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Title: The Ideal Women

William Wordsworth’s poetry is characterized by the poet’s visionary sympathy with the countryside of his birth, which was more powerful for him than any conventional religion. His association with Nature has given him his true education. His poetry provides an affirmation of the relationship between the natural world and the inner self of man. His poetic style was nearer to the folk-poetic style, plain and bare, devoid of decorative figures of speech. Nature provides a direct personal experience to the poet. The love of nature is a distinguishing feature of all that romantic English generation, as Keats suggests that poetry is the outcome of man's ability to fuse with nature and his surroundings, and Wordsworth also remained true to the Romantic era. His two poems "The Solitary Reaper" and "She was a Phantom of Delight", also delivers his ideas about why one needs to stay connected with the nature to find joy and pleasure in the ordinary things.

The “Solitary Reaper” is a beautiful poem, the writer hears a lady singing in the distance, “Alone she cuts and binds the grain / And sings a melancholy strain” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"214k6JlX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","plainCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1151,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"itemData":{"id":1151,"type":"webpage","title":"The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth | Poetry Foundation","URL":"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45554/the-solitary-reaper","author":[{"family":"WORDSWORTH","given":"WILLIAM"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (WORDSWORTH). The first stanza describes what the woman is doing with the details, standing alone, singing a melody and cutting grain. These lines indicate she is doing something in harmony with nature, she merges with nature as she stands within the natural environment. In this way, the poet links a human to nature's wild creature. She is unstoppable as nature. She is cutting and tying up the grain or corn as she sings “O listen for the vale profound / is overflowing with the sound” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"214k6JlX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","plainCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1151,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"itemData":{"id":1151,"type":"webpage","title":"The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth | Poetry Foundation","URL":"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45554/the-solitary-reaper","author":[{"family":"WORDSWORTH","given":"WILLIAM"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (WORDSWORTH). The poet never sees this lady but he admires her singing as she continues to work, and her music stays with him long after he is gone. The language in which the woman is singing is alien to the poet and so, he tries to decipher varied meanings of the song. He ideates that the song might be about some prolonged past sorrow or about something more recent.

Her song is very melodious and it stretches the limits of space. The poet also associates the songs by her with the beautiful cries of birds, famous in the romantic poetry, “A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard / In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"214k6JlX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","plainCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1151,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"itemData":{"id":1151,"type":"webpage","title":"The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth | Poetry Foundation","URL":"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45554/the-solitary-reaper","author":[{"family":"WORDSWORTH","given":"WILLIAM"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (WORDSWORTH). Finally, he tries to fathom her song. Listening to her with utmost devotion he draws several conclusions but one thing he is sure is that something wrong has happened either in the past or has happened recently and can happen again that worries her. Her voice seems to fill up the poet’s soul and has a deep impact on him. Likewise, anyone other than the poet will also feel the same and as the melodious vocals will touch heart and emotions deeply and it will be remembered even it was no more heard, “The music in my heart I bore / Long after it was heard no more” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"214k6JlX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","plainCitation":"(WORDSWORTH)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1151,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/orkqtrjP/items/MYWNLS82"],"itemData":{"id":1151,"type":"webpage","title":"The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth | Poetry Foundation","URL":"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45554/the-solitary-reaper","author":[{"family":"WORDSWORTH","given":"WILLIAM"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,5]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (WORDSWORTH).

In the poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", Wordsworth’s heart is filled with the pleasure due to the sight of daffodils dancing, the breeze, “And then my heart with pleasure fills / And dances with the daffodils”. Likewise, the happiness of daffodils cheer him up, the melodious song of the lady also fills his heart with pleasure, and the memory of both will remain in his heart as it touched his soul and both transcends time. He continues with his journey still trying to comprehend the meaning. The song had etched into his heart making his usual journey through the nature unusual and worth remembering.

"She was a Phantom of Delight" is another poem written by Wordsworth, extends the qualities and traits of the woman he considers ideal (Wordsworth). It is also presumed that he wrote this poem for his wife Mary Hutchinson. This poem is also a lyrical ballad like most of his poems dividing into three stanzas of 10 lines each. All three stanzas are also declared as the three phases of a relationship. The first stanza shares the qualities that are apparent in the first sight. The first line sets the tone of rest of the poem, “She was a Phantom of delight” (Wordsworth). When he first saw her, she describes how delightful was that experience that he did not consider her flesh and blood but a spiritual being. He associates her beauty with the infinite beauty of nature, “Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair / Like Twilight’s, too, her dusky hair” (Wordsworth). In these lines, the poet describes her in an ethereal way. He also depicts her as a woman of exceptional beauty traits, and something that is out of the human world. That is why he calls her a "spirit" yet a human creature, "A Spirit, yet a Woman too” (Wordsworth).

The second stanza describes as the poet gets the opportunity to observe her closely, though she is unreal as the spirit but as a human too. She is soft and gentle as she moves between the house, illustrating her humanly qualities and traits. Looking at her face reminds the poet of the sweet promises. The realistic image of her is created when the poet says she is also a creature but "not too bright or good” (Wordsworth). The next few lines also describe her human qualities and feelings such as, "Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles”. Moving towards the next stanza, it also illustrates the traits discovered by discovering that creature more closely. She is a machine and a human at the same time. She is the perfect woman, who knows how the balance her balance and responsibilities, “A Traveler between life and death” (Wordsworth). Her interests have a clear division, she is a mild who keeps harmony in everything she does, and the poet believes that she is created in a grand way by God. He sums up the poem in last two lines "And yet a Spirit still, and bright / With something of angelic light” (Wordsworth). This means that in spite of all her humanly abilities and traits, she seems like a divine creature, shining bright and leaving sparkle in his eyes.

To sum up, William Wordsworth's poetry has a deep role in nature. As of him, poetry is the omni-comprehensive deity that enables him to have a conversation with nature and awakes his senses. Both the poems give an ideal image of women in his poetry and give an idea that one who is connected with nature is able to see the beauty in every aspect of nature. Women is also one of the beautiful creatures of Almighty. These poems also take the reader to the notion, "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder". William Wordsworth is able to see the beauty in the simple things, dancing daffodils and a singing woman performing her duties in a delightful manner. In both the poems, he sees an ordinary creature something belonging to the other world, something that can give pleasure and solace to one’s heart and soul. The beauty of everything is nature is entangled, and the ability to look for the beauty in ordinary things can make someone's world amazing.

Works Cited

Wordsworth, William. She was a Phantom of Delight. Ter Lugt Press, 1980.

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM. The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth | Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45554/the-solitary-reaper. Accessed 5 Oct. 2019.