Table Turned, The Analysis

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?



The sun, above the mountain's head,

A freshening lustre mellow

Through all the long green fields has spread,

His first sweet evening yellow.



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.



And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!

He, too, is no mean preacher:

Come forth into the light of things,

Let Nature be your teacher.



She has a world of ready wealth,

Our minds and hearts to bless--

Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,

Truth breathed by cheerfulness.



One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can.



Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;

Our meddling intellect

Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--

We murder to dissect.



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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Imagination against reason. Reason is the books and imagination is nature. Wordsworth suggests following your imagination rather than reasoning.

| Posted on 2008-10-30 | by a guest

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Wordsworth advices us to "Let Nature be your teacher", and "quit your books". Can we stop reading Lyrical Ballads at this point then? Hopefully. Why do English teachers not take his advice. Lyrical B*ll*cks.

| Posted on 2008-05-16 | by a guest

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This poem compares Nature with what man makes (Science, Books, "Knowledge", and Art)
The last two stanzas critisizes those who attempt to explain the world, destroy the beauty in nature when doing so. "-We murder to dissect"... Instead we should just observe life around us, accept it with "wise passiveness" (Expostulation And Reply)

| Posted on 2008-04-28 | by a guest

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Well, I guess that Wordsworth contradicts himself here Because he asks us not to read and not to do anything that is related to education!
So how are we supposed to do so, when we read his poems?
Is he asking us not to read his poems? and just meditate in nature? So why did right them in the first place?

| Posted on 2008-04-09 | by a guest

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The poem "The Tables Turned" is in reply to the poem "Expostulation and Reply" where the speaker wants to send across the message that experiencing things are a much better way to learn than of just reading books and trying to learn just through that.
hope that helped!
cheers mwah xx

| Posted on 2008-03-17 | by a guest

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srsly...what is this poem about?? is it as blunt as it seems? wordsworth seems to be simply making a statement. is there no symbolic depth in this piece of poetry? is there nothing here which enables me to write a 5 page essay on?

| Posted on 2008-03-07 | by a guest