March 16, 2011. Concerning "Sonnet on seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress"

Wordsworth reveals biases toward sensibility and mimics Helen William’s vascular rhetoric in his Sonnet. Williams, in the first quatrain of To Sensibility, already utilizes vascular rhetoric. In lines three and four she alludes to making a shrine, “On which [her] heart must bleed!”(Lyrical Ballads pg. 149, ll 3-4). In lines 14, 23, 35, and 81 she uses the word ‘heart’, and makes many more references to bleeding and wounds throughout the poem. In Wordsworth’s Sonnet, the author uses similar rhetoric in mirror-like fashion to describe Williams’ experience. The first five lines of Wordsworth’s Sonnet are filled with references to flowing blood, thrilling veins, and the heart (Lyrical Ballads pg. 152, ll 1-5). This imagery used by both authors puts the reader in position to feel an emotional response to their writings. There is a fascinating loop that is created in this sonnet. Wordsworth praises Williams for virtues she radiates, provides a means for his readers to exude the same virtues, and necessarily praises his own work through imitation of Williams’ style. 

         The other topic I would like to address regarding Wordsworth’s Sonnet relates to lines nine through fourteen. These lines read:

That tear proclaims-in thee each virtue dwells,

And bright will shine in misery’s midnight hour;

As the soft star of dewy evening tells

That only wait the darkness of the night

To chear the wand’ring wretch with hospitable light.

This selection from the sonnet calls to mind the image of the twilight star. During the day, the bright stars are hidden from us. During twilight we can see only one star which reminds us there others out there that will emanate light to guide us through the night. In a similar way, the virtue of sensibility reminds us in times of trouble that there is good out there to guide us even if we cannot clearly see every aspect of a situation. This simile reminded me of the lyrics from the song Fight Test by The Flaming Lips which read, “I don't know where the sunbeams end and the starlight begins it's all a mystery. And I don't know how a man decides what right for his own life - it's all a mystery”(http://www.uulyrics.com/music/flaming-lips/song-fight-test/). These lyrics also describe a twilight period. Humans decide their moral character during the period when their way through life isn’t lit by the stars. As a person, one must decide what their moral twilight star is, and follow it when ethical boundaries are blurred. 

This is a link to the music video for that song which includes great shots of the aforementioned twilight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EbrMAZbFpo