William Wordsworth’s poem “The Idiot Boy” is perhaps atypical of much of Wordsworth’s other works in that it tells a story in which the author is himself not a character. Many of Wordsworth’s poems seem to involve him either coming upon a person or place, or explicitly remembering doing so. Here, if this poem is a memory, it is not announced as such.
The regular rhyme scheme — A-B-C-C-B — gives the poem a nursery-rhyme quality. In many places, the style seems to overpower the content: stanza 47 seems constructed solely to showcase the rhyme it contains: “Perhaps he’s climbed into an oak / Where he will stay till he is dead” (ll. 233-234) is not really a worrisome fate, but it rhymes neatly with the last two lines of the stanza.
Several things, major and minor, about this poem may strike the reader as atypical of Wordsworth’s work. The very first stanza of the poem gives us only the general setting: “‘Tis eight o’clock, — a clear March night, / The moon is up — the sky is blue […]” (ll. 1-2). Wordsworth’s poems frequently begin on a more general scale, and narrow in for a few stanzas on a very specific location. Here we are given a sketchy background and left at that.
The next four stanzas speak directly to Betty Foy, a woman who for unknown purpose is putting her idiot son on a horse, making him ready to ride into the night. The narrator is apparently ignorant of the reason for this moonlight ride, but is still disapproving, telling Betty to “put him down again” (l. 18) and saying “There’s not a mother, no not one, / But when she hears what you have done, / Oh! Betty she’ll be in a fright,” (ll. 24-26).
In the sixth stanza we learn the reason for this trip, and the poem is almos…
… middle of paper …
… as it is, but alters his vision to fit his mind.
The fact that Johnny had to be parted from his mother to acquire his insight is significant too. Wordsworth’s parents died, leaving him, and that one of his major recurring themes is the attempt to return to that childhood innocence of when they were alive. Seen in this light, the fact that Johnny is an idiot, an over-grown child, becomes more than just a detail of plot. Wordsworth allows himself a happy ending in this poem: after complaining to the Muses that he has been their slave for fourteen years, he has mother and son re-united. Johnny’s “glory” (l. 462) is that he can retain the uniqueness of his viewpoint and observations, and not sacrifice that state of childhood innocence.
Work Cited
Stephen Gill, editor. The Oxford Authors: William Wordsworth, pp. 67-80. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Gilgamesh and the Quest for Immortality
Gilgamesh and the Quest for Immortality
The stories of the hunt for immortality gathered in the Epic of Gilgamesh depict the conflict felt in ancient Sumer. As urbanization swept Mesopotamia, the social status shifted from a nomadic hunting society to that of a static agricultural gathering society. In the midst of this ancient “renaissance”, man found his relationship with the sacred uncertain and precarious. The Epic portrays the strife created between ontological nostalgia for a simpler time and the dawn of civilization breaking in the Near East. In this Epic, Gilgamesh is seen trying to achieve immortality through the methods of both the old and the new. His journeys through the sacred and the profane in many ways characterize the confusion arising from the unstable social climate. Therefore, the society, by writing the story of Gilgamesh, guarantees not only his immortality, but the immortality of the new order being established.
The beginning of the Epic finds Gilgamesh hunting immortality through the ways of old. He is trying to achieve everlasting life through the fertility of young virgins promised to another. This action by Gilgamesh caused the people of Uruk to call for the gods to restore the order which the traveler from abroad had destroyed (pg.62). From the sacred order of the goddess Aruru’s mind Enkidu emerges from the profane wilderness (pg. 63). It is told that a trapper came “face to face” with the chaotic ways of Enkidu and was “frozen with fear”. It is only through the love of one woman that order is brought to the life of Enkidu. He is then declared wise enough to challenge Gilgamesh and restore the order to “strong walled Uruk” (pg.65). So, when Gilgamesh is headed to the bridal bed to partake…
… middle of paper …
…
It is worth noting that in the last chapter, after the fate of death has hunted and killed Gilgamesh, the inhabitants themselves offer up to the gods the sustenance of life for Gilgamesh. Therefore, it is through the praise of the citizens that he is declared immortal (pg.119).
More importantly, the society insures its continued success by showing that indeed civilization had been sanctioned by the gods. This depiction, however slight, would allow the new order leverage in achieving its goals. By representing to its people that the only way to keep order, slay the profane, and gain immortality is through the tools of society, the dawn of civilization secured the support it needed to grant everlasting life to the new world order. Indeed, it is through these very tools laid down by the ancient Sumerians that they and Gilgamesh still live to this day.