My principal analysis of the Wordsworth poem beginning "A slumber did my spirit seal" resulted in what may appear to be a rather unconventional conclusion. To understand this, it may be helpful to know that I read the poem as if it were a riddle - the unspoken line following the initial eight being "What is I/she?" I read it to be a change in poetic voice, rather than a change in subject. This contributes to why I felt that the "answer to the riddle" was "a volcano". A volcano may sleep (be dormant), it fears no human, it cannot feel the years, a dormant volcano has no motion or force, cannot see or hear, and is inevitably in contact with rocks, stones, and trees as it spins on Earth's axis.

After hearing the other analyses from the rest of the class, I can see how the more common conclusion at which to arrive involves a woman and/or death, possibly her death, even. With the voice specifically saying “she/her” it is logical to make the assumption that the subject is a woman. I, on the other hand, have often associated a feminine subject surrounded by nature or the great outdoors with Mother Nature, or Mother Earth. Therefore, I am much more inclined to view any “she/her” as a reference to something belonging to nature. Again, this contributed to my “volcano” theory. Originally, I had thought mountains or a mountain range, but the way that the poem was written implied that at one point the subject was active, which immediately steered my train of thought towards an object similar to a mountain, yet has active characteristics. You can see where this is going. Obviously, after hearing the context of the poem and learning of Wordsworth’s Lucy poems and naturalistic perspective on life, death, women, and love, I can understand a very different interpretation of the poem. Frankly, I still like my interpretation better, because it could also be taken as a metaphor for another being… say… perhaps… a woman, since nature is generally perceived as feminine.

When I close my eyes and think about this poem, it makes me actually feel tired. Like physically sleepy…. I want my bed!! I think that is a very powerful attribute for a piece of literature to be able to elicit that level of emotion – even physical reaction – from a reader. I have a lot of respect for any author with the capacity to create a work of art so fundamentally influential that it withstands hundreds of different analyses over many years and continues to be able to touch each new reader on a personal level. Even though the vocabulary may be slightly curious due to a disparity in time between the author and the audience (diurnal isn’t exactly a common word these days), it remains effective and communicative without requiring that the reader be well-versed in the linguistics of the specific time period to which the work of literature (in this case the poem) belongs.