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William WordsworthA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The poet has one central aim in this poem: to sing the praises of a particular woman and to show how he has perceived her at three different times over an extended period. Although Wordsworth does not state it explicitly, he wrote “Phantom” about his wife, Mary. “Phantom” was composed in 1804, two years after William and Mary’s wedding, and covers a period of seventeen years of their relationship (though again, this is not stated directly). Across three stanzas, Wordsworth describes how the unnamed woman developed over time through his eyes.
The first stanza describes the effect Mary had on Wordsworth when the two first met in 1787, when Mary was seventeen years old. (Incidentally, Wordsworth and Mary were almost the same age—Wordsworth was the elder by just four months.) She had an ethereal quality; she seemed to belong more to the spiritual than the earthly realm. The words “Phantom” (Line 1) and “Apparition” (Line 3) suggest this spiritual dimension. In modern usage, both words often convey something eerie or strange, but that is not Wordsworth’s intention here. He qualifies his ghostly nouns with positive adjectives—"delight” (Line 1) and “lovely” (Line 3)—to convey the extraordinary something in his visual perception of the woman that captured his attention.
By William Wordsworth
A Complaint
A Complaint
William Wordsworth
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
William Wordsworth
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
William Wordsworth
Daffodils
Daffodils
William Wordsworth
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth
Tintern Abbey
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey ...
William Wordsworth
London, 1802
London, 1802
William Wordsworth
Lyrical Ballads
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
My Heart Leaps Up
My Heart Leaps Up
William Wordsworth
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
William Wordsworth
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Preface to Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways
William Wordsworth
The Prelude
The Prelude
William Wordsworth
The Solitary Reaper
The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth
The World Is Too Much with Us
The World Is Too Much with Us
William Wordsworth
To the Skylark
To the Skylark
William Wordsworth
We Are Seven
We Are Seven
William Wordsworth