Literary Analysis Of Wordsworth's 'Strange Fits Of Passion Have I Known'

Apart from literary characteristic, one can also determine a poem’s structural characteristics as well as the embedded meaning of each line. When reading Wordsworth’s poem, one would recognise that he uses simple language. Although Wordsworth wrote his poem in the 1700s, it is written in such style and language that today’s “common” man would be able to understand the poem when reading it. It is a seven stanza poem with four lines. In ‘Strange Fits Of Passion Have I Known’ the speaker uses a lot of passion and deep emotion to express what he is feeling. Although the strong theme of love comes through, one can also see how the speaker praises nature by describing a nature scene. Within the first four lines it is made clear to the reader that the speaker is experiencing “strange fits of passion” (Wordsworth, line 1) and he states that he will only share it “in the lover’s ear alone, what once to me befell” (line 4-5), since only lover’s like himself would understand.

In the second stanza, Wordsworth describes his beloved’s beauty as being “fresh as a rose in June” (line 6). This line can also be used to determine the time during which the speaker’s journey is taking place. It is in this stanza the speaker makes his way “to her cottage” (line 7), the cottage of his beloved, and throughout his journey he is experiencing thoughts “beneath the evening-moon” (line 8). The evening-moon is used to symbolise the speaker’s situation with the girl. The quicker the moon drops, the less