A slumber did my spirit seal
The meaning of a text is not in the text itself but is created through interaction with the reader. Without someone to read it, a text is meaningless. Dependent on who reads it, different meanings can surface from the same text. The reader is strongly influenced by his former cultural and literary experiences which shape the ongoing reading process. There exists no universally true meaning William Wordsworth`s "A slumber did my spirit seal" consists of two stanzas rhyming abab. As soon as the reader recognizes that he is dealing with a poem certain expectations arise. He anticipates to be confronted with a special poetical language corresponding to the conventions of poetry. The reader is alert; he is now looking eagerly for those poetical devices. Fortunately his expectations are already confirmed in the first line of the poem. "Slumber" (1) is not used in everyday language and in the dictionary it is acknowledged as an old fashioned literary term. The syntax deviates from the standard as well; the poet uses "did seal" instead of "sealed" which would be the grammatical correct past tense used nowadays. The reader feels at ease because his expectations have been confirmed. But the reading experience has only just begun
The reader is given no time to mourn the death of Lucy. The speaker has "no human fears" (2) and his beloved one does not "feel the touch of earthly years" (4). Does their love set them apart from normal people and make them immortal? This is a very romantic idea and the reader could feel happy. The reader feels deeply affected by the death of Lucy. The informed reader knows that "A slumber did my spirit seal" belongs to Wordsworth`s Lucy Poems and that the "she" (3) in the poem stands for Lucy, who is the lover of the speaker. The dead body is imprisoned into the earth's motion and has lost all possibilities to break free from this daily routine. "Diurnal" is a technical term from astronomy and not expected to find in a poem. The reader guesses it could be likely that the speaker intentionally refers to Lucy as a "thing" in order to detach himself from his emotions and make the memory of her less painful. Nevertheless it still lingers in his mind that the speaker spoke earlier in the poem of his lover as a "thing"(3). At the end the terrible finality of death is softened. Suddenly a "she" (3) is mentioned in the poem. Fortunately the reader gains new hope when reading the very end of the second stanza.
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Acceptance Essays
