After reading an excerpt from Dorothy Woodsworth’s “Grasmere Journal, 15 April 1802” and William Woodsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, it is clear that they had varying perspectives of the same experience. As a reader experiencing Dorothy’s story, I had a sense of worry at the beginning followed by feeling hopeful, then feeling relieved at the end when everything resolves and turns out to be fine. In the beginning, our sense of worry builds up along with the suspense of the situation; for example, she writes, “It was a threatening misty morning… The wind was furious”. Towards the middle, the daffodils represent hope and even her language in describing the setting is more positive, using words such as “fancied” and “beautiful”. At the end of the story, Dorothy writes, “We had a glass of warm rum and water. We enjoyed ourselves and wished for Mary”; while it is apparent that their situation has not fully resolved, we get a sense of conclusion and hope that they will be okay. While Dorothy told the story as an overall positive, hopeful and resolving experience, William Woodsworth had a differing perspective. William’s poem not only shows themes of isolation and envy but also content. Starting with the line “I wandered lonely as a cloud” describes his loneliness in comparison to the others. “For oft, when on my couch I lie… And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils”, William writes. What started out as a lonely and somewhat envying experience, ends in a feeling of happiness for others which makes himself content.
Prose and poetry are two ways of expressing feelings or telling stories; while both may convey the same message, I personally am more drawn to prose. Prose and poetry have the potential to represent our experiences the same, however, oftentimes, prose shows more detail to the story than poetry and poetry expresses more emotion than prose. For example, Dorothy’s prose told more of the story than the feeling although we made our own assumptions of her feelings based on what we are told. William’s version in poetry conveys more of the emotion that he felt during the situation rather than the actual events of the story. I like to imagine and wonder the thoughts and feelings of the person in the story so I tend to enjoy prose more than poetry. However, the beauty of poetry is telling the gist of a story while spilling all of the emotions that came with it. I think I will be able to fully appreciate this beauty of poetry when I am exposed and introduced to more poetry rather than always choosing prose over poetry.
