Expostulation and Reply – William Wordsworth:
Short Summary and Analysis of Expostulation and Reply
Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth bring forth William Wordsworth’s deep faith in ideals of romanticism. This is one of the poems that appeared in the Lyrical Ballads.
In this poem, William Wordsworth’s friend Matthew finds that William seated on a stone in the famous and scenic Lake District in England. And Reflect on the following Few lines of the poem.
Expostulation and Reply: Year Published in – 1798
“WHY, William, on that old grey stone,
Thus for the length of half a day,
Why, William, sit you thus alone,
And dream your time away?
“Where are your books?–that light bequeathed
To Beings else forlorn and blind!
Up! up! and drink the spirit breathed
From dead men to their kind.
“You look round on your Mother Earth,
As if she for no purpose bore you;
As if you were her first-born birth,
And none had lived before you!”
One morning thus, by Esthwaite lake,
When life was sweet, I knew not why,
To me, my good friend Matthew spake,
And thus I made reply:
“The eye–it cannot choose but see;
We cannot bid the ear be still;
Our bodies feel, wherever they are, Against or with our will.
Against or with our will.
“Nor less I deem that there are Powers
Which of themselves our minds impress;
That we can feed this mind of ours
In a wise passiveness.
“Think you, ‘mid all this mighty sum
Of things for ever speaking,
That nothing of itself will come,
But we must still be seeking?
“–Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,
Conversing as I may,
I sit upon this old grey stone,
And dream my time away,”
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