Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Written by: William Wordsworth

Presentation by: Amber James

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known...

Evidence

Literary Devices

“Fresh as a rose in June.”

Type of Literary Device: Simile

Explanation: By using “as” this simile is describing her beauty and her freshness, and something he has not experienced before with a woman because he is in love and has feelings that he cannot escape due to the surrealism of them.

Tone

The tone of this poem is romantic, because the author gets to see the woman he loves, but then it turns morbid because of his thoughts of her potential death which shows the drastic change of mood when being in love.

Theme

Citations

Discussion Questions

Love can change you and has the ability to make you a completely different person than you thought you could be and the emotions along with it, which affects the way you look at your relationships.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth#cite_note-webbio-7
• http://manoflabook.com/wp/?p=5444

1. What is the difference between being IN LOVE and just loving someone?

2. What do you think the phrase "Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known" means?

Plot

Once you are in love, reality is non-existent and you do not think you could ever be sad again. When this does happen, though, due to their thoughts or even your own, you are in a state of shock and your emotions plummet and you are confused and angry and many other emotions all at once.

Literary Devices

Strange fits of passion have I known:

And I will dare to tell,

But in the Lover’s ear alone,

What once to me befel.

*This is also showing the idea that due to the strangeness and confusion of his love for Lucy, he will only tell her how he feels about her because he just realized how much this has altered his way of thinking, and he needs to go find her and tell her.

“At once, the bright moon dropped.”

Type of Literary Device: Symbolism

Explanation: The moon symbolizes direction, and once the moon drops, he loses his sense of sanity and has major confusion, proving that he does not know where to go mentally when he is in love.

Evidence

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover’s head!

“O mercy!” to myself I cried,

“If Lucy should be dead!”

*This is clearly showing that when you are in love, you have a lot of thoughts that may not make complete sense sometimes, like thinking of the person’s death. You are oblivious to what you are doing and you aren’t sure how to deal with it because you are so obsessed with the fact that you’re in love and it’s “too good to be true.”

Claim

The writer is making the point that through love, your mindset can alter completely and it has the ability to shape your way of life.

“Love is blindness.”

Background Information

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

• Born on April 7th, 1770
• Had extreme stress and loneliness
• The Lucy Poems & Lucy (?)
• After not seeing his girlfriend and their daughter for many years due to war, he finally visited them and told them he was getting married to someone else
• Had 5 Children with his wife Mary Hutchinson
• William and his sister Dorothy liked to lie down next to each other out­side and pre­tend that they were lying in their graves
• Died due to inflammation of the lining surrounding his lungs on April 23rd, 1850

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,

Kind Nature’s gentlest boon!

And all the while my eyes I kept

On the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof

He raised, and never stopped:

When down behind the cottage roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover’s head!

“O mercy!” to myself I cried,

“If Lucy should be dead!”

*Extra Verse:

I told her this: her laughter light

Is ringing in my ears:

And when I think upon that night

My eyes are dim with tears.

Strange fits of passion have I known:

And I will dare to tell,

But in the Lover’s ear alone,

What once to me befel.

When she I loved looked everyday

Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her cottage bent my way,

Beneath an evening moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh

Those paths drew near to me.

And now we reached the orchard-plot

And, as we climbed the hill,

The sinking moon to Lucy’s cot

Came near, and nearer still.