Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known by William Wordsworth (Poem & Summary)

 

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

by William Wordsworth

(Poem & Summary) 

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Strange fits of passion have I known,

And I will dare to tell,

But in the lover's ear alone,

What once to me befel.

 

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her cottage bent my way,

Beneath an evening moon.

 

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh

Those paths so dear to me.

 

And now we reached the orchard-plot,

And, as we climbed the hill,

The sinking moon to Lucy's cot

Came near, and nearer still.

 

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,

Kind Nature's gentlest boon!

And, all the while, my eyes I kept

On the descending moon.

 

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof

He raised, and never stopped:

When down behind the cottage roof

At once, the bright moon dropped.

 

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover's head!

“O mercy!” to myself I cried,

“If Lucy should be dead!”

 

Summary

The poet's love for Lucy leads him to fear an omen about her death, i.e., the moon suddenly setting. 'Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known' describes the poet making his way to Lucy's cottage 'Beneath an evening-moon'. The poet fixes his eyes on the moon, which 'descended still', and is in a waking sleep, but suddenly realizes that the moon has gone down behind Lucy's cottage. This immediately fills him with fear that Lucy may be dead.

The poet experiences strange fits of passion. He claims that he would only share these experiences with his lover and no one else. The poet says that his beloved looked “fresh as a rose”. He made a trip to her cottage. He describes a nocturnal setting with the poem’s first reference to the moon. He gazed upon the moon as well as the meadow he was crossing. His horse continued to ride faster and faster toward his lover’s cottage. He climbs the hill leading to her cottage. As he does so, the moon appears to lower in the sky.

The poet describes sleeping in a sweet dream that nature had blessed him with, but it is not clear at first whether he is referring to his night ride as dreamlike or is drifting off to sleep as he rides. In any case, he managed to keep his eye on the moon that continued to descend in the sky. His horse edged closer to Lucy’s cottage, step by step. As the cottage grows near, the moon that had been descending slowly suddenly dropped from view behind the cottage.

The speaker was shocked to see the moon disappear from his sight. He cries out loud in a moment of desperation. He wonders out loud how he would feel if his beloved Lucy were to die.