Please read Wordsworth's "Strange fits of passion I have known" and answer the following question: How is death suggested by movement in the poem?
Hint: the answer is somewhere in this article: http://everybookandcranny.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/poetry-peeks-wordsworth-part-ii-the-lucy-poems/
Remember to write a literary paragraph (100-150 words) with a topic sentence including the title and author, reasons, evidence supporting those reasons, and explanations explaining why those examples prove your topic sentence.
BONUS QUESTION: Read all of the Lucy poems found here and then describe the character of Lucy.
In Strange Fits of Passion I have Known, the author, William Wordsworth, manipulates the movement of the narrator’s journey to see Lucy and the descent of the moon to be figurative representations of the gradual coming of Lucy’s death. The position of narrator on the path to Lucy’s house represents the time left in Lucy’s life and the position of the moon in the sky represents Lucy’s health. In the second stanza, the imagery of the narrator on the path to Lucy’s house under the young evening moon shows that Lucy is in good health. The narrator’s reaction to the Lucy’s deteriorating health, which is represented by the dropping moon in stanza 3, causes him to quicken his pace, representing the decreasing time of Lucy’s life. The descending moon at Lucy’s cot in stanza 4 and the slow progressing steps of the narrator’s horse as he comes to Lucy’s home in stanza six give the imagery of suspended time of the Lucy’s last breaths. Then the moon completely descends and disappears from the sky, signaling the end of Lucy’s life. The two imageries of the moon’s descension and the narrator’s position on the path of time evokes the feeling of fear from the reader on how death takes on Lucy’s life from emerging health to sudden illness and to death.
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