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A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

The poem "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" by William Wordsworth is an elegy mourning the death of his beloved Lucy. In the poem, the poet expresses his regret for taking Lucy for granted when she was alive and not appreciating that death could separate them. He describes how in death, Lucy has lost all movement and senses, and has been integrated into the natural world, "rolled round in earth's diurnal course/With rocks and stones and trees." The poet finds solace in imagining Lucy now as a part of nature, following its daily motions, rather than experiencing her painful death itself.

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607 views4 pages

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

The poem "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" by William Wordsworth is an elegy mourning the death of his beloved Lucy. In the poem, the poet expresses his regret for taking Lucy for granted when she was alive and not appreciating that death could separate them. He describes how in death, Lucy has lost all movement and senses, and has been integrated into the natural world, "rolled round in earth's diurnal course/With rocks and stones and trees." The poet finds solace in imagining Lucy now as a part of nature, following its daily motions, rather than experiencing her painful death itself.

Uploaded by

Asfia Quadir
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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A Slumber did my spirit seal ------By William Wordsworth

This is one of the ‘Lucy poems’ written by William Wordsworth. These poems have
been dedicated to his beloved. This poem is an elegy (a poem of serious reflection,
typically a lament for the dead).

In the poem A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal the poet admits that he was drifted in a
sort of a deep sleep, in a state of unawareness. He did not fear the harsh reality of
life. He had taken life for granted and never thought that death could separate him
from his beloved. For him she was an immortal goddess who was unaffected by
age and mortality. As she is dead, she lies motionless. She cannot hear or see. She
has been buried in the Earth and rotates along with the Earth. She is carried by the
mother as she goes around her axis.

S.No Words Meaning


1 Slumber Deep sleep
2 Seal Close, shut
Soul, The non-physical part of a person which is the
3 Spirit
seat of emotions and character
4 Earthly years The passing time and seasons on the Earth
Diurnal,
Pertaining to happening daily,
5 Earth’s diurnal
Earth’s daily rotation on its axis
course

Literary devices
1. Rhyme scheme – abab cdcd
2. Alliteration – The repetition of a consonant sound at the start of two or more
consecutive words is called alliteration. The instances of alliteration are as follows
–
‘Spirit seal’, ‘rolled round’
3. Enjambment – when a sentence continues into two or more lines ending without
any punctuation marks, it is called Enjambment. The instances of enjambment are
as follows –
“She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.”
“Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.”
4. Imagery—rolled round earth’s diurnal…..
5. Polysyndeton – when conjunctions are used in succession. For instance:
With rocks and stones and trees

1. “A slumber did my spirit seal,” says the poet. That is, a deep sleep ‘closed
off’ his soul (or mind). How does the poet react to his loved one’s death? Does
he feel bitter grief? Or does he feel great peace?
Ans: At the death of his loved one, the poet's is full of grief and regret that he had
taken things for granted. He did not fear the fact that one day death could separate
him from his beloved. He thinks about what his loved one must be going through
after death, describing how she remains still on her deathbed.
2. The passing of time will no longer affect her, says the poet. Which lines of the
poem say this?
Ans: “She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.”
The poet uses these phrases to illustrate how the passing of time will no longer
influence his loved one.

3. How does the poet imagine her to be after death? Does he think of her as a
person living in a very happy state (a ‘heaven’)? Or does he see her now as a
part of nature? In which lines of the poem do you find your answer?
Ans: According to the poet, death has turned his loved one into a part of nature. He
imagines her buried in the earth, rolled by its everyday motion like other natural
objects like stones, rocks, and trees. The poem's concluding words, "Rolled round in
earth's diurnal motion, with rocks and stones and trees," reveal the poet's
imagination.

4. How does the poet reveal that Lucy is dead without using the words ‘death’
or ‘dead’? What according to him, has happened to Lucy after her death?
Ans:
Though the poet does not use the words ‘death’ or ‘dead’ for Lucy, yet he is able to
convey very clearly that Lucy is no longer alive. He writes that Lucy has lost all
force and strength; she has become absolutely inert and motionless. Her body has
lost all activity. The young girl is also deprived of her senses like that of hearing or
seeing. He says that her body has integrated itself with the earth. She has become
as inseparable from the earth as stones, rocks, or trees. Like them, she rolls with
the earth as it rotates on its axis.

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

Question 1.
A slumber did my spirit seal-
I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

(a) Who does ‘she’ refer to?


Answer:
The poet does not disclose in the poem the identity of the girl. But because the
poem is one of the Lucy Poems, she refers to Lucy.

(b) What could she not feel?


Answer:
She could not feel the touch of earthly years.

(c) Explain “the touch of earthly years”.


Answer:
By “the touch of earthly years”, the poet means the ravages of time or the process
of aging.

(d) Why does the poet say that his loved one is rolling round in the way of the
earth?
Answer:
The poet says that his beloved is a part of nature she is also moving round with the
earth.

(e) How does the poet imagine her to be, after death?
Answer:
The poet imagines her to now be a part of nature.
Question 2.
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.

(a) What happened to the poet’s beloved?


Answer:
The poet’s beloved was dead.

(b) Where is she now?


Answer:
After her death she has become one with nature.

(c) How does she become an inseparable part of nature?


Answer:
She has become an integral part of nature as she is buried and has assimilated with
the earth and follows the motion like all the other things in nature do.

(d) Explain: she is in “earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees”?
Answer:
She is now a participant in the daily routine of the earth and rolls with it along with
the rocks and trees and other things of nature.

(d) What is the theme of the poem?


Answer:
The poet wants to convey the idea that death is something inevitable and though
death separates our loved ones from us but they always remain around us in the
form of nature.

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