Comment on the ways in which the writer portrays his love for the perfect woman.
Wordsworth employs a voyeuristic tone and recounts the three stages of falling in love
through the poem, going through emotions of admiration, realisation, and finally
acceptance, fascinating his contemporary audience and perplexing a modern one.
The poem is littered with complementing contradictions, the first being title of the poem
itself. “She was a Phantom of Delight” is paradoxical and holds both bitterness and
appreciation. The words “was” and “Phantom” link to the Petrarchan convention and the
theme of unrequited love that runs throughout the poem; a sense of distance is created,
mirroring how the poet is only able to admire the woman of the poem from afar. This
contrasts with the word “delight”, which reflects the romantic background of the poet,
whereby he uses indulgent descriptions to describe the woman of his dreams, idolising and
glorifying her, making her beauty equivalent to that of nature. In this way, the poet uses the
Renaissance feature of the blazon in the first stanza, describing her “dusky hair” and “eyes of
stars”. He thus creates an ethereal and perhaps even ghostly image of the woman through
the metaphorical use of the capitalized words “Phantom”, “Apparition” and “Shape”, which
draw the reader’s attention and compare the woman to an enchanting spirit that is out of
reach. Alliteration is also employed in the phrases "Phantom of delight," "gleamed upon my
sight," "sent to be a moment's ornament”, adding musicality and lyricism to the rhythm of
the poem.
While the poet’s intent could have been to highlight how the woman is unbelievably
beautiful, almost as if she was a product of his imagination, readers begin to wonder
whether this woman, in truth, exists, or whether she merely haunts the mind of the poet.
This also reflects the liminal state of the poem- as with the woman who seems to be trapped
in “twilight”- between night and day, the poet is similarly caught between admiration and
desire to mold the “image” of the woman into something tangible- he is therefore arguably
trapped between love and lust.
In the second stanza, the poet’s realisation that the woman is not a deity, but, in fact,
human, is shown through the line “A Spirit, yet a Woman too!” The transformation and
development of the spirit into a woman, shows how the poet is humanising her, bringing her
to his level through the listing of everyday emotions “praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and
smiles”. However, another contrast is created in that the poet wants her to only experience
the brighter emotions of life, restricting her to “transient sorrows” and “simple wiles”. These
overwhelming expectations are more easily noticed by a modern reader, who may argue
that the poet is objectifying the woman and unrealistically limiting her to being a housewife,
thus showing how a man’s romantic love can quickly turn into a love of dependence and
companionship.
Wordsworth employs a voyeuristic tone and recounts the three stages of falling in love
through the poem, going through emotions of admiration, realisation, and finally
acceptance, fascinating his contemporary audience and perplexing a modern one.
The poem is littered with complementing contradictions, the first being title of the poem
itself. “She was a Phantom of Delight” is paradoxical and holds both bitterness and
appreciation. The words “was” and “Phantom” link to the Petrarchan convention and the
theme of unrequited love that runs throughout the poem; a sense of distance is created,
mirroring how the poet is only able to admire the woman of the poem from afar. This
contrasts with the word “delight”, which reflects the romantic background of the poet,
whereby he uses indulgent descriptions to describe the woman of his dreams, idolising and
glorifying her, making her beauty equivalent to that of nature. In this way, the poet uses the
Renaissance feature of the blazon in the first stanza, describing her “dusky hair” and “eyes of
stars”. He thus creates an ethereal and perhaps even ghostly image of the woman through
the metaphorical use of the capitalized words “Phantom”, “Apparition” and “Shape”, which
draw the reader’s attention and compare the woman to an enchanting spirit that is out of
reach. Alliteration is also employed in the phrases "Phantom of delight," "gleamed upon my
sight," "sent to be a moment's ornament”, adding musicality and lyricism to the rhythm of
the poem.
While the poet’s intent could have been to highlight how the woman is unbelievably
beautiful, almost as if she was a product of his imagination, readers begin to wonder
whether this woman, in truth, exists, or whether she merely haunts the mind of the poet.
This also reflects the liminal state of the poem- as with the woman who seems to be trapped
in “twilight”- between night and day, the poet is similarly caught between admiration and
desire to mold the “image” of the woman into something tangible- he is therefore arguably
trapped between love and lust.
In the second stanza, the poet’s realisation that the woman is not a deity, but, in fact,
human, is shown through the line “A Spirit, yet a Woman too!” The transformation and
development of the spirit into a woman, shows how the poet is humanising her, bringing her
to his level through the listing of everyday emotions “praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and
smiles”. However, another contrast is created in that the poet wants her to only experience
the brighter emotions of life, restricting her to “transient sorrows” and “simple wiles”. These
overwhelming expectations are more easily noticed by a modern reader, who may argue
that the poet is objectifying the woman and unrealistically limiting her to being a housewife,
thus showing how a man’s romantic love can quickly turn into a love of dependence and
companionship.
