Penny Dreadful S03E09 (The Blessed Dark)

John Clare (Rory Kinnear), Vanessa Ives’ kindred soul, is the last character who visits her tomb. The verses he recites are from Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth, first published in Poems, in Two Volumes in 1807). It is an irregular Pindaric ode with 11 stanzas.



The lines from “There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream” to “ The things which I have seen I now can see no more” are the 9 lines of the 1st stanza; the ones from “But there’s a tree, of many, one” to “Where is it now, the glory and the dream?” are the 16th/22nd lines from the 4th stanza.



The 1st/4th stanzas form the 1st movement of the ode, which discusses the fleeting quality of human life and youth, in opposition to the everlasting beauty of nature.

