Can u help me with Wordsworth "Goody Blake"

I need an analysis of this poem about its voice,diction,imagery,figures of speech, symbolism and allegory,syntax, sound,and rhythm and meter. ANY one will be OK .Thanks very much.



GOODY BLAKE,
AND
H A R R Y G I L L,
A TRUE STORY.
Oh! what's the matter? what's the matter?
What is't that ails young Harry Gill?
That evermore his teeth they chatter,
Chatter, chatter, chatter still.
Of waistcoats Harry has no lack,
Good duffle grey, and flannel fine;
He has a blanket on his back,
And coats enough to smother nine.
In March, December, and in July,
'Tis all the same with Harry Gill;
The neighbors tell, and tell you truly,
His teeth they chatter, chatter still.
At night, at morning, and at noon,
'Tis all the same with Harry Gill;
Beneath the sun, beneath the moon,
His teeth they chatter, chatter still.
Young Harry was a lusty drover,
And who so stout of limb as he?
His cheeks were red as ruddy clover,
His voice was like the voice of three.
Auld Goody Blake was old and poor,
Ill fed she was, and thinly clad;
And any man who pass'd her door,
Might see how poor a hut she had.
All day she spun in her poor dwelling,
And then her three hours' work at night!
Alas! 'twas hardly worth the telling,
It would not pay for candle-light.
--This woman dwelt in Dorsetshire,
Her hut was on a clod hill-side,
And in that country coals are dear,
For they come far by wind and tide.
By the same fire to boil their pottage,
Two poor old dames, As I have known,
Will often live in one small cottage,
But she, poor woman, dwelt alone.
'Twas well enough when summer came,
The long, warm, lightsome summer-day,
Then at her door the canty dame
Would sit, as any linnet gay.
But when the ice our streams did fetter,
Oh! then how her old bones would shake!
You would have said, if you had met her,
'Twas a hard time for Goody Blake.
Her evenings then were dull and dead;
Sad case it was, as you may think,
For very cold to go to bed,
And then for cold not sleep a wink.
Oh joy for her! when e'er in winter
The winds at night had made a rout,
And catter'd many a lusty splinter,
And many a rotten bough about.
Yet never had she, well or sick,
As every man who knew her says,
A pile before-hand, wood or stick,
Enough to warm her for three days.
Now, when the frost was past enduring,
And made her poor old bones to ache,
Could any thing be more alluring,
Than an old hedge to Goody Blake?
And now and then, it must be said,
When her old bones were cold and chill,
She left her fire, or left her bed,
To seek the hedge of Harry Gill.
Now Harry he had long suspected
This trespass of old Goody Blake,
And vow'd that she should be detected,
And he on her would vengeance take.
And oft from his warm fire he'd go,
And to the fields his road would take,
And there, at night, in frost and snow,
He watch'd to seize old Goody Blake.
And once, behind a rick of barley,
Thus looking out did Harry stand;
The moon was full and shining clearly,
And crisp with frost the stubble-land.
--He hears a noise--he's all awake--
Again?--on tiptoe down the hill
He softly creeps--'Tis Goody Blake,
She's at the hedge of Harry Gill.
Right glad was he when he beheld her:
Stick after stick did Goody pull,
He stood behind a bush of elder,
Till she had filled her apron full.
When with her load she turned about,
The bye-road back again to take,
He started forward with a shout,
And sprang upon poor Goody Blake.
And fiercely by the arm he took her,
And by the arm he held her fast,
And fiercely by the arm he shook her,
And cried, "I've caught you then at last!"
Then Goody, who had nothing said,
Her bundle from her lap let fall;
And kneeling on the sticks, she pray'd
To God that is the judge of all.
She pray'd, her wither'd hand uprearing,
While Harry held her by the arm--
"God! who art never out of hearing,
"O may he never more be warm!"
The cold, cold moon above her head,
Thus on her knees did Goody pray,
Young Harry heard what she had said,
And icy-cold he turned away.
He went complaining all the morrow
That he was cold and very chill:
His face was gloom, his heart was sorrow,
Alas! that day for Harry Gill!
That day he wore a riding-coat,
But not a whit the warmer he:
Another was on Thursday brought,
And ere the Sabbath he had three.
'Twas all in vain, a useless matter,
And blankets were about him pinn'd;
Yet still his jaws and teeth they clatter,
Like a loose casement in the wind.
And Harry's flesh it fell away;
And all who see him say 'tis plain,
That live as long as live he may,
He never will be warm again.
No word to any man he utters,
A-bed or up, to young or old;
But ever to himself he mutters,
"Poor Harry Gill is very cold."
A-bed or up, by night or day;
His teeth they chatter, chatter still.
Now think, ye farmers all, I pray,
Of Goody Blake and Harry Gill.

There is much information on the net here:

[www.google.com]


Les

I've already tried:(

Megan, start by understanding what the terms you need mean. Here's a good site for that: [www.poeticbyway.com]


Les

> ... voice,diction,imagery,figures of speech, symbolism and allegory,
> syntax, sound,and rhythm and meter ...

Well, first of all, take a look at the Toronto pages on the Lyrical Ballad stuff, where you will see that WW took it from a supposedly true story.

[eir.library.utoronto.ca]

One infers he used the name Goody Blake to show she was a nice person. Does that mean the name Harry Gill refers to a bad person? Likely so, yes. A hairy gill seems fairly yucky to me, I mean. Could be they were the real names? Yeah, mebbe.

The participants:

Young Harry was a lusty drover

Goody Blake was old and poor

Unfortunately, Goody has the temerity to steal (wood for her fire) from wary Harry. He catches her in the act, and she in turn puts a curse on him (that he will always have a chilly willy). Well, actually she prays to God, but surely that old gent would have forgiven them both, so let's assume Goody used witchcraft. Obviously a true story, you say? Quite so.

Getting back to the assignment, though (and don't you hate such annoying homework?), the voice probably means who the speaker is. In this case, supposedly an objective narrator of past events. Diction is what - word choice? Simple words for a simple tale, I would think.

Imagery, figures of speech, symbolism and allegory are similar terms, at least to my mind. Metaphor, simile, and other such rhetorical figures. Harry's chattering teeth indicate he is cold, for example. Coals that come by wind and tide perhaps another, meaning they are blown in, or carried by water. Not much in the way of such figures of speech in the thing, though.

An allegory is when concrete characters or events stand for abstract ideas or priciples, again a stretch in this one. Still one could make a case for correct moral behaviour to be learned by the drover rover.

Syntax (orderly arrangement of words/grammar) leaves me cold. For sound, you could find examples of assonance, consonance and alliteration, I suppose.

Rhythm and meter is easier. It's in iambic tetrameter, each stanza rhyming ababcdcd. Most of the odd lines have feminine endings, the even ones masculine (matter/Gill, chatter/still).





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2021 04:03PM by Hugh Clary.

Dorset is chalk and limestone country, any coal will have been brought by sea from Newcastle to somewhere like Lyme Regis and then carried by cart or pack horse inland. A journey that far put the price up, this was the main incentive for the spread of railways.

Harry Gill had a point in wanting to protect his hedge. He kept cattle (a lusty drover) and was obliged by law not to allow them to stray. Hedges are not easy to maintain in that area and if anyone removes branches from the hedge the cattle will escape.