Let us first examine the way in which Wordsworth describes
the woman that he comes across on one of his walks. Let us remember that a bird which
was incredibly important to the Romantics was the nightingale, and Wordsworth
deliberately alludes to the nightingale in describing the voice of this woman
singing:
No
nightingale did ever chauntMore welcome notes to weary
bandsOf travellers in some shady
haunt,Among Arabian
sands.
Note how the voice of
the woman is superior to the song of the nightingale. It is clear that her voice is part
of the way that Wordsworth romanticises her, as he is able to discern what she is
singing. He suggests that it is perhaps "unhappy, far off things," but her song somehow
captures the essence of eternal "sorrow, loss or pain." Her song is sung as if it has
"no ending" and it has a profoundly emotional impact on Wordsworth, who carried the song
in his heart "Long after it was heard no more." Wordsworth thus romanticises her by
describing her song as if it captured eternal qualities regarding the suffering of
mankind.
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