Spots of Time

Lakeland poet William Wordsworth is often stereotyped as a lover of ‘daffodils’ - and of all things associated with the natural world.

There is no doubt that Wordsworth had a passion for nature, but the source of that passion more importantly came from within.

Wordsworth came to recognise that some of our experiences of the natural world live inside us as more than just as memories.

In ‘The Prelude’, which tells the story of his progress from childhood to adulthood, Wordsworth writes of special moments which he calls ‘spots of time’.

‘Spots of time’ are experiences of the natural world that we carry within us as living images or impressions which can be called upon in times of weariness or stress. By re-experiencing these special moments they can in his words ‘retain a renovating virtue’.

We all have ‘special places’ we pine after when caught up in our daily routines. According to Wordsworth these can be permanently integrated into our lives. Positive feelings and images stored within the unconscious can be recalled to mind and used to re-energise us.

“Spots of time’ are also important to the hypnotic experience. Through hypnotherapy we learn techniques that can be used to harness these positive feelings and make them available to us at any time.

Here are the lines from ‘The Prelude’ where Wordsworth explains his ideas about ‘spots of time’:

There are in our existence spots of time,
Which with distinct preeminence retain
A renovating virtue, whence, depressed
By false opinion and contentious thought,
Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight
In trivial occupations and the round
Of ordinary intercourse, our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired –
A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced,
That penetrates, enables us to mount
When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen.

(The Prelude, 1805 Version, lines 257-267)