“A Complaint” Summary

“A Complaint” Themes

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  Loss, Loss, and Memory

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A Complaint”

• Line 1

  There is a change—and I am poor;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 2-4

  Your love hath been, nor long ago,
  A fountain at my fond heart's door,
  Whose only business was to flow;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  And flow it did; not taking heed
  Of its own bounty, or my need.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  What happy moments did I count!
  Blest was I then all bliss above!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Now, for that consecrated fount
  Of murmuring, sparkling, living love,
  What have I? shall I dare to tell?
  A comfortless and hidden well.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  A well of love—it may be deep—
  I trust it is,—and never dry:
  What matter? if the waters sleep
  In silence and obscurity.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-18

  —Such change, and at the very door
  Of my fond heart, hath made me poor.

  

  

  

  

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“A Complaint” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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“A Complaint” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Taking Heed
• Complaint
• Change
• Fond
• Bounty
• Consecrated
• Obscurity

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A Complaint”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“A Complaint” Speaker

“A Complaint” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “A Complaint”

More “A Complaint” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a recording of "A Complaint." 

  • Biography of William Wordsworth — Find out more about William Wordsworth, the man and the poet, through the Poetry Foundation. 

  • Coleridge and Wordsworth — Learn more about Coleridge's infatuation with Sara Hutchinson and his falling out with Wordsworth after the eventful Christmas of 1806. 

  • British Romanticism — Find out more about the roots and central tenets of the British Romantic movement.

  • Complaints — Learn about the widespread genre of "complaint" via this article on the Encyclopædia Britannica. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Wordsworth

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  • Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

  • Expostulation and Reply

  • Extract from The Prelude (Boat Stealing)

  • It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

  • I Travelled Among Unknown Men

  • I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

  • Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey

  • Lines Written in Early Spring

  • London, 1802

  • Mutability

  • My Heart Leaps Up

  • Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room

  • Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

  • She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways

  • She was a Phantom of Delight

  • The Solitary Reaper

  • The Tables Turned

  • The World Is Too Much With Us

  • Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower

  • To a Snowdrop

  • We Are Seven