Ode: Imitations of Immortality by William Wordsworth

when was it written?

1807

where are the first three lines from?

My Heart Leaps Up, 1802 - themes of childhood

each stanza has its own….

rhythmic pattern and individual thought

I. what is the rhyme scheme?

ABABACDDC

what is an Ode for?

to celebrate an individual for victories in battle

I. what does the speaker explain?

the speaker no longer feels a sense of magic he once found so inspirational in his youth

I. what creates a sense of abundance?

asyndetic and polysyndetic listing

I. the language is….

monosyllabic, monotone and direct

II. the first three lines are in…

trimeter

II. in the fourth line trimeter changes to….

tetrameter (an extra foot is added)

II. the last line becomes…

hexameter (six feet)

II. what are the images depicted and what is not being achieved here?

cliche images of natural beauty

no sublimation achieved

III. what does the speaker attempt to do?

reclaim the feeling he felt was once lost

III. how do the descriptions become more heavily associated with sublimity?

sibilance and staccato sounds allows for the lines to flow and become allusive of song

III. there is a shift in language he goes from speaking of ….. to speaking about the …..

himself e.g. ‘I’ and ‘me’

the earth - he is awakened from self-reflective memories and finds interest in the environment around him

III. “Shepherd boy”

allusive of unity, association between childhood and freedom

IV. what shows he is trying to persuade himself of achieving sublimation?

diacope of ‘hear’ and desperation in the line “I feel- I feel it all”

IV. what creates the idea of something being lost?

use of words like ‘one’, ‘upon’ and ‘gone’

V. what great shift happens in this stanza?

Volta is used (abrupt change of ideas)

“From God, who is our home”

we come from God, as children we are closer to the heavens, as we age it gets harder to experience and ‘feel’ nature the same way

VII. the main theme of this stanza is…

childhood

“a wedding or a festival / A mourning or a funeral”

to a child it is all a game, they are indifferent and ignorant to reality

VII. what metaphor is used to highlight this facade or ignorance of children and what lines highlight this?

• metaphor of the theatre

• ‘The little Actor cons another part’ / ‘To dialogues of business, love, or strife’.

VII. Wordsworth argues that the life the child is going to live is only a…

temporary illusion, a performance, we will eventually return to heaven

VII. the speaker plays on the idea that the child is more….

advanced than the adult

VIII. who does the speaker directly address?

the child with ‘Thou’

VIII. how does the speaker speak of the child?

he praised the child e.g. ‘prophet’, ‘glorious’, ‘Master o’er a Slave’.

VIII. how is an ironic tone created?

it is a poem of self-reflection, the person being praised is the child with no real victory, only the privilege of lack of experience.

VIII. what does the speaker liken the child to?

an “eye among the blind”

VIII. where is there a subtle reference to Paradise Lost by John Milton?

‘the eternal deep’

VIII. what is used to show the child’s blindness to the fact he can see?

polyptoton of ‘blindness’ e.g. ‘blind’ and ‘blindly’

VIII. what contrasts with the spring of childhood earlier on in the poem?

“heavy as frost”

IX. there is a shift of focus to something….

external, nature preserving childhood visions

IX. what words highlight his difficulty in trying to remember his childhood?

‘Questionings’, ‘things’, and ‘vanishings’

IX. the speaker argues that those memories cannot be…

reclaimed, they are tied to a lost soul

X. there is a tone of…

acceptance

X. what creates a sense of simplicity and joyfulness?

• short lines

• no set rhyme scheme

• quicker pace

XI. how does this stanza contrast with the previous ones?

it is sonically quieter

XI. there are more ……. rather than shorter quicker rhyming

half rhymes

XI. there is now attention to…

smaller details like ‘the Brooks which down their channels fret’

XI. what shows this shift in tone?

anaphora of ‘Thanks to…’ highlighting his thankfulness for what he has rather than yearning for what he’s lost

XI. what is the impact of the last line?

personal human not, becomes relatable