The Tables Turned

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The Tables Turned is a poem written by William Wordsworth in 1798 and published in his Lyrical Ballads.

Synopsis

The poem consists of eight ballad stanzas with 32 lines total. Each stanza follows equally except for the last that, in comparison, has a more irregular rhythm. The poem puts forward the message that nature is the ultimate good influence. It compares the city life (the notion of corruption) with a rural/natural life (the notion of purity). Moreover, the effect these lifestyles have on the soul. The poem’s main message is that we can learn more from nature than from a book.

William Wordsworth Topics Early life Lake Poets People Samuel Taylor Coleridge Robert Southey Dora Wordsworth (daughter) Dorothy Wordsworth (sister) Lyrical Ballads Preface to the Lyrical Ballads "Anecdote for Fathers" "Lucy Gray" The Lucy poems "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" "A slumber did my spirit seal" "Strange fits of passion have I known" "Three years she grew in sun and shower" The Matthew poems "Michael, a Pastoral" "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey" "We Are Seven" Later poetry Poems, in Two Volumes Peter Bell The White Doe of Rylstone "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" "Elegiac Stanzas" "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" The Lucy poems "I travelled among unknown men" "London, 1802" "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" "Resolution and Independence" "The Solitary Reaper" "The World Is Too Much with Us" "Character of the Happy Warrior" The Recluse The Excursion The Prelude Commons Wikiquote Wikisource texts