"What Man Has Made of Man"
Analysis of the Second Stanza of William Wordsworth's
"Lines Written in Early Spring"

A BESTWORD ANALYSIS

William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” (1798) was one of his first poems, and also one of his first real works of Romantic poetry.  While Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” is a fantastic work of Romanticism, it building in its five stanzas a powerful foundation for much of the Romantic dilemma, perhaps its greatest virtue can be found in a single stanza; specifically the second stanza of Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring”: “What man has made of man” (8).  This second stanza, though a simple four lines of prose, exists as a small but powerful beacon of Romantic poetry.  In its four short lines, the second stanza of “Lines Written in Early Spring”, almost perfectly, captures the philosophy of natural Romanticism as well as the mind of the poet himself, William Wordsworth.

It’s important to note that Romanticism, a literary cannon that William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) played a major role in defining, characteristically describes the sometimes overly-sensitive emotions of the poet in his private interaction with nature and the natural world.  In the case of Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring”, the narrator goes on to describe in the second stanza, and perhaps perfectly compose, not only the theme of “Lines Written in Early Spring”, but the philosophic dilemma that causes much of the Wordsworthian Romantic’s inner turmoil; “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.” (5-8).  Perhaps the most powerful writing to be found in William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” is to be read in this second, and most potent, stanza.  While an analysis of Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” in full would include the work as a whole, the greatest meaning, perhaps, is discovered in the slow and deliberate reading of this, though swiftly written, still philosophically demanding second stanza. 

LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING
(Second Stanza, Lines 5-8)

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.

                                            William Wordsworth, 1798

In many ways, your humble writer sees the second stanza of William Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” as personally the greatest four lines of prose in the whole library of Romantic literature.  To dissect the first two lines of the quatrain, “To her fair works did Nature link / The human soul that through me ran” (5-6), Wordsworth describes how the human soul has been emotionally linked to the works of “Nature”. Notice how Wordsworth depicts Nature as a person, a divine female natural force that, though perhaps not usurping God’s role in Creation, still plays a direct role in the conception of human nature.  Humanity, Wordsworth would have believed, however far it removes itself from the natural world, can never cut the connection that it shares with natural life, scenery, and beauty.  In writing these two lines, Wordsworth has successfully captured one of the greatest themes of Romanticism: that humanity, how far it attempts to distance itself from the natural world through its “civilization”, is still, and will always be, a part of nature.

In the last two lines of the second stanza of “Lines Written in Early Spring”, Wordsworth writes “And much it grieved my heart to think / What man has made of man.” (7-8); mankind, in either an intentional or incidental attempt to seek a civilized, contemporary life, has not only perverted its own nature, but is essentially torturing itself by ignoring its own innate connection to that very same nature.  Wordsworth, as a Romantic, believed that the best way to achieve happiness and a wholesome sense of completeness in life is to live, to a certain degree, in unison with or as closely too nature as possible, while shrugging off the pressures and crushing deadlines of civilized society.  By choosing a slower, more wholesome life without what Wordsworth would have seen as pointless capitalistic pursuits and meaningless wastes of energy to achieve socially constructed goals, humanity would find their lives far more purposeful and gratifying than they do now (Note: to Wordsworth’s then 19th century England).  These last two lines capture a common theme found in Wordsworth’s poetry: an intimate and almost pity-like lamentation for how humanity, through its civilization, has forgotten a lifestyle that is far better than the one they have in contemporary society.

Much of William Wordsworth’s poetry follows these same lines of thought (i.e. William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much With Us” (1807)), and “Lines Written in Early Spring”, a poetic predecessor to the rest of his life’s work, seems to reveal just where Wordsworth’s heart lay philosophically.  “Lines Written in Early Spring”, quite literally, seems to be a five stanza seed of Romantic literary philosophy, and the second stanza of that very seed is the germ that would spring forth and mature into a lasting literary cannon of Romantic thought.  Read in itself, as a Wordsworthian haiku of sorts if you will, the second stanza of Wordsworth’s “Lines Written in Early Spring” could easily stand as a concentrated drop, a tincture, of Romantic poetry; a tiny but deeply penetrating window into not only Romantic philosophy, but the mind of the great Romantic poet himself, William Wordsworth.  These same four lines, resounding through the underlying themes of his works, and perhaps the same issues that consumed him as a man as well as a poet, have successfully put to words Wordsworth’s Romantic dilemma of “What man has made of man” (8).

Written by Jordan Dickie
CEO, Executive Editor
BestWord SEO Copywriting Services
jordandickie@bestword.ca

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