Download Free Audio of LINES 105-113 Therefore am I still A lover o... - Woord

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LINES 105-113 Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows and the woods And mountains; and of all that we behold From this green earth; of all the mighty world Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create, And what perceive; well pleased to recognise In nature and the language of the sense The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being. Having gained this insight and this vision into a fundamental kind of connectedness in the world and universe, the speaker concludes he loves all parts of the natural world that human beings can "behold" from anywhere on "this green earth." He loves meadows, woods, the mountains—all of it! The use of polysyndeton to connect the images (“the meadows” and “the woods” and “mountains” and “all that we behold / From this green earth”) aligns these aspects of the natural world, and the speaker’s immediate setting, with the grander vision of the “setting suns, / And the round ocean and the living air, / And the blue sky.” Implicitly, the speaker says, these immediate aspects of his surroundings, and of this landscape, are connected to the rest of the world by the presence he just described, that “interfuse[s]” them or connects them; this connection is registered in the conjunction “and.” Similarly, the speaker sustains his use of the word “all” here, suggesting that even when he doesn’t inhabit the state that allows him more elevated or transcendent insight, he loves the “all” of the natural world because of the greater “all” that it contains and implies—the infiniteness of nature and the universe. The speaker doesn't just love every part of nature; he also loves the human senses of sight and hearing, as well as their capacity to both observe and “half create.” This is a strange phrase; how can you "half create" something? Perhaps the speaker is saying that he loves being able to perceive—to look at the world—through his eyes, and also recognizes that as an individual, he has a hand in creating, in interpreting, everything he takes in through his eyes and ears. This emphasizes his connection to the natural world, that he, too, is part of this big web of interconnection. The speaker closes this stanza by praising both nature and “the language of the sense,” or human senses. He does so in some interesting ways: • First, the speaker uses a metaphor, saying that nature and the senses are an “anchor” or grounding and foundation for his “purest thoughts." • He then goes on to personifywhat lives within nature and the senses as a “nurse,” “guide,” and “guardian” of his heart. In other words, nature and the senses, and the presence that lives within them, nourish and take care of his “heart,” lead him, and protect him. • Finally, he says that the natural world and the “language of the sense” are actually the “soul” of his “moral being.” This suggests that nature and the senses are in a way, his own soul, or that his soul is part of them. Most importantly, they are also said to be the “soul” of his “moral being,” or of his morality, which is often considered to be a uniquely human trait. The speaker’s anaphora of “the” here is notable, particularly as it follows from the repeated use of “and” in the lines before. “And” suggests plurality and multiplicity, even as, in this stanza, it implicitly links and connects all different pieces of the natural world and universe together. “The,” by contrast, suggests singularity and oneness. Nature and the human senses, the speaker suggests, which are one and the same within the interconnecting spirit or presence he has witnessed, are singular in their power to nurture, protect, and lead him. What he seems to be saying, then, is that what is truly the guide or guardian of his heart is this unifying power, this underlying presence that makes all living things possible and “rolls through all things.”