Behold an emblem of our human mind
Crowded with thoughts that need a settled home,
Yet, like to eddying balls of foam
Within this whirlpool, they each other chase
Round and round, and neither find
An outlet nor a resting-place!
Stranger, if such disquietude be thine,
Fall on thy knees and sue for help divine.
Using CPR to analyze this poem gives us a few plausible answers to questions not immediately present in the text. Literally the poem describes a stream, which is likened to both the human mind and a whirlpool. It refers to an uneasy “Stranger” who must ask for help in sorting out his or her thoughts. One odd aspect of this poem is that it is talking to the reader and instructing him or her to “behold” and “fall on thy knees” and “sue.” Following this pattern makes the reader wonder if he or she is the stranger, which ends up being the case. Another question brought about by reading this poem is why the stream and human mind are alike. The poem tells us that the mind has many thoughts which are all flowing around and trying to find a “resting-place” to stay or an “outlet” to get out. The whirlpool is like all the thoughts swirling around in our mind in that it does not allow circulating water to escape. We also wonder what the “help divine” to which Wordsworth refers is. Based on the knowledge that Wordsworth was a Romantic poet who used nature as inspiration, we can possibly say that this “help divine” is nature and that the way to find peace in a hectic mind is through spending time in nature.
