Surprised by Joy

Death posed a particularly nagging challenge to the first generation of British Romantics. In celebrating the energy of nature, they found death a stubborn exception or a tragic anomaly to nature’s kinetic power. After all, nature seemingly provides inspiration, offering radiant assurances of generous renewal. However, death resists such reassurances; it is permanent and fixed, and has no hopeful opposite—like winter without the promise of spring or midnight without the approach of dawn. As the speaker observes in this sonnet’s melancholy close, no amount of time will return to sight “that heavenly face” (Line 14). 

The speaker’s overwhelming melancholy is central to the sonnet. Although many of Wordsworth other poems extol a natural world bursting with energy, here the speaker is trapped in the tragic death.

The opening two lines present the dilemma. The speaker, reeling from the loss of those he loved, is momentarily “surprised by joy.” Despite his grief, he cannot help but respond to this respite from his sadness. The poem never specifies what triggers the experience—the cause is immaterial, since the feeling is universal. The speaker thus stands in for all mourners who cannot entirely suppress all positive emotions.