A Purple Orgasm?

In the sonnet “On Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress” the color purple is representative of the blood flowing through Wordsworth veins. The pumping of Wordsworth is a direct consequence of seeing Miss Helen cry. Purple is not only a symbolism of royalty as we typically assume, but it is also the combination of red and blue. Red is symbolic of strong emotions and blue is symbolic of the human emotion of sadness; the combination of these two colors express the sentimental tone of the poem.

In the last half of the poem the two colors of red and blue seem to collide again although purple is only mentioned in the first line of the sonnet. “Dear was the pause of life…” can be interpreted as a sexual orgasm – and as we all know and orgasm is filled with strong emotions from both participating parties and the human emotion of sadness when the pleasure is over. The two emotions combined create the color purple which we originally examined, for intensely flowing blood is needed for an orgasm. The idea of two colors uniting and being representative of an orgasm seems rather abstract but can be represented by the painting below.