The Full Text of “The Tables Turned”
1Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
2Or surely you'll grow double:
3Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
4Why all this toil and trouble?
5The sun, above the mountain's head,
6A freshening lustre mellow
7Through all the long green fields has spread,
8His first sweet evening yellow.
9Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
10Come, hear the woodland linnet,
11How sweet his music! on my life,
12There's more of wisdom in it.
13And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
14He, too, is no mean preacher:
15Come forth into the light of things,
16Let Nature be your teacher.
17She has a world of ready wealth,
18Our minds and hearts to bless—
19Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
20Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
21One impulse from a vernal wood
22May teach you more of man,
23Of moral evil and of good,
24Than all the sages can.
25Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
26Our meddling intellect
27Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
28We murder to dissect.
29Enough of Science and of Art;
30Close up those barren leaves;
31Come forth, and bring with you a heart
32That watches and receives.
The Full Text of “The Tables Turned”
1Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
2Or surely you'll grow double:
3Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
4Why all this toil and trouble?
5The sun, above the mountain's head,
6A freshening lustre mellow
7Through all the long green fields has spread,
8His first sweet evening yellow.
9Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
10Come, hear the woodland linnet,
11How sweet his music! on my life,
12There's more of wisdom in it.
13And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
14He, too, is no mean preacher:
15Come forth into the light of things,
16Let Nature be your teacher.
17She has a world of ready wealth,
18Our minds and hearts to bless—
19Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
20Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
21One impulse from a vernal wood
22May teach you more of man,
23Of moral evil and of good,
24Than all the sages can.
25Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
26Our meddling intellect
27Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
28We murder to dissect.
29Enough of Science and of Art;
30Close up those barren leaves;
31Come forth, and bring with you a heart
32That watches and receives.
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“The Tables Turned” Introduction
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"The Tables Turned" was written by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth and published in his 1798 collection Lyrical Ballads. The poem compares knowledge gathered from books with the profound wisdom of the natural world, and argues that nature is a far better (not to mention more enjoyable!) teacher. It also suggests that knowledge is incomplete without practical experience, which people simply can't get through studying. The poem thus fits right in with the aims and themes of the Romantic movement, which responded to the industrialization of society and celebrated the simplicity and beauty of nature.
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“The Tables Turned” Summary
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Get up buddy, and leave your books behind, or you'll only be weighed down even more. Get up buddy, and get that look off your face! Why are you working so hard?
The sun setting over the mountain gives off a soft, refreshing glow, and spreads its lovely evening light over the long, green fields.
Studying books is boring and the work never ends. Instead, come listen to the little finch, whose music is so pleasant! I swear there's more worth learning in his song than in books.
And listen! The song thrush sings so happily! He, like the finch, is a wonderful preacher. Come outside into the sunlight, and allow yourself to learn from nature.
Nature has so much to offer, and can bless our minds and hearts with the kind of unplanned wisdom that comes from physically engaging with the world, with a kind of truth that comes from happiness.
A forest in spring will teach you more about humanity, more about wickedness and goodness, than even the wisest of people ever could.
It's wonderful to learning from nature. Our annoying need to break things down so academically actually deforms the beautiful shape things naturally take. In trying so hard to understand them, we end up butchering them.
No more studying science or art; put away those fruitless pages. Come outside instead, with a heart open to simply watching and listening.
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“The Tables Turned” Themes
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The Wisdom of Nature
"The Tables Turned" contrasts the “dull” realm of human knowledge with the joyful wisdom of nature—a world of sunshine and birdsong that illuminates truth in a way no book ever could. A person can study all they want, the speaker argues, but nature is a better teacher than all the "sages." Human beings, with their “meddling intellect,” spend too much time attempting to dissect how things work rather than appreciating the beauty and wonder before them. To really gain wisdom, the speaker argues, people must humbly open their hearts to the lessons that nature has to offer.
The speaker urges a friend to put down the books and come outside to watch the sunset, insisting that doing so is much more valuable—and enjoyable—than intellectual study. The speaker scoffs at the idea of spending one’s life pouring over books, presenting such work as both difficult and unrewarding—as “a dull and endless strife.” Not only is this kind of study challenging and boring, it seems, but there’s also no end in sight to it! No matter how much and how hard people study, their understanding will always be incomplete. Books, the speaker implies, are no substitute for being out there in the natural world—for experience.
Nature, meanwhile, fills people with delight even as it offers them wisdom. Things like the “first sweet evening yellow” of the sun going down over a mountain and the “blithe” sound of a songbird are sources of pleasure and joy that the world of academic study totally lacks. Nature isn't just lovely, either: the speaker insists that immersing oneself in nature is actually the best form of education around. In fact, the pleasure of nature is part of what makes it such a good teacher; the "cheerfulness" it elicits breeds "truth," the speaker says, adding that there's more “wisdom” in the music of a linnet (another songbird) than there is in any number of books. Sitting around and reading simply can't compete with the "wisdom breathed by health" (that is, the wisdom from being out and about in the fresh air), and a tree in spring can teach one more about morality than even the wisest people in history.
Nature is rich with "wealth"—knowledge, wisdom, understanding—and is ready and willing to "bless" human hearts and minds, if only people are ready and willing to learn. That means rejecting the desire to "dissect" everything, to scientifically or academically process “the beauteous forms of things” and, in doing so, destroy them. Instead, the speaker says, people should move through the world with a sense of humility and openness, looking on and taking in whatever the natural world presents them.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Tables Turned”
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Lines 1-4
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?The poem starts with the speaker urging a friend (which may just refer to the reader in general) to get up and leave their books behind. Otherwise, the speaker says, "you'll grow double"—which might be a reference to the physical weight of lugging books around, or to the idea that this friend will gain weight if they do nothing but sit around and read.
The speaker next tells this friend, "clear your looks." Apparently, studying has caused the friend to scowl or frown, and the speaker wants to remove the look of intense concentration.
The quick repetition (technically epizeuxis) of "up" adds urgency and intensity to the speaker's call to action, as does the anaphora and broader parallelism of lines 1 and 3:
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
[...]
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;These lines are almost exactly the same, and this suggests a connection between putting down the books and clearing the pained/strained look from one's face. In other words, taking a break from studying offers a sense of relief. There's no need for all the "toil and trouble" of intellectual study, the speaker implies, with the alliteration and consonance of this phrase drawing a connection between the "toil," or work, of studying, and pain/suffering/etc/ ("trouble").
This stanza is filled with such sonic devices, in fact. The repeated /b/, /l/, and /k/ sounds add a deliberate bit of clunkiness to the language, which in turn suggests the tedium of traditional studying:
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?This stanza also establishes the poem's use of ballad meter. This means it's lines alternate between iambic tetrameter (lines with four iambs, poetic feet with an unstressed-stressed beat pattern) and iambic trimeter (lines with just three iambs). The meter is pretty inconsistent here, however:
Up! up! | my Friend, | and quit | your books;
Or sure- | ly you'll | grow double:Note how the poem starts with a spondee (two stressed beats in a row, as in "Up! up!"), which simply makes the speaker's command all the more energetic and forceful. The dangling unstressed beat at the ends of lines 2 and 4 ("trouble" and "double") adds to the stanza's aforementioned clunkiness, making things feel a bit jumbled and disjointed (perhaps evoking the dizziness that comes from staring intensely at a book for too long!).
The poem also follows a ballad rhyme scheme, meaning it follows the pattern ABAB; "books" rhymes with "looks" and "double" rhymes with "trouble."
Finally, the speaker might be making a subtle allusion to Shakespeare's play Macbeth here, which famously includes the line, "Double, double toil and trouble." This is part of a chant by a trio of witches spelling out danger for the play's main character—and the allusion might suggest that academic study is similarly a recipe for pain and agony!
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Lines 5-8
The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow. -
Lines 9-12
Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it. -
Lines 13-14
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher: -
Lines 15-16
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher. -
Lines 17-20
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness. -
Lines 21-24
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can. -
Lines 25-28
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
We murder to dissect. -
Lines 29-32
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
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“The Tables Turned” Symbols
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Light
Light symbolizes truth, wisdom, and understanding. The speaker contrasts the "toil and trouble" of intellectual study with the "first sweet evening yellow" of the sun setting over a mountain. The sun's "freshening lustre mellow"—or its soft, refreshing glow—"has spread" all across the green fields outside, representing the way that the natural world is suffused with truth and wisdom.
Midway through the poem, invites the reader to "Come forth into the light of things"—to see/understand the world more clearly. All this light is also linked to moral goodness and perhaps divinity; the speaker calls a songbird a "preacher," implying that the lessons of nature contain divine or holy truths about the world. To step into the "light" would be to step into that truth.
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Music
Music here represents the sheer pleasure of being in nature, and the fact that learning doesn't have to be hard, joyless work—it can actually be as easy as simply observing (or listening to) the natural world.
The poem argues that there's more wisdom in the "sweet" music of the woodland linnet (a kind of songbird) than there is in any amount of studying. The same goes for the song of the throstle (another songbird). And nature's lessons don't occur in spite of the beauty and sweetness of this music, but rather because of it. The poem suggests that the "blithe" (or happy) quality of the music is what makes it so easy to receive. Likewise, lessons about "good and evil" don't have to be boring or filled with "strife" (that is, bitter disagreement). Instead, people can learn just about everything they need to know by simply enjoying nature, whose music has a way of making these lessons more interesting and pleasant.
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“The Tables Turned” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Consonance
This poem uses consonance to great effect. Along with its steady meter and rhyme, all this musical consonance allows the poem to practically sing! This is important in a poem stressing the value of lessons that, more than once here, take the form of birdsong.
The liquid /l/ sound is especially common, lending the poem a smooth, melodic, sensuous quality throughout. For instance, in the second and third stanzas note lush phrases such as "lustre mellow," "all the long green fields," "evening yellow," and "woodland linnet." In this way, the poem doesn't just convey nature's beauty as an idea, but also evokes that beauty directly through sound. This, in turn, reflects the speaker's argument: knowledge isn't just something to be acquired through books, and is better acquired by listening to nature's songs and rhythms.
In stanza 4, /l/ consonance gets joined by gentle /th/ consonance ("blithe," "throstle," "forth," "things") and a touch of sibilance ("throstle," "sings"). These additions bring yet more softness to this stanza, as if setting aside the world of books for sunlight and birdsong may thaw out the heart and ease the mind.
In the poem's final stanza, pairs of louder, bolder sounds add emphasis to the speaker's final call to:
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring [...]The sharp /c/ sounds and booming /b/ sounds make the speaker's words feel all the more urgent and insistent.
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Alliteration
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Enjambment
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Juxtaposition
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Parallelism
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Personification
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Imagery
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Metaphor
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"The Tables Turned" 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.
- Quit
- Toil
- Lustre
- Strife
- Linnet
- Hark
- Blithe
- Throstle
- No mean preacher
- Vernal
- Sages
- Lore
- Meddling
- Mis-shapes
- Dissect
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Leave behind or get rid of.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Tables Turned”
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Form
"The Tables Turned" is made up of eight four-line stanzas (a.k.a. quatrains). The quatrains are more specifically ballad stanzas, which just means that they use a specific meter and rhyme scheme (both of which are discussed in the next sections of this guide.
The poem's form is thus very steady, comforting in its predictability and pleasant in its simplicity. This makes sense, given that the speaker condemns people's tendency to mess up "the beauteous forms of things" by trying too hard to intellectually "dissect" them. There's no dissecting needed here: the form is straightforward and clear.
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Meter
"The Tables Turned" follows something called common meter, which is common for ballads. This means that the first and third lines of each stanza use iambic tetrameter (they have four iambs: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM), while the second and fourth lines use iambic trimeter (they have only three iambs, three da-DUMs). Take the last stanza for a clear example of this meter in action:
Enough | of Sci- | ence and | of Art;
Close up | those bar- | ren leaves;
Come forth, | and bring | with you | a heart
That watch- | es and | receives.This perfect example of ballad meter gives the poem its pleasingly steady rhythm; the poem just sounds nice! This rhythm is also closely associated with Christian church hymns, and ballad meter thus also lends the poem a sense of reverence and awe. This makes sense, seeing as the speaker goes so far as to say that the throstle makes a good preacher.
Of course, there are some variations throughout the poem. The very first line starts with a stressed beat, making that opening foot something called a spondee—a foot with two stresses in a row. This lends a sense of emphasis and urgency to the speaker's insistence that this friend get up already:
Up! up! | my Friend, | and quit | your books;
The same thing happens in line 3 (which repeats that "Up! up!"), while line 9 starts with a trochee (stressed-unstressed, DUM-da):
Books! 'tis | a dull | and end- | less strife:
The opening stress here adds extra emphasis to the word "Books," again making the speaker's call feel all the more urgent and emphatic.
Other variations on the meter are less evocative. Lines 6 and 8, for instance, end with an extra, dangling unstressed beat (as in "A fresh- | ening lust- | re mel- | low"). It's pretty common for poets to be short on syllables or add an extra—as long as the line still follows the general pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (and in this case it does), the overall meter remains steady.
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Rhyme Scheme
"The Tables Turned" follows the strict rhyme scheme of a ballad:
ABAB
This means that the first and third lines of each stanza rhyme with each other, as do the second and fourth lines in each stanza. As is the case with the poem's steady form and meter, this regular rhyme pattern imbues the poem with music and a sense of simplicity. This all makes sense, given that the poem celebrates the simple beauty and music of the natural world. The poem just sounds pleasant to the ear, and this underscores one of the speaker's main ideas: that learning doesn't have to be dull and awful, but rather can be delightful—just as delightful as reading this poem aloud.
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“The Tables Turned” Speaker
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The poem's speaker is someone who's passionate about nature and humankind's relationship to it. Although the poem begins with the speaker addressing someone as "my Friend," the speaker is probably just talking to the reader in general rather than a specific person. The speaker wants to convince the reader that they shouldn't limit the scope of their learning to academia alone. Note that the speaker isn't saying books themselves are bad or not worth reading—anyone looking at this poem would likely have found it in a book, after all! Instead, the speaker believes that everyone should experience the pleasure of learning from the natural world.
Many readers take the speaker to be Wordsworth himself, given that the poem's attitude is in line with Wordsworth's own beliefs. In fact, the book in which this poem was initially published, Lyrical Ballads, was one of the foundational texts of English Romanticism—a literary movement that championed connection with nature at a time of increased industrialization.
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“The Tables Turned” Setting
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Taken literally, the poem takes place towards the end of the day; the speaker is urging a friend, who's studying, to put down the books and look up as the last rays of light wash over the earth as the sun sets. There's a mountain in the distance, a green field (which might indicate farmland), and songbirds warbling in the trees.
Through these details, the poem evokes a rural, pastoral, or even wild environment. Nature isn't scary, dangerous, or disinterested here; rather, it's lovely and benevolent, even personified as woman who "has a world of ready wealth" to offer people. In other words, the earth is generous.
The poem also references a specific time of year. The "vernal wood" of line 21 suggests that it's springtime, and, in turn, evokes everything associated with spring: youth, vitality, rebirth, and renewal. The reference to spring fills the poem with a sense of hopefulness, perhaps suggesting the refreshing, revitalizing power of connecting with nature.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Tables Turned”
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Literary Context
"The Tables Turned" was published in 1798 in Lyrical Ballads, a joint collection authored by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (though the majority of the poems were written by Wordsworth). The two poets had set out to upend conventions of 18th-century English poetry, which they considered to be stilted and overly elaborate. And while the poems of Lyrical Ballads might not seem all that radical compared to today's poetry, they were very unconventional in Wordsworth's day because they used plain, everyday language and were written for and about ordinary people.
The Lyrical Ballads would go on to be one of the most influential texts in all of English literature. It helped to usher in Romanticism, an artistic movement that emphasized the beauty and wonder of nature, the importance of emotion, and ordinary individuals' capacity for heroic action.
Romanticism was in part a response to the Enlightenment, which had held sway over European philosophy and art for over a century. Where Enlightenment thinkers favored reason and the scientific method, the Romantics stressed the value of feeling and imagination. This shift can be seen in "The Tables Turned" (whose very name suggests an upending of certain conventions): the speaker argues for the inherent goodness of a life lived in proximity to nature, and condemns the "meddling" of reason and intellect—impulses that "murder" the very things that make life worth living.
Historical Context
Like just about anyone living in Europe at the end of the 18th century, Wordsworth was profoundly impacted by the French Revolution. Early in his career he was politically active and outspoken about democracy and the liberation of common people; he supported the French who were fighting to end the feudal system and absolute monarchy. These beliefs were at the core of his early poetic experiments (though he grew much more conservative with age).
The driving force behind Wordsworth's work, however, and Romanticism more generally, was the Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain in the 1760s. New technologies such as the steam engine and the flying shuttle led to the creation of factories and the mass production of goods. People began moving en masse from the countryside to cities, resulting in intense urban overcrowding and issues with sanitation and pollution. The poor were often forced to work grueling and dangerous factory jobs for little pay, even as the rich were living more comfortably than ever.
As factories produced more and more goods (and the upper classes became more and more accustomed to buying them), there was also a greater need for natural resources like coal and lumber. Wordsworth and his contemporaries were alarmed by the subsequent depletion of the countryside.
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More “The Tables Turned” Resources
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External Resources
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Introduction to the Lyrical Ballads — Check out an electronic copy of the book in which this poem was first published, including an introduction by the authors.
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The Making of the Lyrical Ballads — An essay by Jonathan Kerr for the Wordsworth Trust about the creation of the Lyrical Ballads.
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Romantic Poetry — brief introduction to Romanticism, a movement helmed by Wordsworth and a few of his contemporaries.
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a recording of "The Tables Turned" as read by Amy Hall, a trainee for the Wordsworth Trust. The accompanying video was filmed at Dove Cottage, which was Wordsworth's home from 1799 until 1808.
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The Industrial Revolution — Learn more about Britain's first Industrial Revolution, which spurred the Romantics' wish for a return to nature.
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Wordsworth's Life — Read a biography of the poet courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Wordsworth
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