Critical Appreciation - Ode on Immortality - William Wordsworth - Asad Imran Notes

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Background Information

Ode on Immortality is a famous poem, composed by a famous Romantic poet, William Wordsworth. The original name of this ode is "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" while other names may include only "Ode" or "Great Ode". The particular ode appeared in a poetic collection entitled "Poems" in 1814. However, Wordsworth completed a part of the poem in 1802 and sent it to his friend, S. T. Coleridge who, in response, wrote "Dejection: An Ode". The Ode is a juxtaposition of different 'moments' - each dealing with the 'history' of Nature from different perspectives of the age.

Summary

The poem is divided into three moments or phases of life. The poem begins with the speaker regretting and mourning the deprival of his youth and his deep connection with the realm of nature. The poet tries to peep into the memories of the past but,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

For a moment, the speaker becomes happy over his current feelings for the Nature around him but then it fades away in the mist of despair when the speaker finds something missing that he cannot find. In the sixth stanza, the poet claims that we have come not from earth but from the natural heaven that can only be relished in our childhood. As we grow up, our heaven is replaced with the earth that lacks some of the natural beauty that was only found within our childhood. The core problem of the poet is his inability to find the bewitched feelings caused by the beauty of Nature at his early age. But he gets the solution in the form of keeping his memory alive. This is how the poet is going to revive his mortal joy of the immortality of Nature.

Themes

This is a large poem. So, it carries a variety of themes. Since the poem is about the topic of immortality, the first and obvious theme is the soul's immortality. The speaker has a firm belief in the immortality of the human soul. It means the soul exists long before when one is born and when one dies, one's soul returns back to its eternal place. When the poet reflects on his perception of nature in his childhood, he finds it different and more charming because, in his childhood, his soul has newly arrived from heaven. Therefore, according to him, his childhood had experienced the heavenly pleasure of nature.

The second theme of this poem is the painful growth that takes the heavenly pleasures away. The memories of childhood are considered to be more enchanting than the memories of adulthood. Surely the charm is still there for an adult but a child finds everything more colourful than a grown-up. As soon as the speaker grew up, he could not find "celestial" joy in the beauty of Nature.

The third yet concluding theme of this ode is the divinity of Nature that is linked to a person's memory. The poet wants to suggest that surely, one cannot relish the childish divinity of Nature when one grows up. But he can still keep the divinity of Nature alive by remembering the exact joy he used to claim when he looked at the grass luminated through the sun when he was a child.

Critical Comments

Wordsworth's ode was met with criticism and appreciation as soon as he published it in his poetic collection. After a few years of publication, many contemporary writers turned against the Wordsworthian ode. Byron asserted that the poem "lacked quality" as compared to Lyrical Ballads. Byron called it "an innocent ode" without a detailed matter. John Keats, from the second wave of Romantic Poets, was greatly moved by the ode especially lines from 140 to 148. In modern times, the poem is praised for its romantic qualities. Adam Sisman considers the ode as one of the best works of Wordsworth in 2007.

Figurative Analysis

The poem carries a variety of literary devices and figurative language to increase its impression upon its readers. There are various places in which the poet has used enjambments. An enjambment is the continuation of a poetic line on multiple lines. For instance,

To me the meanest flower blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears

The poet has used different metaphors to heighten the poetic excellence of the poem. The metaphor of travelling from the east ends on the west. Similarly, the rising of the sun is a metaphor for the beginning of life whereas sunset in the West is a metaphor for death. There are some instances of personification in the poem. For example, when the addressor calls earth as mother and nurse, he is using personification.

Setting and Imagery

The setting of this vast poem is probably the English countryside in the season of Spring. There are numerous images helping readers to join the captivating memories of the poet. The images may include like "Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower", "The Rainbow comes and goes", "Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own", "birds thus sing a joyous song", and "The Soul that rises with us".

Structural Analysis

The poem is composed of 206 lines. There are eleven stanzas inside the poem, each varying from one another. The poem is a free verse. Because there is no specific rhyme scheme and poetic meter. Although its first part follows the ABAB rhyme scheme with iambic pentameter but as the poem further proceeds, the rhyming and rhythmic patterns become inconsistent. Such inconsistency is due to the change of the mode from different moments in the poem.

Conclusion

Ode on Immortality (as we call it) is a thought-provoking poem that lends a considerable impression for the love of nature without the regard to one's age.

Critical Appreciation - Ode on Immortality - William Wordsworth