by Marianne Porter

Created on: March 03, 2008

Does William Wordsworth really use language all men can understand? In explanations of his writing, Wordsworth claims that he does not use many complex poetic conventions, for example metaphors, similes and the like, and that he writes in the kind of language that all men can understand. In 'The Convict', he does not use many traditional poetic conventions, but this poem does contain themes created by diction, and it also plays with syntax to achieve effects in the way that most poetry does.

The simple title makes it quite clear what the poem will be about, so the opening stanza is intriguing and encourages the reader to continue in order to discover how this description of a beautiful sunset could possibly have anything to do with a convicted man. The opening stanza begins with a vivid description of the countryside. The first words used the glory' give an immediate sense of the magnificence of the scene, which is echoed by the third and fourth lines. In the second line, the structure of the sentence is reversed and the object comes first. This is significant because placing the object at the beginning of the sentence emphasizes it, implying that the mountain (a natural object) is more important than the person standing on it. Wordsworth firmly believed in the importance of appreciating the natural world.

After the first stanza, the theme of nature returns in the seventh stanza, this time through more sinister expressions blood-reeking field' (line 25) and the word yield' on line 27 brings to mind crops. At the end of the poem, the final line of the final stanza has a dramatic effect. Here, man is compared with nature, the plant becomes a symbol of hope and we are reminded of the splendour of the first stanza. The poem is no longer merely the depressing story of a man condemned, but contains compassion and beauty, God, forgiveness and hope, which are all brought together within the metaphor of nature in the final line. Nature has become the essence of the poem, and Wordsworth has built up such a tragic image in our minds, that the dramatic ending is even more powerful. The compassionate aspect of man's nature is also portrayed using the natural world, because the final words are speech within the poem. The metaphor belongs to a compassionate man who has not come to smugly compare their situations, but is there as a brother thy sorrows to share.' All that is good in this poem is either natural or refers to nature. Wordsworth claims in his prologue to the lyrical

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