A Complaint (1807) Flashcards
Author
William Wordsworth
Story
1st person speaker recounts a last relationship that is now over
Themes
Loss
Change
Emotion
Tone
Nostalgic
Sad
Mournful
Form and structure
Cyclic-opens and closes with a focus on change “there is such change” “such change”
Past and present- contrast between past and present held evoke and sense of loss “blest I was then” “I am poor”
Language
Title and formal language “a complaint” and “business” shows that this relationship was more formal a friend ship more than romantic
Extended metaphor of water-starts as “a fountain” and becomes a “hidden well” showing the reduction and death of a friendship. Wordsworth cannot life without water “murmuring sparkling living love”
Context
Wordsworth has recently fallen out with one of his very good friends and collaborates, Taylor Coleridge
How is the lady in the poem connected to lord Byron
Lord Byron saw her good looks at a fashionable party in London
“ I am poor” meaning
“I am poor” is written at the end of the first line this demonstrates that he doesn’t have much money and doesn’t have much emotion This also means that he has had stuff and had lost it there is also a personal pronoun
“ a well of love- it may be deep”
This means that he is stuttering as he is nervous and there is caesura this is also at the beginning of the last stanza
“What have I? Shall I dare to tell?”
This shows that he thinks that it is unrequited love he is also questioning himself these are also rhetorical questions
‘There is a change and I am poor’
Which suggests there is a loss of something or someone
‘A well of love-it may be deep’
Metaphor indicating deep love
‘Murmuring sparkling living’
Present participle which makes the reader feel as if the love was alive
Rhyme scheme
AB CC
which shows that there are many changes and not a lot of stability
