Surprised: Wordsworth on the Coexistence of Joy and Sorrow
William Wordsworth wrote this sonnet two years after the sudden death of his four-year-old daughter, Catherine, but in it he grieves as though not a day has gone by. When he cries out in misery, “How could I forget thee?” it is both rhetorical – indicative of how deeply he loved her – and guilt-stricken, having in fact let her slip from his mind.
Inez Tan | The Williams Telos | Issue 4, Fall 2010