Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Now lets step back for a second to appreciate the devices...

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover's head

“O mercy!" to myself I cried,

"If Lucy should be dead!"

He now shifts the tone to a more anxious and astonished tone as he uses alliteration

Then with the 'O' and the exclamation mark, he ends the poem in a climatic stanza in an astonishing tone.

Summarizing The Stanzas

Stanza 7

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a lover's head

'O mercy!' to myself I cried,

'If Lucy should be dead!'

Summarizing The Stanzas

Stanza 5

Summarizing The Stanzas

Stanza 3

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.

The moon here still acts as a symbol as it still seems to steal his focus and attention

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh

Those paths do dear to me

With diction such as quickening, he shows a gradual build up in the climax.

With diction such as 'dear', he connotes a positive feeling of this memory.

Summarizing The Stanzas

Stanza 2

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,

Kind Nature's gentlest boon!

And all the while my eye I kept

On the descending moon

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June

I to her cottage bent my way

Beneath an evening-moon.

*Symbol

'As a rose' - Wise diction for the simile, if he were to say something other than rose such as thorns on dying plants then he would not be connoting the positive image he connotes with ‘as a rose’ since Roses tend to connote passion and love.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh

Those paths do dear to me

Final stanza acting as the conclusion, leaving us in shock with his recently shifted astonishing tone, having gotten lost in the reminisces that he has forgotten how his love is truly dead for her. This is what is considered to be the climax of the poem.

For the first couplet, he goes back to memories of Lucy. He then returns with his focus on nature, specifically the moon, to show how nature is really helping him sleep as he thinks of Lucy and the things he's done wrong with her and how he wants to see her. (Celebration of an Individual)

The third stanza here shows the author continuing to reminisce, which is a habit of Wordsworth with his poems (remininscing)

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her college bent my way,

Beneath an evening-moon.

Summarizing The Stanzas

Stanza 6

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof

He raised, and never stopped:

When down behind the cottage roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.

Consonance (Hoof after hoof, roof)

He raised, and never stopped (Trotting horse-onomatopoeia)

Summarizing The Stanzas

Stanza 4

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.

As he continues to emphasize on the awe of nature with the use of importance of imagination, he uses the diction of sinking to begin making the tone seem a bit more anxious with passion as the moon starts to fade when it was what kept his focus the whole poem

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof

He raised, and never stopped;

When down behind the cottage roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.

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.

He starts to mention the moon again as the symbol shows prevalent as a symbol of passion as he looks to the moon for tranquility as he reminisces. (Awe of nature)

It's almost like he is take the reader on this journey with him. As he describes what he sees in his memory he creates a realistic imagery of nature with tranquility. (Importance of imagination)

Now describing the relationship between himself and the lover, saying how they would see each other daily and how she always looked 'fresh as a rose in June' when he'd head to the cottage she had lived in, when the moon is up.

He begins to become specific with descriptions as he speaks of how the horse gets closer step by step, then suddenly is distracted once again by the moonlight, and as he mentions how it has 'dropped' this is where the shift of the tone goes from emotional to isolated and becomes astonished.

Structure

A simple ballad of 7 quatrains

The Poem's Message

Rhyme scheme follows this pattern abab, cdcd, efef... It reflects the poet's development of thought.

Purpose of quatrains may be to show the simplicity of thought in his strong senses, feelings and emotions.

This poem is about the passion of love of the poet when he fell in love with a woman and how he misses the journey he would go on to see his lover.

Works Cited

Every person that falls in love is to be filled with passion and continuous desire to see the lover.

Tone

Before we begin, some important diction

Passionate

Shifts to astonishing by the last stanza

Works Cited

Perrine, Laurence. 1974. Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, Second Edition, NewYork:

SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/wordsworth/section2.rhtml

"It's All about Hiqma Nur Agustina." : An Analysis of Meaning of Wordsworth’s Poem

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

http://hiqmanuragustina.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-masterpice-1.html

""Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known" Analysis." William Wordsworth : Summary

Explanation Meaning Overview Essay Writing Critique Peer Review Literary Criticism Synopsis Online Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

http://www.eliteskills.com/c/2610

"Educationcing." : William Wordsworth: "Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known" N.p.,

n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

http://educationcing.blogspot.com/2012/04/william-wordsworth-strange-fits-of.html

Befell - Something bad happening to someone

Lea - An open area of grassy or arable land.

Nigh - Near in time, place, or relationship

Boon - A thing that is helpful or beneficial

Wayward - Difficult to control or predict because of unusual or perverse behavior.

Summarizing The Stanzas

Stanza 1

Anastrophe

Strange fits of passion have I known

And will I *dare to tell...

But in the lover's ear *alone

What once to me *befell

*Diction to emphasize dramatic tone

Strange fits of passion have I known

And I will dare to tell,

But in the lover's ear alone,

What once to me befell.

The narrator shows us here his phase of 'these fits of passion.' This story is, in a way, an introduction. Letting us know that only the lovers will understand what he is going through.

Expert of a Poem - Khaled Pedro Al-Hassani

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

By William Wordsworth