Conquer 'Report to Wordsworth' for Cambridge IGCSE: Critical Techniques for Top Grades

[0:05]Report to Wordsworth by the Singaporean poet Boey Kim Cheng, appeared in his collection Another Place in 1992. In this poem, Boey explores the interconnected themes of our loss of a reverence for and a connection to nature, human greed and environmental crisis. Boey addresses the long-dead Romantic poet William Wordsworth, begging him for help as he laments that the natural world, which Wordsworth revered and exalted in his poetry, is in its death throes, due to the insatiable greed of mankind. Pollution in the form of smog has suffocated the earth to the extent that nature can no longer communicate with us. Flowers and birds are vulnerable to extinction, while our oceans are choked with toxic industrial waste. Even the ancient and immortal sea gods of Greek and Roman mythology are no longer venerated and have instead been brought to their knees. The poem ends on a note of despair, as Boey conveying the irreversible damage inflicted on nature, mourns humanity's disconnection from nature's teachings and harmony. The English poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge played a pivotal role in establishing Romanticism in English literature through their joint publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798. This collection of poems is often considered the starting point of the Romantic movement, as it introduced themes such as the beauty and power of nature and the importance of individual emotion and imagination. The Romantic movement was in part a response to the Industrial Revolution, which had brought widespread urbanization, mechanization, and environmental degradation to the country. Many Romantic poets were deeply troubled by the destruction of rural landscapes, the rise of factories, and the alienation of individuals from nature. Romanticism emphasized emotion, imagination, and individuality, in contrast to the mechanistic worldview and materialistic values that industrialization seemed to promote. In one of Wordsworth's poems from the collection, The Tables Turned, he urged the reader to observe the sun's light on the green fields and to listen to bird song, as he argues that instead of learning from books, we should let nature be our teacher. Report to Wordsworth is a variation of a Shakespearean or English sonnet. It has 14 lines which can be divided into three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. It has a rhyme scheme of A B A B C D C D E F E F G G, although a couple of these rhymes can be considered half or slant rhymes, i.e. smog and clock and dazed and waste. Note the very nearly, but not quite quality of these rhymes. Og and ock where both of the final consonant sounds even though not identical can be described as guttural. In aze and aste, the z and s are made in same place in the mouth, but the former is voiced, while the latter is unvoiced, while the d and the t are both plosive. This slight dissonance in the rhyme is picked up and amplified by the lack of a regular base meter. Sonnets usually have a base meter of iambic pentameter. While nine of the fourteen lines do contain ten syllables, with the other five varying between nine and twelve, only two of these can be scanned as iambic pentameter. I.e. his famous horns are choked, his eyes are dazed, and as nature's mighty heart is lying still. This lack of regularity in both rhyme and meter could symbolize the collapse of harmony in the environment, and the poem's apocalyptic vision of a world where both balance and beauty are lost.

[4:38]Shakespearean sonnets contain a volta, which typically occurs at line nine, i.e. at the start of the third quatrain. This is the point where the tone or argument of the poem shifts. The first eight lines, the first two quatrains, usually set up a problem, question, or theme, and the volta marks the turn toward a solution, resolution, or new perspective. The volta in Report to Wordsworth, however, can be identified at line 11, or midway through the third quatrain, poetry and piety have begun to fail, which indicates the beginning of a deeper reflection on humanity's moral and spiritual failure. This deliberate disruption of the traditional structure can be seen as another reflection of the poem's theme of disorder and the breakdown of natural and societal systems. Most lines are end-stopped, which means that they feature punctuation, such as a comma or a full stop. Boey also makes extensive use of caesura in the first half of the poem, but relatively little of enjambment throughout, which results in a poem that is characterized by frequent pauses. The enforced slowness caused by these rhythmic devices adds to the solemnity and despair of the poem's tone, and mirrors the slowing of the sky as Boey imagines humanity's clock sluggishly coming to a stop.

[6:14]The poem is rich with figurative language, such as personification, e.g. she, i.e. nature, has been laid waste, metaphor, e.g. O see the wound widening in the sky, and simile, e.g. in a sky slowing like a dying clock. Boey also employs sound patterning techniques, such as sibilance, e.g. smothered by the smog, alliteration, e.g. wound widening, and assonance, e.g. sunk and dump. All of these literary devices serve to heighten the poem's emotional intensity and emphasize the damage inflicted on the natural world. Not only does Boey invoke the spirit of the literary giant William Wordsworth, but he also refers to figures from ancient Greek and Roman mythology, such as Proteus, Triton, and Neptune. By drawing on these mythological figures, Boey highlights the universality and timelessness of nature's struggle. These gods, associated with the sea and natural forces, are powerful symbols of nature's vitality and change, and were once venerated and worshipped.

[7:37]Boey's inclusion of them emphasizes his belief in the gravity of the environmental crisis, suggesting that even these mighty, mythic, and immortal figures, who represent the forces of nature, are powerless in the face of humanity's destructive self-interest. The title Report to Wordsworth is significant, because it immediately establishes the poem as a response to the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, inviting a dialogue between the past and the present. By using the word Report, Boey implies that the speaker is delivering urgent news or feedback to Wordsworth, a figure who championed the beauty and wisdom of nature. The title suggests that in contrast to Wordsworth's idealized vision of nature, Boey's report reveals the devastating consequences of humanity's disregard for the natural world, making the title both an address and a critique. The poem begins with a plaintive, you should be here, nature has need of you, which is enhanced by the trochaic rhythm of the first three feet.

[8:52]The second person pronoun you, to whom Boey's speaker is addressing himself, is the eponymous Wordsworth. When a speaker speaks directly to an absent person, a thing, or an abstract idea, this is known as an apostrophe. By directly addressing a long-dead figure like Wordsworth, Boey creates a sense of intimacy, as if sharing an urgent, sorrowful revelation with a kindred spirit. This personal appeal to Wordsworth underscores the profound sense of loss, as if speaking to someone who would have been deeply affected by the current devastation. Note also how Boey personifies nature as a female figure. Nature is often personified as Mother Nature in mythology, art, and literature, as a symbol of fertility, growth, nurturing, and life. Boey's use of this traditional personification is poignant, as it highlights the vulnerability of the natural world, which has been laid waste, ravaged, and ruined by human greed. The short sentence and matter-of-fact tone here is uncompromisingly grim. He continues, smothered by smog, the flowers are mute. The sibilant and nasal alliteration of smothered and smog can be described as ideophonic, as these sounds evoke the suffocating effects of pollution, and effectively draws the reader into the poem's oppressive atmosphere. The flowers which are mute have been silenced and can no longer communicate with us, while the birds are few in a sky slowing like a dying clock. This simile, which portrays time as mortal rather than infinite, creates a bleak image of species becoming extinct, as time slowly comes to a standstill. The final lines of T.S. Eliot's 1925 poem The Hollow Men are, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. Similarly, Boey suggests that rather than some dramatic catastrophe, time, and life with it, will just ebb away, as it is starved of the oxygen it needs for its survival. He continues, all hopes of Proteus rising from the sea have sunk, he is entombed in the waste we dump. Proteus is a sea god from Greek mythology, known for his ability to change shape at will, which symbolizes fluidity and adaptability. In the context of this poem, invoking Proteus can highlight the extent of environmental destruction, as even a god who embodies change and fluidity is powerless in the face of the damage inflicted on nature by human activity. Note the two instances of enjambment here. In the first, Boey exploits the visual separation to enhance his pessimistic tone, by initially suggesting that there may be a sense of hope, before dashing it at the beginning of the next line. The sibilant alliteration of sea and sunk perhaps evokes a sigh of despair.

[12:28]In the second, the enjambment effectively separates the formal entombed from the informal dump, highlighting the stark contrast between the two words. This juxtaposition is striking, as the informality of dump emphasizes our careless and disrespectful attitude, treating the environment like a rubbish tip, making the image even more shocking and impactful.

[12:57]Note also the assonance of sunk and dump which links these two ideas together and suggests that our downfall is inextricably linked to our selfish and greedy actions. He continues, Triton's notes struggle to be free, his famous horns are choked, his eyes are dazed. Triton is another Greek sea god, who was the ruler of the depths of the sea. Depicted with his lower half as a fish and his upper half as a human, he was known for possessing a conch shell which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves. Here, Boey is asserting that Triton is no longer able to control the seas, as these shells are choked with toxic waste, suffocated by the pollution, his eyes are dazed, as he seems on the verge of unconsciousness. Likewise, the once mighty Neptune, Roman god of the sea, lies helpless as beached as a whale. The simile suggests an image of a once all-powerful deity, now rendered powerless and vulnerable, much like the whale stranded on land, unable to return to the sea. This evokes the sense that even the greatest forces of nature are no longer immune to the destructive impact of human activity. Meanwhile, insatiate man moves in for the kill, which suggests that Boey sees humanity's actions as deliberate and predatory. The adjective insatiate means never satisfied and conveys an unrelenting, greedy drive, while moves in for the kill evokes the image of a predator closing in on its prey. This characterizes humanity as a force of destruction, intentionally exploiting and killing off nature for its own gain, with no regard for the consequences.

[15:30]We now reach the volta of the poem, which is two lines later than is customary in a Shakespearean sonnet. The line Poetry and piety have begun to fail, marks a significant shift in the poem. Up until this point, Boey has lamented the devastation of nature with vivid imagery and mythological references. However, this line introduces a deeper reflection on humanity's moral and spiritual failure. It suggests that even the forces traditionally seen as capable of uplifting and preserving humanity, poetry, representing art and creativity, and piety, representing reverence and respect, are no longer sufficient to counteract the damage. Note the plosive alliteration of poetry and piety, which inextricably links the pair. This turning point intensifies the poem's tone of despair, as it implies that not only is nature dying, but that humanity's guiding values are crumbling too. The line, as nature's mighty heart is lying still, is a reference to one of William Wordsworth's most famous poems, the sonnet Composed Upon Westminster Bridge. This is uncharacteristically for Wordsworth, a poem of lyrical beauty describing the view of the city of London, seen from a carriage crossing Westminster Bridge very early one morning. In the poem, Wordsworth marvels at the beauty of the golden sunlight reflecting off a glittering cityscape which is silent and bare, because everyone is asleep and the chimneys are not producing smoke. The poem ends with the exclamation, and all that mighty heart is lying still! Here, this line is meant in a positive sense, the mighty heart of the country, which is London, is lying still, momentarily at peace and at rest.

[17:36]While Wordsworth's line evokes a moment of tranquility and awe, as he sees London at peace during the early morning, Boey, however, takes this line and alters it, as nature's mighty heart is lying still. This change implies that what Wordsworth saw as a peaceful moment is, in Boey's view, a symptom of something much more dire and irreversible. It is possible that Boey is criticizing Wordsworth's idealized view of nature, perhaps suggesting that his perspective was too idealistic or complacent. Wordsworth in his time, celebrated the untouched beauty of nature, but Boey's more apocalyptic tone implies that humanity's disregard for nature has pushed it to the brink of death. By changing the line, Boey could be signaling that while Wordsworth saw nature as eternal and unthreatened, the reality today is that we are witnessing its collapse, something Wordsworth could not have anticipated in his own context. The poem ends on the rhyming couplet, O see the wound widening in the sky, God is laboring to utter his last cry. The use of O here is archaic in tone and functions as a sound of lamentation and mourning, emphasizing the depth of sorrow and loss that Boey feels for the destruction of nature. Romantic poets often used such expressions to convey emotional intensity and connection to the natural world. By using this archaic form, Boey not only aligns himself with the Romantic tradition, but simultaneously signals the tragedy of what has been lost. The metaphor of a wound widening in the sky, enhanced by the alliterated W sounds, is suggestive of the hole in the ozone layer due to air pollutants, which became a major environmental concern in the 1980s and 1990s. The imagery of a wound conveys the idea of something once intact, now being torn or damaged, and the notion of it widening emphasizes the growing scale of this environmental crisis. Boey presents a profoundly apocalyptic vision, where humanity's destructive actions have not only ravaged the natural world, but have even brought God, once omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, to the brink of collapse. In this vision, God, who is traditionally seen as beyond mortality, is now depicted as laboring to utter his last cry, suggesting that the divine too has been made vulnerable by human greed and neglect. This imagery conveys a loss of transcendence and power, portraying a world where even the divine is not immune to the catastrophic consequences of human actions. Boey's poem suggests the ultimate unraveling of both the natural world and the very fabric of existence, marking the end not only of the earth, but of everything that once seemed eternal.

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