Elegiac Stanzas

Sea – Ship – drowned – Shipwreck – so it came,
The meek, the brave, the good, was gone:
He who had been our living John
Was nothing but a name. – William Wordsworth

In this quote from Wordsworth the reader is once again reminded of the message in the Lucy poems that nature is capable of taking life much like a god. However the tone of Elegiac Stanzas differs from that in the Lucy poems, and I would venture to guess it is because this poem actually expresses the genuine despair Wordsworth feels over having lost his brother. The poem begins with a appreciative praise of a castle by the sea, which he is observing in a painting is being hit by a storm. He initially points out that this castle is on a "glassy sea" (4). Though it is a storm, Wordsworth's initial reaction to the sea has far more to do with its general appearance than its appearance in the observed storm. However, as his description of the sea escalates, the reader senses a connection between the way that Wordsworth feels about the sea and the way Wordsworth is feeling about his brother. As he talks about wishing he had "the Painter's hand" (13), so that he could create a painting in which the sea "could not cease to smile" (19), the reader begins to sense a shift in Wordsworth's tone from being from the perspective of a simple art viewer, to someone who is more invested in this picture. It is also important to note that the description begins to shift away from the castle to almost an obsessive discussion about the sea. It then becomes clear the Wordsworth has a deeper emotional attachment to this topic when he wishes for "Nature's breathing life" (28), and then instantly begins the next stanza referring to how these desires for a friendly sea are not real, but that they are merely a "fond illusion" of his "heart" (29). It is then that the footnote introduces the reader to Captain John Wordsworth, William's brother who was lost at sea in a shipwreck.

The poem's description of the sea begins to shift at a far more rapid pace from Wordsworth's idealized sea, a calm and inviting body of water into a "sea in anger" (44). The reader can feel Wordsworth's emotion coming out of this poem, and he trusts the reader enough to make himself very vulnerable, admitting that he is experiencing a "deep distress" that has "humanised" his "soul" (36). This line references his quote that I began my post with where he refers to his brother John as now being "nothing but a name." I read the "power" that Wordsworth believes to be gone is the power that comes from the special bond between brothers. Now that his brother is gone "nothing can restore" (35) this feeling of companionship that two brothers have, and therefore, the power that he feels dies along with his brother. His feeling of being humanized directly relates to this loss of power, because he not only has encountered the fleeting nature in life, personally experiencing someone close to him dying, but he also feels the way that his brother's death is in a sense the death of a piece of himself. There is a certain immortality that all people feel, and those who make us feel loved and appreciate us strengthen this feeling because they help to build us up as not just human beings but as ideals. Having lost his brother, Wordsworth no longer has that person to speak to the ideal that is William Wordsworth, and what is left behind is the flawed and very real person that Wordsworth truly is. However, though the tone of this poem is incredibly sad and heavy, it ends on what I read to be a very positive note. As he concludes the poem with the thought that "not without hope we suffer and mourn" (60), I read this to mean not that we suffer and mourn which crushes our hope. Instead I think Wordsworth is saying that despite his suffering and despite the assumed suffering that all of his readers either have or inevitable will face, life is still filled with hope. I think this poem ultimately suggests, though this is making somewhat of a leap, that it is better to feel the agony of losing a loved one, but know what it is to love someone enough to mourn them, because such a strong connection to someone else gives you a power that you simply cannot achieve on your own.



The site below is where I found Wordsworth's quotation, and it also provides further reading about the shipwreck that took Captain John Wordsworth's life.

https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/john-wordsworth/