A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal by William Wordsworth
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" is the last poem in a short sequence known as the "Lucy poems,"
in which a speaker expresses his love for (and grief over) a mysterious, idealized woman. In this
poem, the speaker marvels over the strangeness of his beloved's death: having always seen her as
young and vibrant, he can hardly wrap his head around the fact that her body is now as inert as
the "rocks, and stones, and trees." The poem reminds readers that most people live deep in a
delusional "slumber," barely acknowledging mortality despite death's inevitability.
Literary Devices
● Title: First line of the poem, implies that slumber keeps his soul calm and quiet. It might tell
about his calm mental state due to the understanding about the relationship among life, death
and nature.
● form: two short stanzas, each a quatrain
● meter: lines alternate between iambic tetrameter (that is, lines of four iambs, metrical feet
that go da-DUM) and iambic trimeter (lines that use three iambs). The iambic pulse of these
lines sounds a lot like a heartbeat; Like the life of the speaker's beloved, the rhythm seems as
if it could go on steadily forever.
● rhyme: Ballad, ABAB CDCD
● tone: Tone shifts from dreamlike into desperate consolation.
● narration: first person, the narrator may be the poet himself or a universal figure.
● metaphor: a slumber did my spirit seal (meditative mental condition that made him aware)
● personification: slumber did (light sleep acts as a person) to shut off his soul.
● sibilant: slumber, spirit seal (strong consonant sound ‘sh’) gentle and quiet sighing sound.
● caesura: last two lines (line is broken in the middle)
● consonance: rolled round/rocks (strong consonant r sound) feeling of rotating.
● assonance: rolled round/course
● repetition: and (draws some parallels among the natural elements and Lucy)
Themes
● Man’s relationship with nature (The bond between human and the nature and requests to see
their lost dear ones through the objects of nature (stars))
● Realization of life and death. Death is viewed positively, an upgrade of life from mortal state
to immortal.
● illusionary comfort in which people lock themselves in
● Most of life is like a “slumber,” and grief is an awakening to the truth
● Death is as essential and basic a feature of life as "rocks, and stones, and trees" are of the
earth
● The significance of memory
● The fears of human life. In the world of human, people suffer from many fears like: birth,
death, sickness, getting old, meeting of unpleasant people and losing the dear and beloved
ones