Question

Read the excerpt from "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth. Use scansion to determine which two lines are written in iambic tetrameter.

Excerpt:
"There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light
The glory and the freshness of a ... is not now as it hath been of yore:
Turn wheresoe'er I may
By night or day
The things which I have seen I now can see now more"

Options:
a. There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream
b. The earth, and every common sight to me did seem
c. Apparell'd in celestial light
d. It is not now as it hath been yore:
e. The things which I have seen now I can see more

You need to select two lines from the options.

Answer 1

After performing scansion on the provided excerpts from Wordsworth's poem, it is determined that Option b and Option d are the lines written in iambic tetrameter.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine which lines from the excerpt of "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth are written in iambic tetrameter, we need to recognize that this means the lines would have four sets of iambs (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). We perform scansion to measure the meter of the lines.

After analyzing the options, we find that:

• Option a ("There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream") is written in iambic pentameter.

• Option b ("The earth, and every common sight to me did seem") is indeed in iambic tetrameter.

• Option c ("Apparell'd in celestial light") is incomplete and doesn't fit any regular meter on its own.

• Option d ("It is not now as it hath been yore:") is also in iambic tetrameter.

• Option e ("The things which I have seen now I can see more") is in iambic pentameter with an extra beat.

The correct options that are written in iambic tetrameter are Option b and Option d.