A Structuralist Analysis of Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

Abstract

Romantic imagination is against any fixation of form and rules and regulations but any creative attempt, however anti-rule it may be, must have some underlying principles governing its structure. This article explores Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood from a structuralist perspective. Structuralism with its roots in Ferdinand de Saussure’s structural view of language sees cultural phenomena and literary endeavors as structured based on the underlying rules governing the writing of the creative work. This article joins two contradictory ideas: Romantic poetry which glorifies the author's subjectivity and structuralism which beliefs in the death of the author. However, this article analyzes the ode from a structuralist perspective and principles of criticism: parallels and echoes, reflections and repetitions, contrasts, and patterns of language and imagery. It also studies the Ode's relationship with the tradition of the genre and its differences from and similarities to other odes.