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Yes, Dominic, I agree about that power of surprise, the point was about Wordsworth's use of 'natural speech', after all, Wordsworth's language was also well down the road to respectability, no pissing alleys in Grasmere. On 15 September 2011 17:34, Dominic Fox <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > "Rolled round in earth's diurnal course / with rocks, and stones, and > trees" > > - the grandness/fanciness of "diurnal" here comes into the foreground > precisely because of the lexical (though not metaphorical) plainness > of the surrounding context. In Wordsworth, you notice a word like > "diurnal" - it has a power of surprise that it wouldn't have in (say) > Dryden, where it would simply belong to the prevailing register. > > Dominic > -- David Joseph Bircumshaw "The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." - Calvin & Hobbes Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/