In “The Tables Turned” the poet instructs his “Friend” (“Up! Up! My Friend) to “quit your books”. Whilst the poem is couched in a personal spirit, it conceals a peremptory tone as he didactically tells his friend to “let nature be your teacher”. “The Tables Turned” is based on a conversation Wordsworth had with William Hazlitt when he was visiting Coleridge in the West Country, though Wordsworth transposed the setting to the Lake District. (They “got into a metaphysical argument” with Hazlitt extolling the virtues of books while Wordsworth replied, “let nature be your teacher”.)
In an uplifting but commanding tone, Wordsworth uses imperative verbs throughout his poem (“quit your books”; “Come, hear the woodland linnet”) to urge his “Friend” to follow the only true path. It is presented almost as a spiritual calling – in this sense the “throstle” becomes the “preacher” and the poet preaches to his “Friend” .
The poem reveals Wordsworth’s own revolution in poetic style, marking a decisive change from Classical-style poetry. It was a change from the highly formalised poems of the Classical era with their perfect hexameters or iambic pentameters. The alliterative phrase and interrogative tone – “Why all this toil and trouble?” conceals a criticism of the “Friend” who learns “Science and Art” vicariously and who appears to be “meddling” and misconstruing; he “mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things”. The caesura after “things: — We murder to dissect” accentuates the problematic nature of reading books which cannot supplant the wisdom gained from natural things. In contrast to the reader, Wordsworth presents the poet as one who captures the true nature of things; he does not “mis-shape” the beauty of natural forms. If the classical poets prioritise reason over the emotion and the senses, Wordsworth does the reverse.
Please see: The English Works Short Classics Anthology