One of the poems that Wordsworth wrote that demonstrates many of the techniques he discussed in his introduction is Michael. He uses some typical elements of the time, such as the discussion of the setting changing from the country setting in the beginning to the city setting at the end of the poem, and then to the sea for Luke, which may have represented a push for exploration and towards the unknown (Americans moving into the Western part of the country). Wordsworth discusses things important to men; their families, their occupations, ways of life, and the current changes the world is experiencing.
One passage that particularly sticks out to me and relates back to the introduction is when he is discussing poetry versus prose and he states that some of the best poetry is written in the form of prose. When I read over lines 434-439, I realized that the rhyme scheme had been interrupted and instead replaced with a detailed discussion of emotions relating to the leaving of Michael’s son Luke. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the poem with a rhyme scheme, it made the reading much easier, but when I read the description written in prose it struck me in a different way. It produced a different sort of feeling than the smooth rhyme scheme did, the rockiness of the language and abrupt stop of rhyming, correlated with the events occurring in the story and allowed the reader to sort of subconsciously experience the feelings if they weren’t paying close attention. These small changes the author employs are almost subliminal messages to the reader, but they have a large impact on the reading of the poem whether the reader consciously observes the changes or not.
