“The Tables Turned” Introduction

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“The Tables Turned” Summary

“The Tables Turned” Themes

• 

  The Wisdom of Nature

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Tables Turned”

• Lines 1-4

  Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
  Or surely you'll grow double:
  Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
  Why all this toil and trouble?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  The sun, above the mountain's head,
  A freshening lustre mellow
  Through all the long green fields has spread,
  His first sweet evening yellow.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
  Come, hear the woodland linnet,
  How sweet his music! on my life,
  There's more of wisdom in it.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

  And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
  He, too, is no mean preacher:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-16

  Come forth into the light of things,
  Let Nature be your teacher.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  She has a world of ready wealth,
  Our minds and hearts to bless—
  Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
  Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  One impulse from a vernal wood
  May teach you more of man,
  Of moral evil and of good,
  Than all the sages can.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
  Our meddling intellect
  Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
  We murder to dissect.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-32

  Enough of Science and of Art;
  Close up those barren leaves;
  Come forth, and bring with you a heart
  That watches and receives.

  

  

  

  

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“The Tables Turned” Symbols

• 

  Light

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• 

  Music

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“The Tables Turned” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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“The Tables Turned” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Quit
• Toil
• Lustre
• Strife
• Linnet
• Hark
• Blithe
• Throstle
• No mean preacher
• Vernal
• Sages
• Lore
• Meddling
• Mis-shapes
• Dissect

• • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Tables Turned”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Tables Turned” Speaker

“The Tables Turned” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Tables Turned”

More “The Tables Turned” Resources

• External Resources

  • Introduction to the Lyrical Ballads — Check out an electronic copy of the book in which this poem was first published, including an introduction by the authors. 

  • The Making of the Lyrical Ballads — An essay by Jonathan Kerr for the Wordsworth Trust about the creation of the Lyrical Ballads.

  • Romantic Poetry —  brief introduction to Romanticism, a movement helmed by Wordsworth and a few of his contemporaries. 

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a recording of "The Tables Turned" as read by Amy Hall, a trainee for the Wordsworth Trust. The accompanying video was filmed at Dove Cottage, which was Wordsworth's home from 1799 until 1808.

  • The Industrial Revolution — Learn more about Britain's first Industrial Revolution, which spurred the Romantics' wish for a return to nature.

  • Wordsworth's Life — Read a biography of the poet courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Wordsworth

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  • Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

  • Expostulation and Reply

  • Extract from The Prelude (Boat Stealing)

  • It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

  • I Travelled Among Unknown Men

  • I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

  • Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey

  • Lines Written in Early Spring

  • London, 1802

  • Mutability

  • My Heart Leaps Up

  • Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room

  • Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

  • She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways

  • She was a Phantom of Delight

  • The Solitary Reaper

  • The World Is Too Much With Us

  • Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower

  • To a Snowdrop

  • We Are Seven