Close Reading Essay

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Pages: 4
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Donathan Washington

Close Reading: Lines Written in Early Spring
By: William Wordsworth
Due Date: 2/18/14
Professor Ruderman In this poem Wordsworth is sitting admiring nature, while also looking at nature almost in a jealous point of view. It almost seems as if Wordsworth believes that man doesn’t seem to be considered nature, but an intruder interrupting its beauty. Wordsworth also seems to be stating that nature gifted the soul to man. Although this is a beautiful thing nature has done, it seems that man as tarnished the soul as an object. This is an anomaly because, Wordsworth seems to be looking down on the beauty of man while neglecting the fact that man is also nature. This poem is like a coin; for it keeps flipping between Wordsworth’s admiration of nature but, at the same time his disgust for man’s existence in nature. Like I said before Wordsworth believes that man is simply intruding in the beauty and happiness of nature. Wordsworth reverses his tone in the poem supporting my previous statement a couple times the best example is here.
“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.”
At first his tone was admiring the works of nature but then he quickly points out that man has made nature appear bad, or not good enough to be compared to nature. I feel as though Wordsworth is right in his admiration for nature, for it is a beautiful thing that’s omnipresent; though his negative thoughts which correlate with mankind are right and wrong. This is simply because just like mankind nature has blemishes and faults, for example natural disasters such as floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes. All these things occur many times in many places and usually will leave a unhealable scar that may never restore what beauty was once there. Now although there may be wreckage, there’s usually a chance for restoration. I see this as a metaphor for the mistakes that mankind has made. Yes there’re many of them but, there’re also many chances to try and fix or make up for those mistakes. Yes nature is undoubtedly one of the most phenomenal and amazing things that Earth has to offer, but it’s not perfect. Although mankind is much more further to perfection than nature is as a whole, we have many good qualities that don’t make us such an ugly creation or existence. My point is that yes mankind isn’t as beautiful as nature but, Wordsworth shouldn’t have looked at us as a complete downfall; for we do come from nature just as the trees, the seas, animals, and clouds in the sky.

There’re many repetitions in this poem consisting of nature, man, pleasure, thoughts, and sadness. While reading I noticed that Wordsworth did not say one negative thing about nature but only about the species man. He asked “What has man made of man” twice, it was the last line of the entire poem. This means Wordsworth wanted this to be the last thing the reader read and remembered. The line means that man was created by nature, arguably the most beautiful thing on earth; but man hasn’t resembled nature as a whole as much as it should. When speaking of nature Wordsworth also speaks of the enjoyment and
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