Analysis Of “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal”

Wordsworth’s “Asleep Did My Spirit Seal” poem is short and powerful. It focuses on the death of a close person. The poem is comprised of four lines. Each line follows a simple ABAB rhyme system and is based on the abstract concept of death. The title of the poem refers to a deep sleep that had an impact on the speaker. Also, it is about a girl who the reader can assume is dead. Despite being shrouded in mystery, the poem retains an emotional connection that Wordsworth has achieved through his stylistic choices. Wordsworth uses simple language, juxtaposed photos, and ironically, lacks any identifying details.

“A Slumber did My Spirit Seal” tells the story from the first-person perspective. The speaker is not the main focus, but it is focused on the girl who the speaker has chosen unnamed. Only the eight lines of the poem refer to the speaker. The rest of the poem is focused entirely on the girl, who the speaker refers to as “she”, but remains anonymous for the length of the poem. The poem’s most distinguishing characteristic is its ambiguity. The poem’s speaker and “she”, which is often referred to throughout the poem, have no identifying characteristics. This leaves the reader with little information about the characters. The only thing the reader learns is that the speaker has gone into a slumber, possibly a symbolic one. However, this information is not clear until the second and last stanzas. The poem’s first stanza clearly reveals that the speaker is discussing death and that his “she”, the subject of the poem, has passed away. While it isn’t stated in the text, the speaker never explicitly refers to “death”, “dying”, or any other related topic. The speaker’s remarks about her having “No motion…noforce” (line 5) and his concluding statement that she is now being “Rolled around…/With rocks, stones, trees” (lines 7-8) strongly suggest this. The speaker only gives a few details about the girl. The rest are left up to the reader to interpret and infer. The speaker doesn’t reveal when or how she died, nor does she say if she was young. This information is crucial for the reader to understand the whole poem. This stylistic choice, even though it may seem counterintuitive, helps the reader to be more interested in the speaker’s words. Apart from the obvious fact the poem lacks detail, it forces the reader’s active thinking and inferences about its meaning. The ambiguity around the main characters allows the reader a deeper connection with its primary subject: Death. The speaker’s inability to give details results in the reader being less interested in the speaker or the girl. Instead, they are drawn to the concept of death, which leaves them with the ability to interpret it as they please and apply it to their own experiences of loss and death.

Wordsworth’s poem has a short structure and a simple language that helps this effect. It is divided into two separate stanzas. This divides the poem into two distinct parts. The poem’s overall structure is greatly enhanced by this division, even though it seems simple. The first section is told in the past, and the second in the present. This splits the poem into two sections. The first stanza, while vaguely describing the death in the second section of the poem, provides context. The speaker’s perspective shift from the first to second stanza adds to the feeling that he is regretting the events that led to the death of the girl and his thoughts back to when he believed that she “could not feel/ The touch of earthly year” (lines 3-4). The poem feels heavy because of this emphasis on the speaker’s mistaken calculation of the girl’s death. Woodsworth’s use of imagery and language, even though there is no detail to describe either character in the poem, adds to its unique tone. This is due in large part to the simplicity and emotion of the language. The simplicity of the language means that the reader is able to understand the meaning of the words. This makes the emotion much stronger than if they were given complex sentences or diction. The poem’s simple language and juxtaposition of imagery help to create a feeling of sadness and wistfulness. For example, the first line of the poem, “She seemed a thing she could now feel/The touch Earthly Years” (lines 4 and 5), is cleverly juxtaposed against the second section’s imagery where the speaker describes an ambiguous “she” who “Rolled in earth’s diurnal courses, / With rock, and stones, as well as trees” (lines 7 through 8) to convey that the speaker misunderstood his initial assumptions about death, and the girl that he had been mistaken Both images are about earthliness and contrast starkly with each other to give the reader a clear sense of the speaker’s regrets and feelings of loss. The contrast between first and second stanzas illustrates the speaker’s perception of mortality. This makes the poem poignanter than the death alone of the unidentified young girl.

Wordsworth’s “Asleep Did My Spirit Sign” is filled with human emotion and the pain of loss and death. Ironically, the strength of this poem is in its simplicity yet ambiguity which allow the reader an emotional connection with the speaker as he contemplates death. Despite the poem’s apparent ambiguity, it conveys the feeling that the speaker is grieving for not realizing the mortality of someone he loved deeply.

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  • valentinomcintyre

    Valentino McIntyre is a 39-year-old blogger and schoolteacher from the United States. He is a dedicated father and husband and has been married to his wife for over 10 years. Valentino has a vast amount of experience in the education field, having worked as a teacher for over 15 years. He is a prolific writer and has been blogging for over 10 years. His blog is a source of information and inspiration for parents and educators.