Discuss 'Michael' as a Pastoral Poem

 'Michael' as a Pastoral Poem:

 William Wordsworth Michael is an elongated poem in blank verse. The Michael of the heading is the poem’s protagonist. The subtitle, “A Pastoral Poem,” appears to challenge the traditional idea of pastoral poetry as a form for the peaceful and the pastoral, and to make prepare the reader to accept the “low and rustic life” as the perfect pastoral.

 

The poem deals with man's battle in this unfriendly world to keep up his reputation and values, through the life of Michael, a forlorn previous. As Bernard Groom comments about the verse, “Wordsworth’s picture of rural life in Michael is less idyllic and nearer to historical truth than some readers may suppose." Michael is a straightforward peaceful poem however doesn't follow its specific

meaning. The poem tells the pitiable life story of a helpless shepherd. The setting of the poem is peaceful as it occurs around the spot in "Greenhead Ghyll." But, it does not have the aesthetic magnificence and disposition of the commonplace peaceful poems.

The poem is thought about an incredible psyche like that of Wordsworth, an acclaimed nature artist, along these lines acquired the credit of a peaceful sonnet in spite of him  passing up a great opportunity to satisfy up the guideline of traditional pastoral farm and style.

 

Pastoral is a kind of poem which deals with the lives of shepherd and shepherdesses in the rural areas. It is a poem in which the characters are shepherds and shepherdesses. In general it refers to a poem which deals with country or country life in a romantic way.

 

Michael relates the tale of a shepherd of Cumberland. Its setting is every inch pastoral. Michael is a shepherd who lived by the side of the forest in Grasmere valley. He was faithful to his profession as a shepherd. He was a lover of green valleys, streams and rocks. He witnessed many incidents on those hills and they lift a deep impression upon his mind. Michael's family consists of three members — he himself, his wife and their only son, Luke by name. Michael's bean was full of love and affection for his son and be had on many occasions performed the duties of a mother out of tenderness of heart. When Luke was a baby, he had rocked the cradle softly like a woman. He always kept Luke in sight whether he was working in the field or supervising the shearing of the sheep. When Luke was a boy of ten, Michael took him with himself on his laborious journey to instruct him in the duties of shepherd.

 

Therefore, Michael is a poem about shepherds, but the poem is free from the artificial conventions of a pastoral as prescribed by the ancient pastoral poets like Theocritus and Virgil. A new element i.e. realism is introduced by Wordsworth in pastoral poetry. Michael had a great hope in his son Luke whom he sent to London to bring good fortune for the family. But Luke failed in his mission. Being tempted by the evils of the city he went astray. This was a great shock to Michael. But he was able to endure the blow of misfortune because of his strength of mind.

 

His bodily frame had been from youth to age

Of an unusual strength. Among the rocks

He went, and still looked up to sun and clouds

And listened to the wind.

 

The appeal of Michael is simple and straightforward. It treats of everyday life of the shepherd with his elemental joys and aspirations Wordsworth tells us that the tale of Michael makes him feel for passion that are not his own. Similarly we begin to reflect on man and his destiny hose his hopes comes to nothing. Apart from this the poet shows his deep love for nature. Michael is shown as a lover of nature. The fields, the hills, and the air which he breathed were not indifferent to him:

 

And grossly that man errs, who should suppose,

That the green valleys and the streams and rock,

Were things indifferent to the shepherd's thoughts.

 

Thus Michael is a pastoral poem which narrates in unadorned blank verse the tragedy of a shepherd's shattered hopes. Michael is a masterpiece of serious simplicity and quite pathos. It is one of the best narrative poems written by Wordsworth.