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Dive deep into Katherine Mansfield's Bliss with extended analysis, commentary, and discussion
Jun 8, 2022 · The stories in Bliss share a number of common themes, exploring the nature of human personality and sexuality, alienation, loneliness, and malaise. The collection is characterized by a bitter sense of irony; a hard, clean style; and a Chekhovian psychological realism.
‘Bliss’ (which can be read here) calls to mind the phrase ‘ignorance is bliss’, and this is the question which lurks behind Mansfield’s story. Is it sometimes best to remain in the dark?
- Summary
- Meaning
- Structure and Form
- Figurative Language and Poetic Devices
- Detailed Analysis
- Themes
- Symbolism
- Tone and Mood
- Historical Context
- About William Wordsworth
‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud‘ by William Wordsworth(Bio | Poems)describes how a host of golden daffodils dancing in the breeze of the Lake District mesmerized his heart. The speaker, likely William Wordsworth(Bio | Poems)himself, is wandering down the hills and valley when he stumbled upon a beautiful field of daffodils. The speaker is transfixed ...
Though the poem’s title hints at a cloud, it is not about it. Instead, it is about a group of golden daffodils dancing beside the lake and beneath the trees. Wordsworth’s poetic persona, at some point, visited that spot, and he is describing how he felt having the sight of those beautiful flowers. The poet metaphoricallycompares him to a cloud for ...
The poemis composed of four stanzas of six lines each. It is an adherent to the quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme, A-B-A-B-C-C. Every line conforms to iambic tetrameter. The poem ‘Daffodils’ works within the a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme scheme as it uses consistent rhyming to invoke nature at each stanza’s end. Moreover, it helps in creating imagery skillfully as...
Wordsworth makes use of several literary devices in ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.’ These include but are not limited to similes, hyperboles, personification, and allusion. Similes are also used since the poet alludes to an aimless cloud as he takes a casual stroll. Moreover, daffodils are compared to star clusters in Milky Way to explicate the mag...
Stanza One
In the first stanza of ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,’ Wordsworth explains his one-day occasional aimless wandering. The term “wandered” means walking free of their own accord. The poet is referring to himself as the “cloud” in a metaphoricalsense of the word. Although the clouds mostly travel in groups, this cloud prefers singular hovering. However, he clearly mentions his passing through valleys and hills on a routine walk, simplifying the narrative. The poet comes across a bunch of daffodi...
Stanza Two
The above allegoryis a clear and direct referral to our native galaxy Milky Way. The space continuum holds great mystery for our Romantic Era poet as he envisions the daffodils to be in a constant state of wonder, as are the stars beyond the reach of humans. The poet makes an allusion to the Milky Way, our galaxy filled with its own planetary solar systems stretched beyond infinity. The lake supposedly has a large area since the daffodils are dispersed along the shoreline. Along the Milky Way...
Stanza Three
The speaker liked the “sprightly dance” of the daffodils so much that he, in the third stanza, says that the sparkling waves of a lake beside cannot match their beauty. The waves are sparkling due to the sunlight. This image is contrasted with the dance of daffodils. Besides, the speaker imagines the tossing of their heads to a wave. So, the contrastpresents the resemblance of the lake’s water to the daffodils. Witnessing the scene, the romantic poet became so gay that he was not able to move...
Throughout ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,’ Wordsworth engages with themes of nature, memory, and spirituality. These three are tied together as the speaker, Wordsworth himself, moves through a beautiful landscape. He takes pleasure in the sight of the daffodils and revives his spirit in nature. At the same time, Wordsworth explores the theme of mem...
The poem begins with a symbolic reference to the cloud. It is wandering and lonely. The poetic persona is the embodiment of such a cloud. Hence, it symbolizesbeing lonely and thoughtless. This state is achieved when one is free from mundane thoughts. The most important symbol of this piece is the daffodils. The narcissistic description of the flowe...
The tone of this poem, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, is emotive, hyperbolic, expressive, and thoughtful. In the first stanza, the speaker’s tone helps readers understand how he felt after seeing the daffodils on a specific event. As the poem progresses, Wordsworth intensifies it. Thus it appears hyperbolic. In the last stanza, he chooses a though...
Hailed as the champion of the Romantic Movement in the early 19th century, William Wordsworth(Bio | Poems)dwelled in the scenic Lake District (United Kingdom), far from the madding crowd. Its roots can be traced back to Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, in which she reminisces a casual stroll with his brother in 1802, where they came across beautiful d...
William Wordsworth(Bio | Poems) (1770-1850) wrote beautiful poetry filled with sweet imagery, usually based around the natural world. Often Wordsworth’s poems contained slight somber undertones, as is the case in this poem, as we will explore shortly. This is possible due to the conflictIn Wordsworth’s life and his battle with depression. Some scho...
‘Bliss’, like much modernist fiction, is marked by its use of ambiguous symbolism: symbols whose meanings appear multifaceted and hard to pin down. And central to the story is the symbol of the pear-tree, which recurs at numerous points throughout ‘Bliss’.
A metaphor is used to describe an object, person, situation, or action in a way that helps a reader understand it, without using “like” or “as”. E.g. E.g. "Her eyes were suns smiling down at me when I woke up" contains a metaphor of the 'eyes' metaphorized as 'suns.'
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However, this is only a metaphor. This suggests that, although things seem to be undergoing a transformation, nothing has really changed, and the enchantment is illusory. Bertha believes that she can correctly interpret Pearl’s actions and takes Pearl’s question about the garden as a “sign” that Pearl wishes to be alone with Bertha.
