![]() ![]() The trio, together, showcases hard work among the villagers. From his young age, the child seems to help his parents, along with the two sheepdogs they had. She had two wheels, one for spinning wool, the other for flax. She was a homely woman fully conscious of her domestic duties. His wife is twenty years younger than him. Some injury done to sickle, flail, or scythe,īetween lines 78 and 109, Wordsworth describes Michael’s wife and their child. Though younger than himself full twenty years. His days had not been passed in singleness. He had a pleasurable feeling of blind love for the fields. For him, the hills were a book in which he could read many experiences. He had in his memory many incidents of hardships, skill or courage, joy, or fear. When the south wind blew, he anticipated the storm and so he hurried to the mountain top to bring his sheep to safety. In his occupation, he was prompt and watchful more than an ordinary man. He was an old man, ‘stout of heart, and strong of limb’. In these lines, he introduces “Michael,” the protagonist of the poem. The pleasure which there is in life itself. ![]() There dwelt a Shepherd, Michael was his name Īn old man, stout of heart, and strong of limb. He learns about the people and life that existed there, he starts to think of ‘on man, the heart of man and human life.’ As the poet says, here, he introduces his subject of the poem, a ’homely and rude’ life of a shepherd. The poet, at this point, is a boy, careless of books, yet having felt the power of natural objects. This place is associated with rich and strange events, some tales of shepherds. There is a small river and by the side of that small river, there lie some uncut stones. It is a lonely valley of Greenhead Ghyll, a solitary place in the valley among the high mountains. In this introductory part of the poem, ‘ Michael,’ Wordsworth vividly describes the land on which Michael lives, making it seem like paradise. Up the tumultuous brook of Greenhead Ghyll, IF from the public way you turn your steps The poem is conceived of a great mind like that of Wordsworth, an acclaimed nature poet, thus earned the credit of a pastoral poem despite him missing out to meet up the standard of traditional pastoral farm and style. The setting of the poem is pastoral as it happens around the place in “Greenhead Ghyll.” But, it lacks the artistic beauty and mood of the typical pastoral poems. The poem tells the pathetic life tale of a poor shepherd. Michael is a simple pastoral poem but does not follow the exact definition of it. Wordsworth begins the poem with a detailed description of the place and the inspiration he has received. The Michael of the title is the poem’s protagonist. It is a pastoral poem for it deals with the life of a shepherd and the struggles he undergoes in his life. Michael is a long narrative poem that consists of 483 lines. Here, Michael, the shepherd on whom the poem is written leads a respectable life, until fate has its way with him. Thus, he set the poem in the hills of Grasmere valley, an idealized rural setting. In this place of utter solitude, he learned about the tales of shepherds. The poet got the inspiration for this poem when he visited the lonely valley of Greenhead Ghyll. Theme and setting go hand in hand to express the purpose of the poet. It delineates how an orderly life of a man breaks up into disconnectedness and chaos. Wordsworth focuses on man’s struggle to maintain himself and his values in a hostile world that tries to pull him down. Michael is a tragic poem that deals with the traumatic life of Michael, a shepherd with dignity. He leaves old Michael and his wife alone to take care of themselves. But, when the boy goes into the world, he is distraught, and the outer world tempts him. He needs to lay a cornerstone as a sacred promise to fulfill his duty. Before his departure, Michael instructs Luke of his obligations towards his forefathers. To compensate for this loss, he sends his son to a wealthy distant relative for employment. ![]() As Wordsworth himself stated, this tale of Michael heard when he was a boy, led him to feel for other men and to think ‘on man, the heart of man, and human life.’ The poem depicts the story of an old shepherd, his wife, and their son, Luke.Īs the son grew up, he became his father’s ‘comfort and daily hope.’ When the boy is eighteen, Michael had to discharge the debts of a nephew for whom he has given surety. Michael is a story of a man’s struggle to maintain himself and his values in a hostile universe. ‘Michael’ is a simple pastoral poem that bears the closest resemblance to the bareness of solitude in the mountain as well as the difficult life lead by the people in the mountains.
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