waste and conflict, that these natural creatures have achieved a state of paradise by simply existing as nature had intended: free of civilization and in a state of natural grace.  It is this lifestyle that Wordsworth is jealous of and wishes that mankind could somehow return to in much the same way he would later describe in “The World is Too Much With Us” (1807).  It is also this lifestyle that gives Wordsworth reason to pity mankind for their empty pursuits and meaningless lifestyles.

The final stanza concludes William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” with the lines “If such be Nature's holy plan, / Have I not reason to lament /  What man has made of man?” (22-24); not only repeating the eighth line of “What man has made of man” (8) in the last, but also driving home Wordsworth’s main theme of “Lines Written in Early Spring”.  To Wordsworth, “Natures holy plan” (22) is for mankind to live as an intricate part of nature, surrendering to quiet cottages and subsistence farming, away from the bleak and pointless miseries of city life.  Man, in “Lines Written in Early Spring”, has successfully perverted his nature and is so condemned to the incomplete and aimless existence of civilization.  Wordsworth “lament(s) / What man has made of man” (23-24) because “Nature”, a divine and motherly deity-like figure, had intended much more for mankind, pleasure and happiness in a wonderful natural lifestyle, but they have estranged themselves from their natural roots and have so essentially destroyed themselves in their pointless aims of contemporary pursuits.  

William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” was one of Wordsworth’s first Romantic poems, but, thanks to its depth and spirited writing, “Lines Written in Early Spring” could also be argued as not only one of Wordsworth’s best works of literary Romanticism, but also possessing some of the greatest lines of Romantic philosophy (i.e. “What man has made of man” (8 and 24)).  “Lines Written in Early Spring” encompasses Romanticism almost entirely, and Wordsworth’s writing would continue for a lifetime afterwards.  In many ways, “Lines Written in Early Spring” would set the tone for Wordsworth’s poety; Wordsworth thereafter wrestling with the same theme of “Lines Written in Early Spring” and lamenting civilization and “What man has made of man.”

Written by Jordan Dickie
CEO, Executive Editor
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jordandickie@bestword.ca

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