by Isabela M. Tobias

The Song, which Wordsworth titled A Slumber did my spirit seal, reiterates the belief that once you pass into the eternal sleep – death – there will be no anguish and anxiety, or no "human fears", to quote the poet. The ethereal state of being in which in this case it seems that Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy, is being portrayed, goes far beyond the physical realm of space and time, into a still unknown world for us, those left behind, for "She seem’d a thing that could not feel/The touch of earthly years." (365) Dorothy is not only unscathed by the time passing – for it stopped having that effect on her – but the physical body metamorphosized itself into a "thing". Things do not have life, for they are innate. How could they feel anything, let alone be impressed with the seal of time? It is interesting though to notice that Wordsworth associates his own present state of mind – when fancying his sister’s death – with some sort of "slumber", and only in that state of trance that he could "seal", he had no fears. He attained perfection of the soul, where according to Christian beliefs you abide by the grace of God. God cannot dwell in a heart that is full of fears. Suddenly he is not afraid of his sister’s death, and is able to see how she is not being bound by time, thus remaining eternally young in spirit. "The touch of the earthly years" she "could not feel" anymore – isn’t that what we are promised in light of the Christian tradition?

Wordsworth goes even farther in verse line 2 and develops the idea of no boundaries in the sense that even though motionless, and having "no force", and that "She neither hears nor sees", Dorothy becomes a part of the greater universe which she came from, and thus returns to her origins:

"Roll’d round in earth’s diurnal course,

With rocks, and stones, and trees." (365)

So what are the facts here? Dorothy is innate, has become a thing, that cannot be impressed by time, has no force – i.e. to make any changes in her life or her character, for that has stopped for her – she cannot hear, nor see, but she is ""roll’d round". Like dough, one might say, and therefore being shaped into a new form. And what makes her "round" and whole, thus perfect as a circle can be? She is moved by this invisible force that is God, back into the "earth’s diurnal course", where there is light and life, but a different kind of life, in a different kind of frame, one in which we – those who still live on this side of the world – are only allowed to see the "rocks, and stones, and trees." Dorothy is this "thing" greater than before, and she is back into her Creator’s home, where there exist both things with and without "life". No rocks and stones have life in the sense that we know and understand, but when we hear of "trees", that undoubtedly represents a sign of life.

Nevertheless, all of the elements mentioned in the last verse were created by the same force that just as well made the earth, Dorothy, the poet, and us, the readers – and that one is God. Wordsworth, in just a "slumber" that he claims his spirit "sealed" for a minuscule section of what we, the earthlings, call time, was given the gift of seeing his sister in a different perspective, and maybe through that, become aware of his own mortality.