An Analysis of
Meaning of Wordsworth’s Poem Strange Fits
of Passion Have I Known
Hiqma Nur Agustina,
SS, M. Hum, M. Si.
Dosen Tetap Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP UNIS – Tangerang
Abstrak
Pembahasan tentang puisi selalu menarik untuk dikaji.
Beragam tema, pesan, gaya
bahasa, nada, irama dan arti mewarnai sebuah puisi. Tulisan singkat ini
mengetengahkan puisi William Wordsworth yang bertajuk Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known, dengan gaya penyampaian yang sederhana namun
memiliki makna yang erat berkaitan dengan romantika percintaan yang menjadi
santapan kita sehari-hari. Ada
beberapa hal yang penulis kaji berkaitan dengan puisi ini untuk memberikan
gambaran singkat tentang puisi Inggris ini dari segi interpretation, theme, image, tone, figurative language,
rhythm dan meaning. Semoga tulisan ini mampu menggugah pembaca untuk bisa
lebih memahami puisi dan memaknai setiap kata indah di dalamnya!
Key words:
interpretation, theme, image, tone, figurative language, rhythm, meaning
I. Introduction
A. Background of study
Poetry is a kind of language that
says more and more intensely than ordinary language does. A poem is composed
with the desire to communicate an experience especially one expressing deep
feeling or noble thought in beautiful language.
Poetry has a pattern that gives us
pleasure as we listen to it. Poets repeat and echo sounds to please our ears.
They also use these effects to hold our attention and mirror or reinforce the
meaning word have rhythm or beat, as well as sound, and the rhythm of poetry is
usually more regular than we hear in ordinary language. Often a poem is divided
into sections of lines that follow the same pattern of sound and rhythm, so
that we quickly learn the pattern as we read or listen, and enjoy knowing what
to expect.
The importance of poetry does not
only lie on the pleasure it gives the readers when they read it or listen to
it, but also on the value of life implied in it. Poetry has been regarded as
something central to each man’s existence, something having unique value to
fully realized life, something that he is better off for having and spiritually
impoverished without (Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, p. 554).
The Wordsworth’s poem Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known is
chosen by the writer because this is a beautiful and interesting poem. Though
this poem is very simple, it is an expression of one’s feeling and one’s
experience. Through its simplicity there lies a precious life teaching.
William Wordsworth, the poet of Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known is
an English Romantic poet. He was born in Cockermouth Westmoreland. He grew up
among the woods and lakes and mountains of the Wortwestern part of England .
Therefore, all of his poems always describe natural scene. Wordsworth believed
that nature is the great teacher of moral, and the prime bringer of happiness.
William Wordsworth was a chief voice
of new romantic movement. He laid down the new principles of Romantic poetry;
those are:
1. The language
of poetry is the language of ordinary men and women
2. Poetry is an
expression of one own feeling
3. Nature is the
source of beauty
4. Human mind is
part of nature
All William Wordsworth’s poem
reflected all this principles. Some of his works are Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known, She Dwelled Among The Untrodden Ways, The Solitary Reaper, Lines
Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, It is a Beauteous Evening,
Calm and
Free, A Poet’s Epitaph, and Matthew.
B. Problem Formulation
This writing is going to analyze the
meaning of the poem which is the basic life of teaching.
C. Objective of Study
The meaning can be grasped through
the theme, the image, the tone, the figurative language, and the rhythm of the
poem.
D. Definition of Term
The terms that are used in this
writing are:
1.
Theme is the
idea or thought that stays in our minds when we think about the meaning of the
work as a whole (The Literary Heritage, p. 733).
2.
Tone is the
writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward his subject, his audience, or himself
(Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, p. 702).
3.
Image is the
representation through language of sense experience (Literature: Structure,
Sound and Sense, p. 599).
4. Figurative language
-
Simile: a
comparison using the words like or as. It says outright that something is like
something else.
5.
Rhythm is
systematical stressing or accenting words and syllables.
E. Urgency of Study
The purpose of the writer analyzing
the Wordsworth’s poem Strange Fits of
Passion Have I Known are:
- To enrich the study of poem
- To grasp the life teaching of the poet that is
expressed impliedly through the poem
II. Analysis
A. Poem
STRANGE FITS OF
PASSION HAVE I KNOWN
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.
When She I loved
looked every day
Fresh as a rose
in June,
I to her cottage
bent my way,
Beneath an
evening moon.
Upon the moon I
fixed my eye,
All over the
wide lea;
With quickening
pace my horse drew night
Those paths so
dear to me.
And now we
reached the orchard-plot;
And, as we
climbed the hill,
The sinking moon
to Lucy’s cot
Came dear, and
nearer still
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.
My horse moved
on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and
never stopped:
When down behind
the cottage roof,
At once, the
bright moon dropped.
What fond and
wayward thoughts will slide
Into a lover’s
head!
“O mercy!” to
myself I cried,
“If Lucy should
be dead!”
B. Analysis of Meaning of Wordsworth’s
Poem: Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known
Wordsworth’s poem Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known is
a romantic poem. This poem, like most of other Romantic poem, has an idea of
‘Love’. This poem really reflects Wordsworth’s principles of romantic literary
work. It expresses Wordsworth’s own feeling and passion. He really praises the
nature very much by giving such a nature scene. The language in this poem is
very simple.
a. Interpretation
Like many of Wordsworth’s poem, this
poem start with some remembered events. In the first stanza, the poet tells
that he wants to tell the reader about his experience, the passion of love he
ha. He addresses this poem to everybody who is falling in love.
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 third line
of the first stanza uses a phrase ‘the lover’s ear alone to say a fallen love
person. This first stanza is a kind of introduction of the poet’s theme which
is one’s passion of love.
The second stanza is the beginning
of the poet’s story about his experience when he is in a journey of visiting
his beloved girl friend. Here, he uses simile to describe the beauty of his
lover. He compares his lover to a fresh rose that blooms in June.
When She I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
The last line of the second stanza
gives us the hint of the setting of time. The person here is talking his
journey to his lover’s cottage in the evening when the moon is above the sky.
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening moon.
The third stanza tells us the
person’s journey to his lover’s cottage by riding a horse. He passes through
the path that he recognizes very much on an open wide grass land. Then the
fourth stanza tells us that the person almost reaches his girl’s friend
cottage. The fifth stanza shows us how the person is full of passion at meeting
his lover. The first two lines of the fifth stanza show us the passion of the
person toward seeing his lover. He is very patient to see her.
In one of those sweet dreams I slept
Kind nature’s gentlest boon!
In the sixth stanza the person has
reached his lover’s cottage after long journey. He no longer sees the moon
sides behind the cottage. The seventh stanza tells us that there is a little
thought of scary of losing his girl friend crosses the man;s mind.
“Oh Mercy!” to myself I cried,
“If Lucy should be dead!’
The rhythm of these two lines shows
us the emotion of the person. The stresses that are given to ‘O‘ and ‘Mercy’
indicates the person’s scary. He does not want to lose his lover.
b. Theme
Through the interpretation we can
grasp the theme. The theme of this poem is about one’s passion of love. From
the title and the first stanza we can predict that this poem is about love. It
is about the poet’s experience of being in love and it is also about the
passion that the poet has when he is in love.
c. Image
Since the second stanza to the sixth
stanza, the poet offers us a visual image of beautiful nature’s view. He
describes his imagination such a beautiful way and he makes his imagination
roam to other beautiful images.
Upon the moon I fixed my eyes,
All over the wide lea;
With quickening pace my horse drew
night
Those paths so dear to me
This stanza takes us to a beautiful
scene which the poet has once experience before. Here we can see a wide open
grass land with the moon above it and there are paths which is so dear to the
poet on the grass land.
The poet also offers us a kinetic
image. He describes how his horse moves and takes him to his lover’s cottage.
My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
d. Tone
The tone of the poet is sympathy and
passionate. We can see him very sympathy and passionate through the event. How
he described the poem through the lyrics made the reader getting involved with
the tone.
e. Figurative language
Since Wordsworth believed in the
principles of a new ideal of naturalness and simplicity, he avoids everything
artificial and merely conventional. He believed in the language of ordinary men
and women. Therefore, this poem has no difficult diction that is difficult to
understand by the reader.
This poem has no symbol,
connotation, metonymy, allusion, the diction has merely denotation. The poet
emphasizes his tone, his visual image by using simile, personification and
metaphore. Therefore, this poem seems so alive, as in:
* When She I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June
* The sinking moon to Lucy’s cot
Came near, and nearer still
* But in the lover’s ear alone
f. Rhythm
The rhythm that the poem use is like
Waltzing rhythm. From the first stanza to the sixth stanza the rhythm is almost
similar. This indicates that there is a constant. He uses iambic tetrameter for
every first line of each stanza.
The rhythm he offers us to emphasize
his emotion in this poem. The calmness of the rhythm show the poet’s sympathy
and the last stanza of the poem give us a clear hint of the poet’s passion.
g. Meaning
The meaning of this poem is that
every falling in love person will be filled of passion and desire to see his or
her lover. The love that he or she has will guide him or her to break every
obstacle that hints his or her relationship. Love will make one sacrifice for
his or her lover. Just like the person in the poem who is willing to have long
journey to see his lover. The feeling afraid of loosing the one he or she loves
will always occur at any time, the way the person in the poem is afraid of
losing his lover.
Being afraid of losing someone whom
he loved describes clearly in his poem. Through the beauty of lyrics,
Wordsworth asked us to enjoy the journey of loving. Loving means people are
entirely sacrificing for the lover. It is seen toward every step that the
writer wrote. This poem taught us to be wise, patient and keep struggling to
realize the immortal of love. That is the hardest part of human being who need
love to balance their routine task. No one can live with meaningless love, but
people will have spirit to build their life by being love and to love somebody.
III. Conclusion
Wordsworth’s poem Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known is
one of the Romantic poems. This poem like many other Romantic poems has an idea
of love and nature. This poem is the most popular of Wordsworth’s poem, is a
reflection of his own passion.
This poem is about the passion of
love of the poet when he is falling in love with a woman. Here he is willing to
have a long journey to see his lover. The poet’s experience, as it expressed in
this poem is the same as any other falling in love expressed in this poem is
the same as any other falling in love person who is full of love and beautiful
dream of his lover. Talking about love poem is always attract the art lover,
because life without love is empty, meaningless and full of sadness. Moreover,
in many Wordsworth’s poem always reflect about this everlasting theme, love.
Love is reflected about romance, joy of loving couple and lover and how one
surrenders or sacrifices to his lover. Even this poem has such ordinary idea
but still people are curious to find the meaning inside. The more we are
searching the meaning, the larger idea and thought we can get through it.
Furthermore, the power of love
always inspires human being to be mature, to control emotion, to struggle every
challenge to pursue the joy in life. Some people think that talking about love
always arise the curiosity, the huge basic knowledge surrounding people’s
desire. Love is always become the interesting part in human being’s life,
because love become the greatest part that cannot be neglected. Finally, love
will give great impact to someone who is fulfilled with love because the power
of love can change one’s life.
References
Guth, Hans P., The
literary Heritage, General Editor and Senior Author. Massachutes: Lexington .
Wilson, B. A., John Burgess. English
Literature: A Survey for Students, British: Longman.
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