It Is No Spirit Who from Heaven Hath Flown
It Is No Spirit Who from Heaven Hath Flown - meaning Summary
Aspiration Beyond Limits
Wordsworth addresses the evening star Hesperus and uses the startling sight to trigger a meditation on aspiration and transcendence. The speaker mistakes the star for a descending spirit, then imagines his soul stepping beyond its "natural race" to explore ground not his own. The poem contrasts ordinary daylight and the star's solitary dominance to suggest a longing for elevated, perhaps spiritual, agency beyond human limits.
Read Complete AnalysesIT is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown, And is descending on his embassy; Nor Traveller gone from earth the heavens to espy! 'Tis Hesperus--there he stands with glittering crown, First admonition that the sun is down! For yet it is broad day-light: clouds pass by; A few are near him still--and now the sky, He hath it to himself--'tis all his own. O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought Within me when I recognised thy light; A moment I was startled at the sight: And, while I gazed, there came to me a thought That I might step beyond my natural race As thou seem'st now to do; might one day trace Some ground not mine; and, strong her strength above, My Soul, an Apparition in the place, Tread there with steps that no one shall reprove!
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