I would like an analysis of the poem "Michael" of W.Wordsworth!?

Answer 1

"In 1800, again in close touch with Coleridge, Wordsworth prepared the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, enlarged to include 'Michael' and the 'Lucy' poems among other poems. For this edition Wordsworth wrote the famous Preface.
With 'Michael' Wordsworth pays his debt to pastoralism and creates the myth of
natural man and a symbol of fortitude. Fortitude was his favourite word and the virtue he most admired in men. The poem has the subtitle 'a pastoral', which indicates that it is part of that tradition in style and subject. The poem is a record of pastoral life and the poet's honest admiration of it. Details are chosen to convey the dignity and grandeur of that life,
embodied in the character of Michael, who with his rugged health, strong will, independent mind, intimacy with the countryside and domestic feelings pesonifies its virtues. At the opening the shepherd Michael is over eighty but still 'stout of heart, and strong of limb'.

His bodily frame had been from youth to age
Of an unusual strength: his mind was keen,
Intense and frugal, apt for all affairs,
And in his shepherd`s calling he was prompt
And watchful more than ordinary men.
Hence had he learned the meaning of all winds,
Of blasts of every tone.

The unfinished sheepfold, the central object and the thing on which the covenant was made between Michael and his son Luke, is the symbol of failure of hope. Michael is compelled by financial needs to send his son to a kinsman, but before his departure
Michael requests that the boy lay a corner-stone for a new sheepfold. Luke is at first successful then fails and flees to a remote country. Michael is defeated by the failure of his son, the victim of a corrupt society. The sheepfold remains unfinished and Michael is
seen sitting beside it unable to 'lift a single stone'. The story of Michael`s life with its pathos assumes the cathartic character of great tragedies and the poem ends with 'a vision of utter loss':

There by the Sheep-fold, sometimes was he seen
Sitting alone, or with his faithful Dog,
Then old, beside him, lying at his feet.
The length of full seven years, from time to time,
He at the building of his Sheep-fold wrought,
And left the work unfinished when he died.
Three years, or little more, did Isabel
Survive her husband: at her death the estate
Was sold, and went into a stranger's hand.
The Cottage which was named The EVENING STAR
Is gone - the ploughshare has been through the ground
On which it stood; great changes have been wrought
In all the neighbourhood: - yet the oak is left
That grew beside their door; and the remains
Of the unfinished Sheep-fold may be seen
Beside the boisterous brook of Green-head Ghyll.

The story about a deep concern for human values is told, the tragedy is put into the past as part of history - one more tale about endurance and grief, loss, frailty and love."

Answer 2

I am drinking Bordeaux (Chateau Branda, Saint-Emilion 2003) while answering this question, and I definitely like your poem. It has nothing to do with the wine. Even completely sober, I would like it. I think I would love to be able to make journeys to Mars but come back to Earth as well.

Answer 3

Stultifying Dull

Answer 4

And I would like someone to do my law homework for me, but we really won't learn that way will we? Wishful thinking, my friend.

Answer 5

Try this. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:lH6Ncvt1utEJ:www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/English151W-03/wordsworth%255Bmichael%255D.htm+wordsworth+poem+michael&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4