 So now that you have a detailed contextual understanding of lines written in early spring and what influenced William Wordsworth whilst he was writing this poem, let's now do a deep dive into how to do a line by line analysis of all six stanzas of this poem. So let's begin by going over lines written in early spring, which is part of AQA's World and Lives Anthology and of course it's written by William Wordsworth. Now bear in mind that this poem is written in six stanzas, however what I'm going to do in terms of analysis and discussing each line, I'll begin by walking you guys through the first three stanzas before I then talk about the subsequent final three stanzas. Now before I read through these first three stanzas let's quickly talk about some context as I've mentioned before but also why the title is significant. Now remember that contextually Wordsworth wrote this poem whilst he was sitting by a brook that ran from the comb which is where Alfred Village is through the grounds of Alphixton and he's a romantic poet inspired by nature. Now the word spring in the title of this poem is significant because it's a really powerful use of pathetic fallacy. Remember that Wordsworth uses this title to emphasise just how harmonious nature is and of course this is even emphasised further with the word spring but this title is ironic as you'll see later on because it uses nature's harmony to highlight mankind's disharmony. Now contextually as I've mentioned before this poem was written in 1798 when the French Revolution was raging and there were lots of atrocities that happened, a lot of violence, a lot of horrible things and structurally this poem is written in six stanzas which are quatrains okay so four lines in each stanza and there's six of those lines and what this is doing and what you can argue when you're mentioning structure is it emphasises the constant regeneration of nature. Remember also that this poem has an AB AB rhyme scheme. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to read through the first three stanzas. I heard a thousand blended notes while in a grove I say to reclined in that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts bring sad thoughts to the mind. To her fair works did nature link the human soul that through me ran and much it grieved my heart to think what man has made of man. Through primrose tufts in that green bower the periwinkle trailed its reeds and his my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes. Now let's look at the first stanza. Now the opening line when he mentions a thousand blended notes this hyperbole illustrates how nature is in perfect harmony and in the second line when he talks about the grove I say it reclined here what he's saying is that he's sitting and reclining quite peacefully as he admires and enjoys nature. Now the words pleasant and sad are really really powerful in lines three and four because this use of oxymoron shows that even if he is admiring nature he's having conflicting feelings. Now in the second stanza he personifies nature as a woman even think about for example the way we talk about nature his mother nature he does this in a similar way and then he talks about how in her fair works did nature linked the human soul. Now here what he's basically saying is nature's created many beautiful things on earth and humanity is linked in all of this. Now when he references soul the soul is what he's talking about that runs through mankind okay so the soul that runs through mankind is directly linked to the creations of nature however he mentions when he considers this soul that he's still feeling a deep sense of grief a deep sense of loss and sadness okay so here when he mentions much it grieved my heart we can see that he's experiencing a deep sense of sadness as he reflects and the repetition of the word man in the fourth line of the second stanza reveals how he's considering how wordsworth is reflecting on how corrupt and cruel and vicious human mind has humankind has become. Now in the third stanza he mentions the primrose and the periwinkle and these are both types of flowers so he's using language that belongs to the semantic field of flowers. Now when he mentions a green bower what he means is he's referring to a pleasant shady place below trees so he's admiring it and looking out at this pleasant shady place. Now when he mentions and here's my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes here he is personifying flowers okay and he believes as he looks out to nature that every flower enjoys his existence as it spreads out and blooms you know there's this huge harmony that he witnesses within nature. Now this third stanza is significant because here we can see that the garden is unified there are no borders and no restrictions between the flowers as they grow side by side which is in contrast of course when you think about humanity humankind right even for example when you look at world maps we draw lines we divide each other from somebody else right we draw lines to divide one country from the next right we even divide ourselves according to gender according to race according to where we come from class all of that right so human humanity's disharmony and also humanity's fragmentation contrasts with how united and unified nature is okay and this is especially shown through this third stanza now let's read through the three final stanzas. The birds around me hopped and played their thoughts I cannot measure but the least motion which they made it seemed a thrill of pleasure the budding twigs spread out to their fan to catch the breezy air and I must think do all I can that there was pleasure there if this belief from heaven be sent if such be nature's holy plan have I not reasoned to lament what man has made of man now in the fourth stanza Wordsworth looks at how the birds around me hopped and played and the verbs hopped and played emphasize just how carefree and joyful these birds are as they play and move around freely within nature and then he talks about how these birds you know their thoughts and this is a use of alliteration of tea these you know these birds are just super happy and they're not even thinking you know they don't have any shadows or worries in the mind and there's a distance as we can see here between Wordsworth who's observing them and the birds okay there's a distance between him and the birds and there's a contrast between how immobile and how unmoving Wordsworth is even as a human being and how active and free that these birds are within nature and how by extension nature is just really free and really happy and harmonious then Wordsworth relates to and refers to the least motion and thrill of pleasure now here we can see that the birds in the woods have no worries and no pain they live this amazing untroubled life now in the second to last stanza he refers to the budding twigs and this present continuous verb should suggest growth and promise as this is what happens in spring now he then also talks about a fan okay in this same line so the budding twigs spread out their fan and this is a metaphor which implies openness so the twigs are stretching out you know and they're feeling the cool air in the garden then he talks about the to catch the breezy air so the twigs are spreading out they're almost kind of yawning and spreading out their limbs to catch the breezy air right and this is personification it's even suggesting a playfulness of the twigs and then he mentions that there was a pleasure there and here alliteration is especially of tea illustrates that the twigs are blissful and they find a lot of pleasure in growth unlike men and humanity which tends to be very anxious and troubled now in the final stanza he talks about how if this belief from heaven be sent and his reference to heaven being sent shows that he believes that the joy that these plants have is sent directly from heaven and God himself of course also he uses language that belongs to the semantic field of religion so the words heaven and holy to reinforce the fact that nature is living in accordance with what God created it for and we start to question are we as human beings living in accordance with what we are created for then almost as if anticipating what we're going to question he then thinks about whether he has reason to lament and he uses on Jean Mont next to lament to illustrate his mourning and his sorrow and this final rhetorical question is really powerful and he's asking have I not reason to lament what man has made of man now this rhetorical question illustrates how the narrator wordsworth himself is so sad that humanity isn't following its nature it's in a constant state of suffering and strife when we should instead be in a state of bliss okay so that's really it when it comes to considering this poem I hope you find it useful and guys if you want to sign up to um classes so especially GCSE poetry classes GCSE literature classes but equally also this forms a part of a course that I've created especially for AQA students where I literally go into lots of detail on this anthology as well as other texts in the AQA syllabus in case this is English language and literature do make sure you head over to firstritutors.com and of course if you're watching this on youtube make sure you subscribe okay show me some love and guys let me know if you found this useful thank you so much for listening