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ODE: Intimations of Mortality of Nature's Bard

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Picassa.web.google: Graphic of Lake Country Beauty

 

 

Ode
Intimations of Mortality of Nature’s Bard

  

 

THERE is a time when poet, sage esteem

 

    The lakes, and every natural sight;

 

            To me, still seem

 

Fresh-filled, with sheer Wordsworthian delight,

 

The story and the oneness of a dream.

         5

There is not time beside sweet Grasmere’s shore

 

        To contemplate and pray,

 

            At work or play;

 

The words I've heard, I now can hear no more.

 

 

 

His presence, lakeside, walking, comes and goes,

  10

    And youthful, handsome is his pose;

 

        The tourists' sights

 

Now find their focus, blue of sky and fair;

 

For 'Wordsworth' spoken on a reading night,

 

Does bring echoic words and does declare

  15

    His poems, blithe, bring birth

 

       To Nature’s care,

 

Yet there have gone his wonders from our earth.

 

 

 

Now, if we join to sing his rustic song,

 

      And tread these fields of grassy mound

  20

               With birdsong sound,

 

To me, indeed,  there comes a fear, a grief:

 

No timely words now flow to bring relief,

 

Although bright pilgrims,shutters clicking, throng

 

           His churchyard grave motif

  2  

            His purpose wrong;

 

Nor hear sweet notes on fels; through trees in leaf.

 

 

His verses float to me from vales of sleep

 

        For all this earth in Heav'nly tune.

 

            This lake, this tree

  30

Still gleam for us, like him, so joyously.

 

Therefore, with dancing, sprightly feet of June,

 

I see his ghost, by lakes, walk ponderingly:

 

          “Poet,  Child of Joy,

 

             Let's hear  your glee,

  35

    Shout for your happy state when once a boy!”

 

Author notes

Prompt:   Write a poem about him, a Poem for the Poet.
Take care you do some study before you venture here

 

I have taken the "Ode on Intimatations of Immortality Recollected from Early Childhood"        [ http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15926 ] in order to mourn the loss of the Wordsworthian spirit even by visitors to his beloved Lake District.  

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Comments

1 - 9 of 9
  • carole21
    April 30

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    nice

    nice tribute write for the prompt . . flows well . . liked "The story and the oneness of a dream" and "His verses flow to me from vales of sleep" . . well done


  • rufina caraid silver member
    April 29
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    Simply Beautiful - a little of The English Lake District in you perhaps!

  • raspberry Greeters member
    April 29

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    Beautiful.. i still see his touch somewhere hidden here and my heartfelt appreciation to you for that. Very well done and thanks for the time taken..

  • Arzab
    March 31

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    Wonderful write. Great flow. I liked the ending. It made me think of the joys people may feel in childhood and how the joys may lessen as people grow older and take on more responsibilities in their lives. Thanks for sharing and best of luck in the contest.


    • Winklings gold member
      April 1
      Edit | Reply

      Yes ...

      This was a theme of the ode I am responding to. As we move further from childhood days, says Wordsworth, we lose visions of Heaven from whence we have come. (Wordsworthian theology)
  • ecrivain01 silver member
    March 31

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    Merveilleux ...

    and extremely apropos. You've managed to capture the essence of what I consider Wordsworthian, and have wrapped it all up in your own poignant and perspicacious ode.

    I have a feeling that Wordsworth would feel honored by this one.


    • Winklings gold member
      April 1
      Edit | Reply

      Jim, thank you for this accolade.

      Wordsworth alive today? The mind boggles at the shock to his spirit.
      Thank you indeed.

  • MargaretG silver member
    March 31

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    There has been a great change in sensibility (and sensitivity) between the last century and this; we must be desensitized or avoid the world, it has become terrifying. Your poem hearkens back to the feeling of travellers who went to the mountains for inspiration; now they go to ski.
    The rhymes and diction are careful and evoke that time with wistful images. I am left sad, there is a loss of wonder and joy that most people do not notice.


    • Winklings gold member
      March 31
      Edit | Reply

      Thank you Margaret

      As Wordsworth truly said, in effect:
      "The world is too much with us.
      Getting and spending we lay waste our powers."
1 - 9 of 9