Poem of the Day: "Strange fits of passion have I known" by William Wordsworth, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day for June 12, 2014 is "Strange fits of passion have I known" by William Wordsworth, Poet of the Month.  Information about the Songs of Eretz Poet of the Month feature as well as a biographical essay about William Wordsworth may be found here:  http://www.eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/06/songs-of-eretz-poetry-review-poet-of.html.

Strange fits of passion have I known

William Wordsworth

Strange fits of passion have I known:

And I will dare to tell,

But in the Lover's ear alone,

What once to me befell.

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her cottage bent my way,

Beneath an evening-moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh

Those paths so dear to me.

And now we reached the orchard-plot;

And, as we climbed the hill,

The sinking moon to Lucy's cot

Came near, and nearer still.

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,

Kind Nature's gentlest boon!

And all the while my eyes I kept

On the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof

He raised, and never stopped:

When down behind the cottage roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover's head!

"O mercy!" to myself I cried,
"If Lucy should be dead!"

"Strange fits of passion have I known" is one of Wordsworth's "Lucy" poems.  Other "Lucy" poems that have been featured in the Review include:  "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" http://www.eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/06/poem-of-day-she-dwelt-among-untrodden.html, and "A slumber did my spirit seal http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/06/poem-of-day-slumber-did-my-spirit-seal.html.

Typical of the ballads of Wordsworth that have been examined in the Review, "Strange fits of passion have I known" is presented in rhyming iambic tetrameter with a foot omitted from every even line for emphasis.  This particular ballad is not Wordsworth's strongest work.  He describes his lover as "fresh as a rose in June" and then proceeds to rhyme "June" with "moon."  Even in Wordsworth's day, such turns of phrase would have been considered to be tired clichés.