'A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal' by William Wordsworth : An Analysis

The inevitability of death is always there, at the very depth of our minds. The only question remains is, when?

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A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears:

She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;

She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees.

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Summary

This poem is the last of the Lucy poems by Wordsworth, where he grieves over an idealized woman, or rather an idealized form of love. The persona observes the mysteriousness and strangeness of his beloved’s death, having always seen her as immortal despite her being human just like him. Through the course of the poem, he is slowly realising, through each line, that she is alive no more, and instead a part of nature that she once walked and breathed with.

Subject Matter

The subject matter would definitely be this mysterious idealized woman that the persona is grieving about. Questions arise as to her identity and the likes, but none of these questions are answered, only feelings and observations of how her life and death are felt is noted.

Theme

The main themes of this poem would include Death, Grief and Mortality. The persona is a prime example by showing us how disillusioned he was to something so inevitable as death to pass. It sounds as if he never knew that one day his beloved would pass on. His love for her was ethereal, something that he felt could never decay and rot. His “slumber” is his way of living in denial about her death, something he wants to “seal” out but is unable to do. She was once next to him, and now she is a part of the world he lives in, and this could be seen as a silver lining, that she is now everywhere, just like the film, Lucy, that was released in 2014.

Literary Devices

Sibilance

The very first line, “A slumber did my spirit seal” is full of ‘s’ sounds, which poses a musing and reflective tone, and shows the difference between the persona’s slumber and the dawning of his grief. The gentle and smooth ‘s’ sounds shows us the quietness the poem is being read, the same quietness where many do not speak of the inevitability of death, as it is usually hushed upon. Therefore, the persona was in a “slumber” of chosen ignorance, to ignore the inevitability of his beloved’s death. The sibilance in this sentence also maybe provides insight to her death, that the persona knew her death was imminent, but chose to ignore it as he holds her existence in such a high regard.

Alliteration

The rolling ‘r’ sounds in “Rolled round” and “rocks” highlights the rumbling noises made by rocks and dirt being rolled and moved about. This also suggests the “earth's diurnal course”. The relationship between the two would be the positions of the letter ‘r’, where in the main part it is the first letter, “Rolled round” and “rocks”, while the rest is in between the words “earth's diurnal course”. The hard ‘r’ sounds and the gentler ‘r’ sounds caused by these words suggests that the dawning of realisation about his beloved’s passing is evident, and there is nothing he can do about it, but remember her.

Metaphor

The two metaphors of “A slumber did my spirit seal” and “The touch of earthly years” relate to one another through the common theme of grief and the inevitability of the passing of time. The persona comes to realise, as the poem goes along, that he has been living in a sort of metaphoric sleep. And his beloved’s death has suddenly awakened him. It is quite clear that he never thought that his beloved would pass on before him, or perhaps in such a sudden manner. However, one can argue that this idealized and mysterious woman is perhaps a dream from his sleep as she is described as not adhering to the rules of this earth. Nevertheless, the grief that the persona feels is real, it is the grief and sadness of someone losing a loved one, and is a constant reminder to many that death, something so simple and natural, is inevitable.