How does Wordsworth Show the Dignity of Labour in 'Michael'

Michael is a famous poem in which Wordsworth has portrayed the inevitable relationship between work and existence. Existence requires work because survival is for the fittest.

 

Wordsworth Show the Dignity of Labour in 'Michael':

 

Michael is a pastoral poem, defines about the man the spirit of man and human life. Michael is an aged man but he has won the limitations of age. He works hard in the field from dawn to late at night. His only son Luke is instructed how to look after the sheep. His wife Isabela also works all the time. Michael’s wife Isabela as

the perfect maintenance impressively for her family and works hard to care them. She has two spinning wheels. Even returning from the field in the evening Michael lits a lamp and all the members of the house work very sincerely. Even sitting by the fire at night they work as far as possible. They have proverbial reputation all over the locality for their tireless industry. Actually for the inhabitants of the world work is of central importance:

“Often times

When others heeded not, he heard the south

Make subterraneous music, like the noise

Of bagpipers on distant Highland hills.

The shepherd, at such warning, of his flock

Be thought him, and he to himself would say

The winds are now devising work for me.”

 

Thus Michael’s disposition towards work suggests an eternal urge for work.

 

The poet has glorified the dignity of labour even through the stature of Michael. Michael is an old man but he is strong in heart and stout in limbs. His devotion to work has taken him to the lap of nature. Nature has inspired him to build up a firm relationship between father and son. Father and son remained together as long as they worked together. Thus it is latently suggested that work lies in the core of the harmony among beings and things.