William Wordsworth’s eight-line versanelle, “On The Banks Of A Rocky Stream,” packs much into a small space. The Romantic flavor explodes into the cosmic, leaving an array of beauty and wisdom that appeal even to the most logical, linear mind.
With the addition of a sestet, the eight lines might have constituted the octave of a Petrarchan sonnet with the rime scheme, ABBCACDD. However, along with the many qualities that structure the versanelle, the brevity places the piece squarely in the latter category.
First Line: “Behold an emblem of our human mind”
The first line of the poem directs the reader/listener’s attention to his/her own “human mind,” in which the speaker detects the possession of “an emblem.” The speaker commands his potential listener/reader to look at this important emblem. Such a command arouses in the reader’s consciousness the premise that a momentous event must be on the horizon.
Second Line: “Crowded with thoughts that need a settled home”
The speaker then directs his listener to understand that his mind, at least the emblematic representative of that entity, is likely a mass of whirling “thoughts that need a settled home.” That chaos of “thoughts” suggests the image of birds or leaves that at the behest of the wind fly off in all directions, without a constructive goal or destination.
The thoughts may also behave as if they are scampering mice, moving probably for the same reasons of fear and discomfort. Those thoughts are begging to be tamed and brought in from the cold; they need desperately to be “settled,” to be brought “home” where they may find repose and renewal.
Third Line: “Yet, like to eddying balls of foam”
Those blustering, chaotic thoughts resemble “eddying balls of foam,” which are tossed as waves in water. They scramble and present a jumbled mess, achieving nothing because of their dissipated, thus non-directed, motion.
The listener/reader also must remember that the metaphoric importance of the “balls of foam” is magnified when he recalls that those chaotic thoughts are, in fact, working their destruction inside the human mind. The metaphoric contrast in the context must be realized as more significant than most metaphors of comparison.
Fourth Line: “Within this whirlpool, they each other chase”
The motion of those thoughts is further characterized in the foamballs and located within a “whirlpool,” in which they “each other chase.” One formless thought after another arises with this restless mind, making the mind swirl, incapable of stilling itself in order to gain strength. The mindlessness that is propagated by agitation weakens the ability to think straight or logically.
Fifth/Sixth Lines: “Round and round, and neither find / An outlet nor a resting-place!”
The thoughts are dramatized as scattering “round and round,” and thus with this random motion, they cannot find a way to escape nor can they find a place to cease their constant activity.
Seventh/Eighth Lines: “Stranger, if such disquietude be thine, / Fall on thy knees and sue for help divine”
Finally, the speaker addresses his listener/reader directly, making it clear that he does not personally enjoy an acquaintance with his audience. By calling his addressee “Stranger,” the speaker sets up two implications: he holds no personal stake in offering his advice, and he, therefore, does not expect any compensation for such advice.
The speaker’s Romantic-hued notion embraces the most Classic sage advice—that only the Divine can offer the guidance and succor that will calm that befuddled, frenzied mind.
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