William Wordsworth: She was a Phantom of Delight

Outline

This poem is extremely beautiful because it is written for his wife. It evokes romance and passionate love and affection. This poem highlights the beauty of the woman. "her dusky hair" "phantom of delight". This poem was written in 1803 and published in 1807 and is about Wordsworth's wife, Mary, whom he had married the year before. Recalling the writing of the poem many years later Wordsworth said that 'it was written from my heart'.

Introduction

This beautiful poem, published in 1807 was written about William Wordsworth's wife Mary Hutchinson, whom he married in 1802. They were good friends and knew each other since their school days. The poem has ten lines in each of the three stanzas and each line has rhyming words at the end of it to give it a continuous rhythm throughout. (Mason, pp125-128)

In-Depth Analysis

In the first stanza Wordsworth starts by describing the woman as a "phantom of delight" which gives an almost unreal quality to her. The same description continues as he calls her a "lovely apparition" and he concludes the stanza by saying that she was sent to him to "haunt, startle and waylay". The words "haunt and startle" give her a ghostly quality while the word "waylay" describes the woman as someone who can distract with her loveliness. To him her eyes and hair are fair like the twilight giving her almost ethereal and ghostly quality and yet she has very real qualities like being cheerful, gay and being a "dancing shape". (Tewari, pp108-109)

In the second stanza he goes beyond the ethereal and the unreal and starts to see a "nearer view" of her. This means that he sees her in the role of a housewife as she goes about her household work. Even then her motions stay "light and free" indicating the softness and gentleness of her character. Now he is discovering other qualities about her which make her human, she can love as well as cry and she can praise as well as blame. She is a creature not too "bright or good" as he sees the simplicity and virginal qualities in her nature. The words used are now "sweet", "simple" and he has moved beyond the first image of her as being a phantom and an apparition too beautiful to be human to a more realistic person going about her daily routines.

The third stanza describes her as a machine, someone who can work, yet has a pulse. He now sees her as a perfect woman. She has been "nobly plann'd" and has qualities of strength in her for which he uses words like "endurance, foresight, strength and skill". Though she is not of a bad temperament she can be firm and though she can comfort she can also command. Each breath she takes is thoughtful and though he sees the strength of a woman in her the angel in her is still very evident. She is a "spirit" who has with her "angelic ...