When he returns to try to find the old Wordworth he admired he is-in keeping with Wordsworth's own structure of poetic melancholy-already gone. Shelley transitions through observations of a natural current state, referencing Wordsworth's being using figurative language. The poem not only the loss of moments and emotions but also the feelings of the poet who witnesses and mourns the loss of what once existed. The poem operates around the metaphor of Wordsworth's death, referring to the change in Wordsworth's political leanings. But there is a particular loss that, while felt by both poets, Shelley hates: the loss of the Wordsworth that wrote poetry dedicated to "truth and liberty." This Wordsworth was a guiding light and a place of refuge for Shelley, but is now gone, leaving him in the dark and without a safe haven.
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He expresses his sympathy with Wordsworth's poems and the losses that he and Wordsworth share-losses that are common to all of humanity. From the beginning, Shelley alludes to Wordsworth's famous poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" in which Wordsworth reflects on the loss of the wonder and majesty he felt toward the natural world as a child.
![lines wordsworth lines wordsworth](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/william-wordsworth-58277.jpg)
Through form and content, Shelley engages in a dialogue with the older poet, expressing his sense of betrayal due to Wordsworth's changing political views.
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The poem is modeled after a Shakespearean sonnet with an altered sestet. " To Wordsworth" takes the form of an apostrophe to the poet William Wordsworth, a first-generation Romantic poet.