Romantic Poems: Independent Analysis
The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth
Up! up! my friend, and quit your books,
Or surely you'll grow double.
Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble. . . .
Books! 'tis a dull and endless trifle:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it. . . .
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous forms of things-We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art,
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
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Directions: In this poem, the speaker is talking to a friend about the
advantages of nature vs. traditional education. Explain the sense and
sound of the poem (WHAT it says and HOW it says it!). The “sound”
may include figurative language, rhyme scheme, alliteration, allusion.
Stanzas Written on the Road Between Florence and Pisa
By George Gordon, Lord Byron
Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story;
The days of our youth are the days of our glory;
And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty
Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.
What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled?
'Tis but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled:
Then away with all such from the head that is hoary!
What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory?
O Fame! -if I e'er took delight in thy praises,
'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,
Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover
She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.
There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee;
Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;
When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my story,
I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.
Directions: Byron was more of a romantic in terms of love and beauty
than the other Romantics. Explain the sound and sense of this poem.
Consider the use of apostrophe, rhyme scheme, alliteration, use of
antecedents and directional words (there, thee in the last stanza). What
philosophy is expressed in the first stanza?