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William WordsworthA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The poem is written in iambic tetrameter. An iamb, the most common poetic foot in English poetry, consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Tetrameter is a line of poetry comprising four feet (“tetra” means “four”). Thus, “My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky: / So was it when my life began” (Lines 1-3).
Instead of the more familiar iambic pentameter used by Shakespeare and thus made iconic (“pentameter” because “penta” means “five”), Wordsworth chose to use shorter lines suitable for this pithy and simple lyric.
The only exception to the poem’s rigid structure is Line 6, “Or let me die!” which is an iambic dimeter (two poetic feet). This shorter line stands out against the others, adding emphasis to the vehemence of the speaker’s desire for the continuance of his special connection to nature. (The exclamation mark adds another layer of emphasis as well.)
Although Wordsworth wrote much of his longer poetry during this period in blank (that is, unrhymed) verse, his shorter lyrics are all rhymed, as was the common practice of the day.
By William Wordsworth
A Complaint
A Complaint
William Wordsworth
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
William Wordsworth
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
William Wordsworth
Daffodils
Daffodils
William Wordsworth
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth
Tintern Abbey
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ...
William Wordsworth
London, 1802
London, 1802
William Wordsworth
Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
William Wordsworth
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
William Wordsworth
She Was a Phantom of Delight
She Was a Phantom of Delight
William Wordsworth
The Prelude
The Prelude
William Wordsworth
The Solitary Reaper
The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth
The World Is Too Much with Us
The World Is Too Much with Us
William Wordsworth
To the Skylark
To the Skylark
William Wordsworth
We Are Seven
We Are Seven
William Wordsworth