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              MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I BEHOLD

This nature poem, remarkable for its simplicity and brevity, has been called the keynote of all Wordsworth’s poetry. It expresses in nine lines the influence Nature exerts upon him. The rainbow is a symbol. In the last line “natural piety” means reverence or affection for Nature.

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Post-reading activities:
- Sum up the idea of the poem in a single sentence.
- Is this a nature poem? Notice that there is no description of the rainbow. Why?
- One line in this poem is often quoted. If you have never heard it, select the line you think most quotable.

By George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron:

2)                                  She walks in Beauty...
The poem was written to be set to music, and was included with others in a collection called “Hebrew Melodies”. Inspired by a glimpse of Lady Wilmot Horton, wife of Byron’s cousin, it is one of the most polished lyrics Byron ever wrote. The stanzas were composed on the poet’s return from a ball, where Lady Horton had appeared “in mourning with numerous spangles on her dress”.

She walks in Beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes.
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Of softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow
So soft, so crem, yet eloquent
The smiles that win, the tints that glow
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.

Post – reading activities:
- How does Byron describe the lady, her appearance. What parallels does he draw while portraying her?
- Compare Byron’s description of the lady with Shakespeare’s one in sonnet 130. What can be found in common? What is the difference? 
- What romantic features are observable in the poem? 
- What is the inner world of the lady? Is it in harmony with her external beauty?

3)                                 LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the Ocean
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion; 
Nothing in the world is single
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?—
See the mountains kiss high Heaven
 And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work with
If thou kiss not me?

Post – reading activities:
- The poem is purely romantic. Why?
- What is the key idea of the poem? What is Shelley’s love philosophy? Prove it from the text.
- Do you share Shelley’s position concerning human love as a sensation following the pattern in Nature? Give your grounds.