William Wordsworth (1770–1850) is the author of the lyrical ballad “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” (1800). The poem appears in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800), which featured poems by Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. There are four editions of Lyrical Ballads, and the first edition (1798) helped launch English Romanticism. The movement stressed the tumultuous power of nature and the individual human spirit. “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” reflects the principles of English Romanticism by conflating the girl in the poem with nature. The girl has no name, but the poem is a part of a series of poems—five altogether—known as “the Lucy poems.” The label comes from scholars after Wordsworth’s. “A Slumber” is the only poem in the series that doesn’t explicitly include the name Lucy. 

“The Lucy poems” aside, Wordsworth is most known for poems such as “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” (1807) and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807). Wordsworth had a close relationship with his younger sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, who documented her experiences with him in journals, which people have published in various editions. Dorothy was central to Wordworth’s creativity and identity. A prolific writer, Wordsworth documented his life in his posthumous book-length poem The Prelude (1850).

Content Warning: The guide includes death, child death, and gender discrimination. 

POET BIOGRAPHY

Content Warning: This section includes death.

William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, England. He had three other brothers and a younger sister, Dorothy. Their father, John Wordsworth, was a lawyer and Cockermouth official. The children spent considerable time with relatives. In 1779, Dorothy went to live with relatives in Halifax, marking the start of a nine-year separation period between her and Wordsworth. 

Ann Wordsworth, his mother, died in 1778, and John Wordsworth died in 1783. John Wordsworth’s employer never paid the family the money he owed John Wordsworth, so the family became more dependent on relatives. Nevertheless, Wordsworth flourished in school, developing his love of reading and writing. He published his first poem in 1787—the same year he matriculated at Cambridge’s St John’s College, where he had an ordinary academic career.

In the early 1790s, Wordsworth visited France. He was influenced by the forceful democratic ideals of the French Revolution (1789–99). He had a romantic relationship with a woman, Annette Vallon, with whom he fathered a daughter, Caroline. In the late 1790s, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The two men became close friends and collaborators. Together, they published Lyrical Ballads (1798). The book featured poems by Wordsworth and Coleridge, and it helped form English Romanticism. The collection went through four editions. The second edition (1800) included four of the five “Lucy poems”—“A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal,” “Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower,” “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways,” and “Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known.” Wordsworth published the fifth poem, “I Travelled Among Unknown,” in Poems, in Two Volumes (1807).

As adults, Wordsworth and Dorothy reunited and lived together in pastoral areas like Alfoxden and Grasmere. Dorothy was crucial to Wordsworth's creative process and identity. She also documented their daily experiences in various journals. Coleridge typically joined the brother and sister, and the three creatives formed a close-knit trio. In 1802, Wordsworth married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. They had three sons and two daughters. Dorothy remained a crucial part of Wordsworth’s life. While Wordsworth published many poems during his life, he also worked on an extensive single autobiographical poem. Shortly after he died in 1850, Mary published the epic work as The Prelude (1850).

POEM TEXT

A slumber did my spirit seal;

I had no human fears:

She seemed a thing that could not feel

The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;

She neither hears nor sees;

Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course,

With rocks, and stones, and trees.

Wordsworth, William. “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal.” 1800. Poetry Foundation.

SUMMARY

Content Warning: This section includes child death.

The poem is abstract, and its ambiguities produce multiple readings. One of the most common summaries centers the poem around an unnamed speaker and an unnamed girl. In Stanza 1, the speaker has an otherworldly feeling that makes them feel like they’re asleep and dreaming. The unreal state makes them feel unafraid. The girl is introduced by a lack of human feelings—more of an object than a human. Emphasizing the girl’s youth and ethereal quality, the speaker notes her short existence. Since she died young, she didn’t experience the “touch of earthly years” (Line 4) or the process of growing older. 

In Stanza 2, the speaker delves deeper into the unnamed girl’s death. As a dead person, she can’t see, hear, or move. She has no more human power. Instead, she’s become a part of the earth, so her daily routine is inseparable from the “earth’s diurnal course” (Line 7). Embedded with nature, the girl moves like other elements in nature, including “rocks, and stones, and trees” (Line 8).