The woodspurge Analysis
‘The Woodspurge’ is a short 16 line poem (Four Stanzas) written by Dante Rosetti in 1856 at the age of 28. After analyzing the poem and reading it a multiple of times, I started to notice the true meaning behind the poem and its message to the readers.
The author describes in the first stanza about how he is at the call of the winds ‘will’ and how it was still; this shows that the narrator’s is blank, in a closed state of mind and he has found inner peace. In the lines ‘I had walk’d on at the winds will; I sat down, for the wind was still.’
In the second stanza, the author starts describing the characters physical position and it makes the reader imagine how the character would look like. It describes that the character is sitting down, his forehead between his knees, and staring at the weeds below him with his naked ears. This is describes in the lines ‘Between my knees my forehead was; my lips, drawn in, said not alas! ; My hair was over in the grass; my naked ears heard the day pass.’
In the third stanza, Rosetti is describing and highlighting on the size on the weeds and the character is looking at. During this, you can tell that the character is overthinking on his life struggles. This is described in the lines ‘My eyes wide open, had the run; of some ten weeds to fix upon.’
In the fourth stanza, the character ‘saw’ the Woodspurge which is a green plant with ‘three cups in one’ then he snaps back to reality.
This poem unique style of writing and usage of rhythm, word choice and imagination is very simple but expresses powerful and passionate meaning and emotion but it’s very hard to identify. This is shown in ‘the wind flapped loose, the wind was still; Shaken out the dead from tree and hill; I had walked on at the wind’s will; I sat now, for the wind was still.’
The rhyme in the poem was very consistent throughout the whole poem.
In the first stanza, the words “still” and “wind” were repeated various times but what was noticed is that there is
The author describes in the first stanza about how he is at the call of the winds ‘will’ and how it was still; this shows that the narrator’s is blank, in a closed state of mind and he has found inner peace. In the lines ‘I had walk’d on at the winds will; I sat down, for the wind was still.’
In the second stanza, the author starts describing the characters physical position and it makes the reader imagine how the character would look like. It describes that the character is sitting down, his forehead between his knees, and staring at the weeds below him with his naked ears. This is describes in the lines ‘Between my knees my forehead was; my lips, drawn in, said not alas! ; My hair was over in the grass; my naked ears heard the day pass.’
In the third stanza, Rosetti is describing and highlighting on the size on the weeds and the character is looking at. During this, you can tell that the character is overthinking on his life struggles. This is described in the lines ‘My eyes wide open, had the run; of some ten weeds to fix upon.’
In the fourth stanza, the character ‘saw’ the Woodspurge which is a green plant with ‘three cups in one’ then he snaps back to reality.
This poem unique style of writing and usage of rhythm, word choice and imagination is very simple but expresses powerful and passionate meaning and emotion but it’s very hard to identify. This is shown in ‘the wind flapped loose, the wind was still; Shaken out the dead from tree and hill; I had walked on at the wind’s will; I sat now, for the wind was still.’
The rhyme in the poem was very consistent throughout the whole poem.
In the first stanza, the words “still” and “wind” were repeated various times but what was noticed is that there is