Unit 4  William Wordsworth

Review Questions:

1.        How does the poet depict the host of daffodils?

Tips: First, the poet tells us where he finds the host of daffodils (i.e. “Beside the lake, beneath the trees”); then he goes on to depict the colour (i.e. golden), the quantity (“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”), the movement (“Fluttering and dancing in the breeze”, “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance”) of the daffodils.

2.        What does “daffodil” stand for?

Tips: Daffodil stands for nature in this poem, but the poet does not depict it simply as part of nature. As for Wordsworth, he does not just want to depict the natural landscape, moreover, he pays much attention to the interaction between nature and human nature. He perceives nature as a store of truths about human nature.

3.        Analyze the form of this poem by taking the first two lines as example.

Tips: This poem consists of four stanzas and in each stanza there are six lines. In each line there are four feet with a weak- strong sound pattern. The rime scheme in each stanza is a b a b c c.

Review Questions:

1.      What does Wordsworth compare the song of the Highland Lass with?

Tips: The poet compares the song of the Highland Lass with the songs of nightingale and the sound of cuckoo bird in the springtime, but her song is more beautiful and charming because “no nightingale did ever chaunt more welcome note to weary bands of travelers in some shady haunt among Arabian sands”.

2.      Analyze the form of this poem.

Tips: This poem consists of four stanzas. In each stanza, there are eight lines. Most of the lines in each stanza are octosyllabics (i.e. containing 8 syllabus).

John Keats

Ode to a Nightingale

1. What does the song of nightingale stand for?

Tips: Nightingale’s song stands for a kind of beauty that has been heard through all the history of the world and therefore has a touch of eternity to it. It symbolizes for the poet a lasting beauty that lured him temporarily from his great misery into an exquisite desire to leave the world unseen and fade away into the dim forest.

2.In what sense is the nightingale “immortal”?

Tips: In stanza 7, readers may find some clues. At the beginning of this stanza, the poet regards the bird as “immortal bird” that no generation will tread it down and its voice can be heard by people of all social ranks and from different times.

3. Analyze the form of this poem.

Tips: This poem consists of eight stanzas, each containing ten lines of iambic pentameter and a rime scheme of ababcdecde. All the lines in each stanza are written in iambic pentameter with the exception of the eighth line which is written in trimeter.