GradeSaver has separate guides for "The Thorn" and the Lucy poems.
"A slumber did my spirit seal" - One of Wordsworth's Lucy Poems, this piece examines the unpredictable nature of death. Because Lucy seemed so powerful and full of life, the speaker did not think she would ever die.
"Composed upon Westminster Bridge" - This sonnet is unusual in Wordsworth's collection, because it is about the beauty of a city rather than the beauty of nature.
"I wandered lonely as a cloud" - The speaker comes across a gorgeous field of daffodils, and is glad to know that he will have this memory to look back on during less happy times.
"It is a beauteous evening" - The speaker and the daughter he has not seen in ten years take a walk along the ocean. Even though she doesn't experience nature in the same way he does, the speaker considers her divine.
"Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" - The speaker and his sister visit a natural spot that he had visited five years previously, and the speaker realizes that he experiences nature in a more mature way now. He comments on how much the memory of his first visit heartened him in his darker moments over the last five years, and looks forward to bringing this new memory with him into the future. The speaker is also glad to know that his sister will remember him after he has died.
"Lines Written in Early Spring" - In this poem the speaker sits in the middle of nature, and yet is saddened at the thought of the division between the rest of humanity and nature.
"London, 1802" - The speaker asks John Milton to save humanity from itself. He feels that humanity is losing its connection to nature, and especially its virtues and morality.
"My heart leaps up when I behold" - In this very short poem, the speaker suggests that children are actually above adults because of their close proximity to God and heaven, having recently lived there. Because of this connection, children are also closer to nature.
"The Solitary Reaper" - The speaker comes across a woman working alone on the plains of Scotland. She is singing, but the speaker can only guess at what she is singing about because he cannot understand her language. At the end of the poem he is glad to take this new memory with him.
"The Tables Turned" - In this poem the speaker tells his friend to stop reading books and instead go outside and be a part of nature.
"The world is too much with us" - In this rather angry poem, the speaker is disgusted by people who prefer manufactured goods to the joys of nature. In the end Wordsworth chooses a state of disillusionment over disconnection from nature.
"Three years she grew" - This poem describes the life and death of Lucy. Nature becomes enamored of Lucy and creates a contract with her: in exchange for enjoyment of the natural world's gifts, Lucy must die upon reaching maturity.
"We Are Seven" - The speaker meets a young girl who had six brothers and sisters before two of them died. She now lives at home with her mother. When the speaker asks her how many siblings she has, she repeatedly tells him, "We are Seven," confusing the speaker, who counts only five.
