A Complaint
William Wordsworth
There is a change—and I am poor;
Your love hath been, nor long ago,
A fountain at my fond heart’s door,
Whose only business was to flow;
And flow it did; not taking heed
Of its own bounty, or my need.
What happy moments did I count!
Blest was I then all bliss above!
Now, for that consecrated fount
Of murmuring, sparkling, living love,
What have I? shall I dare to tell?
A comfortless and hidden well.
A well of love—it may be deep—
I trust it is,—and never dry:
What matter? if the waters sleep
In silence and obscurity.
—Such change, and at the very door
Of my fond heart, hath made me poor.
VOCABULARY
Hath been - has been
Fond - being affectionate about something, liking something
Taking heed - listening or paying attention to something
Bounty - a generous amount of something
Blest - blessed
Bliss - extreme joy or happiness
Consecrated - sacred, blessed or holy
Well - a deep hole in the ground that is built for drawing water
Obscurity - oddness, or lack of visibility - hidden
, STORY/SUMMARY
The speaker, talking directly to an addressee (his previous love), says that something
has changed - he is now poor. Not long ago, her love was a fountain at the door of his
keen heart. The heart’s only job was to flow - and it flowed a lot, without paying
attention to how lucky it was to have such a bounty as her love, or his need of that
love.
What happy moments he had! He was blessed with all the joy that heaven could
provide! Now, instead of that holy fountain of murmuring, sparkling, living love what
does he have left? A comfortless and hidden well.
He thinks more about this well that he’s left with - it is deep and the bottom is never
dry, but its characteristics have changed a lot from that fountain of overflowing love
that it used to be. What does it matter if the water at the bottom of it is now silent and
hidden, seeming as if to sleep? It matters a lot, he concludes, because this kind of
change of feeling at the door of his heart, its opening, has made him poor.
SPEAKER/VOICE
Adopting the persona of a tormented lover (a common poetic trope where the
speaker of a poem addresses a silent and unresponsive lover who does not return his
affections); the speaker uses a plaintive tone to lament his love. He thinks of the
happy times he and his lover shared together, but those fleeting joys now serve only
to accentuate his current lack of love to a point where he is in a state of mental
turmoil and suffering. He has the capacity for love still - symbolised in the poem
through water, but instead of the overflowing fountain that it was before, it is now
characterised as still water that sits at the bottom of a deep well, silent and hidden.
The central idea of the poem is that this change in feeling has left the speaker ‘poor’.
LANGUAGE
● Repetition - ‘poor’ - the repetition of this abstract noun emphasises the theme
of poverty in the poem, yet rather than thinking of poverty in financial terms we
are encouraged to think about how the concepts of wealth and poverty can be
William Wordsworth
There is a change—and I am poor;
Your love hath been, nor long ago,
A fountain at my fond heart’s door,
Whose only business was to flow;
And flow it did; not taking heed
Of its own bounty, or my need.
What happy moments did I count!
Blest was I then all bliss above!
Now, for that consecrated fount
Of murmuring, sparkling, living love,
What have I? shall I dare to tell?
A comfortless and hidden well.
A well of love—it may be deep—
I trust it is,—and never dry:
What matter? if the waters sleep
In silence and obscurity.
—Such change, and at the very door
Of my fond heart, hath made me poor.
VOCABULARY
Hath been - has been
Fond - being affectionate about something, liking something
Taking heed - listening or paying attention to something
Bounty - a generous amount of something
Blest - blessed
Bliss - extreme joy or happiness
Consecrated - sacred, blessed or holy
Well - a deep hole in the ground that is built for drawing water
Obscurity - oddness, or lack of visibility - hidden
, STORY/SUMMARY
The speaker, talking directly to an addressee (his previous love), says that something
has changed - he is now poor. Not long ago, her love was a fountain at the door of his
keen heart. The heart’s only job was to flow - and it flowed a lot, without paying
attention to how lucky it was to have such a bounty as her love, or his need of that
love.
What happy moments he had! He was blessed with all the joy that heaven could
provide! Now, instead of that holy fountain of murmuring, sparkling, living love what
does he have left? A comfortless and hidden well.
He thinks more about this well that he’s left with - it is deep and the bottom is never
dry, but its characteristics have changed a lot from that fountain of overflowing love
that it used to be. What does it matter if the water at the bottom of it is now silent and
hidden, seeming as if to sleep? It matters a lot, he concludes, because this kind of
change of feeling at the door of his heart, its opening, has made him poor.
SPEAKER/VOICE
Adopting the persona of a tormented lover (a common poetic trope where the
speaker of a poem addresses a silent and unresponsive lover who does not return his
affections); the speaker uses a plaintive tone to lament his love. He thinks of the
happy times he and his lover shared together, but those fleeting joys now serve only
to accentuate his current lack of love to a point where he is in a state of mental
turmoil and suffering. He has the capacity for love still - symbolised in the poem
through water, but instead of the overflowing fountain that it was before, it is now
characterised as still water that sits at the bottom of a deep well, silent and hidden.
The central idea of the poem is that this change in feeling has left the speaker ‘poor’.
LANGUAGE
● Repetition - ‘poor’ - the repetition of this abstract noun emphasises the theme
of poverty in the poem, yet rather than thinking of poverty in financial terms we
are encouraged to think about how the concepts of wealth and poverty can be
