Lines left upon a seat in a yew tree

Since revising and reading some coments on these boards I have come to the conclusion that I have mis-interrpreted this poem. I thought it was about a man who rejected society and went to live with nature but he is still not happy. Is this right or have I got the compleate wrong idea? :confused:

Reply 1

lottie123

7

That is pretty much how I interpreted it too! The Romantics use him as an example of someone who does't use their imagination to its full extent...even though he is surrounded by nature, which should prove to be a comfort to him (it should 'lull thy mind'), the fact he is so self obsessed and nourishes a 'morbid pleasure' rather than appreciating his surroundings means he is still not happy. The poem is structured in two halves; the first half tells the man's story while the second half tells the moral of the story.Wordsworth says 'pride is littleness' and instructs us 'O be wiser thou! Instructed that true knowledge leads to love' i.e. by using nature for it's correct purposes, appreciating it with your imgination and learning from it, you will become a good person. The power of imagination is expressed as it is described as a 'holy form'

Reply 2

Rogue Hawkins

OP

Thank you so much, because I did not understand all the oxymorons you dont know how much you just helped me! :smile:

Reply 3

markdr

2

I was in the same boat as you - I had to make a presentation about it a few months ago and struggled with it, and found there was literally nothing about it on the web.

Well I thought it made enough sense until my teacher kept saying the man was actually God or Mother Nature or something like that. The first four lines of the second stanza go along that but after that, not really. I'm going along with lottie123's explanation. :p:

Reply 4

spikethebeast

Sorry for my obsenesly late reply but I am just about to do an exam on the lyrical ballads in about 4 weeks time. So my explaination is the following:

I feel that the persona empathises with him greatly. A man of nature who was 'pure in his heart, against the taint of dissolute tongues' shows how easily this man is corrupted by the industrialied world. This is a common train in the Romantics, and can be seen in Coleridge's 'foster mothers tale' where the boy of nature rejects the workings of the modern worlds and enevitably returns to nature. But as a result of the corruption he is driven further into himself. But, once again as common in 'lines tintern abbey' the narrator suggests nature as a healing force and that is why the man breaks into tears. As someone mentioned before, this is a poem of 2 halves. The 2nd half is more baesed around a moral. To summarise ths moral, he is suggesting that one should embrace nature as its a great healing force.

As you can see this peom is typical of the Romantic era as it embraces themes of 'lost innocence', the industrialised world and mostly obviously nature. Also looking at the form its typical of a poem from the Lyrical ballads with its folk tale nature and the scientific presicness off the subtitle and footnotes.

I mean wow 2 years later from the last reply. I hope this is use to any people studying the Romantics out there!

Brian

Reply 5

Holliemoore

spikethebeast

Sorry for my obsenesly late reply but I am just about to do an exam on the lyrical ballads in about 4 weeks time. So my explaination is the following:

I feel that the persona empathises with him greatly. A man of nature who was 'pure in his heart, against the taint of dissolute tongues' shows how easily this man is corrupted by the industrialied world. This is a common train in the Romantics, and can be seen in Coleridge's 'foster mothers tale' where the boy of nature rejects the workings of the modern worlds and enevitably returns to nature. But as a result of the corruption he is driven further into himself. But, once again as common in 'lines tintern abbey' the narrator suggests nature as a healing force and that is why the man breaks into tears. As someone mentioned before, this is a poem of 2 halves. The 2nd half is more baesed around a moral. To summarise ths moral, he is suggesting that one should embrace nature as its a great healing force.

As you can see this peom is typical of the Romantic era as it embraces themes of 'lost innocence', the industrialised world and mostly obviously nature. Also looking at the form its typical of a poem from the Lyrical ballads with its folk tale nature and the scientific presicness off the subtitle and footnotes.

I mean wow 2 years later from the last reply. I hope this is use to any people studying the Romantics out there!

Brian

Thankyou.Do you have any more notes onthis poem as I never got my annotations finished and know very little about it. I find it very hard to understand. !! X

Reply 6

TheCheeseMonkey

4

My interpretation was, man doesn't like society so he decides to recluse into nature, however he stays TOO isolated and dies alone - WW is warning people not too go far with the whole idea of solitude and going back to nature, some human interaction is still necessary, basicly, he's encouraging people to find a balance (which the man in the poem failed to do).

Heres what I have as a summary of the poem from my notes...

"Describes a man who rests by a yew tree, he was ‘pure in his heart’ when he was younger, but society corrupted his innocence. He therefore decided to retreat into nature ‘sustained his soul in solitude’ and became overwhelmed with the beauty of nature ‘the beauty still more beauteous’. However he was sad that he would not be able to experience relationships with other humans ‘he would sigh with mournful joy, to think that others felt what he must never feel’ (and that others had not had the same experience with nature as him). He grows sadder ‘his eye streamed with tears’ and then eventually dies alone, ‘this seat his only monument’. The last stanza adopts a preaching/warning tone about the story and advises the reader to seek balance between nature and human relations ‘O, be wiser thou!’. The hermit was particularly unhappy with the human emotions of ‘jealousy, and hate’ which was why he retreated into nature. "

Reply 7

Holliemoore

Anyone know any gd revision sites for Lyrical Ballads or Winters Tale?

Lines left upon a seat in a yew tree

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