Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

1. THE HERMIT At the end of the first stanza, the speaker imagines that the smoke he sees rising from the trees could be from "some Hermit's cave, where by his fire / The Hermit sits alone." Hermits are, traditionally, religious people, who choose to live in isolation (often in remote places) in order to devote themselves more fully to their religious and spiritual practice. Here, the Hermit can be thought of as a broader symbol of spiritual life and of discarding the trappings of daily, mundane existence. By placing a Hermit within this scene, the speaker implicitly suggests that this natural setting, and the natural world in general, makes a more spiritual life possible. Where this symbol appears in the poem: Lines 21-22: “Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire / The Hermit sits alone.” 2. THE MANSION The poem introduces another symbol when referring the speaker's sister’s mind as a “mansion.” While this is a metaphor (her mind is compared to a spacious and beautiful physical place), it is also highly symbolic, since mansions are, of course, symbols of wealth and privilege. This symbol thus works to align some other terms of the poem—in which particular kinds of human thought are described as “lofty” and “elevated”—with an image of literal higher social status and standing. This symbol also stands in for domestic interiors that are refined; it suggests that the sister will likewise be “properly” (according to norms of gender and class) domestic. Where this symbol appears in the poem: Lines 142-143: “when thy mind / Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,”