A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

By – William Wordsworth

ABOUT THE POET

• William Wordsworth was a great romantic poet who with S. T. Coleridge contributed a lot for the English Literature in the Romantic Age with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads in the year 1798. His Prelude is considered to be the crowning achievement of English romanticism.

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WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

ABOUT THE POEM

• In the present poem “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ the poet tells us about his beloved who was young and beautiful woman died and trapped beneath the surface of the earth. It is one of his Lucy Poems. The poet says that now she becomes a thing and revolves along with the earth. The poet gives an eternal message of life. He has expressed his grief over the death of a loved one hence, it is an elegy.

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A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

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

KEY- WORDS

• Slumber - deep sleep (death)
• Spirit – soul
• Seal- close
• Seem – appear
• Earthly – related to the Earth
• Motion – movement
• Force – power
• Diurnal – (here period of a day)
• Course - path
• Earthly years – passing time

MAIN POINTS OF THE POEM

• This poem is about the death of a loved one.
• This poem is on the poet’s feeling about his beloved when he thinks of her death.
• The poet shows his satisfaction over the death his beloved.
• She has no human fears like sorrow or worries of life as she is dead now.
• She is senseless and has become a part of nature, time has no effect on her as she is buried under the surface.

THEME OF THE POEM

• This poem “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’’ is an elegy as the poem is about the death of his beloved. Like the other Lucy Poems of William Wordsworth this is also a Lucy Poem but with one unique thing is that in this very poem the poet didn’t mention her name. The poet describes his imagination about is beloved after death. The poet talks about the common human fears in the first stanza, he also talks about the earthly years mean time and period will have no effects on her as she is no more now, they cannot make her older.

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CONTINUE-------

• In the second stanza the poet is describing her dead body. As she is dead now , she is unable to perform any physical activity. She becomes a thing. In the last two lines the poet describes that she is now buried under the earth and as the earth completes its routine of day and night with the rocks, stones and trees’ so does the beloved of the poet now. She has become a part of the nature. The poet concludes with her afterlife.

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�SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS�

1. What had sealed the poet’s spirit?
2. What slumber is the poet talking about?
3. What could she not feel now?
4. What is meant by ‘human fears’?
5. Why can’t she hear or see?
6. What is meant by ‘earth’s diurnal course’?
7. What change, according to the poet has come in her?
8. Do you think the poet is sad or in relief?

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ANSWERS�

1. The death of his beloved.
2. Deep sleep/death.
3. She could not feel any effect of time now.
4. It means the common worries and fears of humans.
5. Because she is dead now.
6. It is the daily rotation of the earth.
7. She is buried and becomes a part of nature.
8. The poet is in grief. He is sad.

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HOME WORK

• Write down the theme of the poem ‘A Slumber Did my Spirit Seal’