Study Notes

This Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known summary covers one of William Wordsworth's Lucy poems. A lover rides by moonlight to the cottage of Lucy, the girl he loves. He keeps his eye on the sinking moon, and when it suddenly drops behind her roof, a strange thought seizes him: "If Lucy should be dead!" Read the full text of Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known on Poetry … [Read more...] about Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known Summary and Analysis

This Tables Turned summary covers William Wordsworth's famous call to put down your books and go outside. The speaker tells a friend to "quit your books," listen to the birds and "Let Nature be your Teacher," because "One impulse from a vernal wood" can teach more about good and evil than all the sages. Read the full text of The Tables Turned on Poetry Catalog. It answers an … [Read more...] about The Tables Turned Summary and Analysis

This Expostulation and Reply summary covers William Wordsworth's short poem from Lyrical Ballads (1798). A friend named Matthew scolds the poet, called William, for sitting alone on a stone all morning instead of reading books. William replies that the mind can learn simply by being open to Nature, in "a wise passiveness." Read the full text of Expostulation and Reply on Poetry … [Read more...] about Expostulation and Reply Summary and Analysis

This Ode to the West Wind summary begins with a powerful autumn storm. Percy Bysshe Shelley's speaker calls on the west wind, which drives dead leaves, clouds and ocean waves before it. The wind is both "Destroyer and preserver": it kills the old year but scatters the seeds of spring. Feeling weighed down and worn out, the speaker begs the wind to lift him and to spread his … [Read more...] about Ode to the West Wind Summary and Analysis

This Ozymandias summary begins with a traveler's story. In Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet, the speaker meets someone who has come from "an antique land." The traveler describes a ruined statue in the desert: two huge legs of stone and a broken face with a sneer of cold command. On the pedestal, the king boasts, "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" But nothing else … [Read more...] about Ozymandias Summary and Analysis