William Wordsworth begins his poem with a meditation on nature. The poet creates an image of harmony between the speaker and their surroundings. They are reclining among the trees where harmonious music (“blended notes”) is putting them in to a “sweet mood” as they think “pleasant thoughts.” However, the pleasant reverie gives way to “sad thoughts” at the end of stanza 1.
The speaker cannot shake the melancholy feeling that has come over them. Nature, they realize, has not only created the lovely surroundings, but human beings—such as the speaker—whose “human soul” broods over Nature’s intentions and how they connect with human achievements. The speaker feels a rift between Nature and humans, which they call “man,” thinking that people have not lived up to the gifts they received from Nature. As the speaker thinks of the messes that humans have inflicted on their world, they feel grief over those errors or misdeeds.
These gloomy contrasts continue in stanzas 3 and 4. The speaker delights in specific things occurring around them, such as the flowers enjoying the air and the birds’ “thrill” as they find pleasure in hopping around. Even the branches seem to be getting pleasure from waving in the air like fans. The speaker cannot shake the feeling, however, that man alone is not able to simply enjoy what Nature has planned for him and thus laments “what man has made of man.”
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