Pan 1 Engl 469 18 May 2011 Michael and the New Realistic Pastoral According to the Oxford English

Dictionary, the pastoral can mean of or relating to shepherds or their occupations, specifically engaged in or relating to the farming of livestock as opposed to the production of crops. Of poetry, plays, music, and pictures, the pastoral portrays rural life or characters, especially in an idealized or romantic manner (OED). The earliest entry for pastoral poetry as a form or style of literary composition predates back to Theocritus, Virgil, Mantuan, and Sanazar in 1598. Other notable writers who employed the conventions of the pastoral include Alexander Pope, John Milton, John Gay, Edmund Spenser, Shakespeare, and many of his contemporaries. Eventually, the pastoral genre died out in the eighteenth century only to be later revived in the nineteenth century as a mood rather than a genre. William Wordsworth, a Romantic writer, attempts to revive the pastoral in several of his poems but it is most notably seen in Michael. Wordsworth reimagines a new realistic pastoral in Michael by showing the dual love Michael has for both son and property and the subsequent loss of both at the end of the poem that gives off a sense of tragic realism, and by making Michael into a hero figure. There is no doubt that Michael is a pastoral. Wordsworth makes it clear when he subtitled the poem A Pastoral Poem. Indeed, he makes it blatantly obvious as if readers arent at first aware it would fall under the pastoral genre. Wordsworth purposely guides us to this conclusion because Michael doesnt fall under such works as Theocrituss Idylls, Marlowes The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1599), Spensers Shepheardes Calender (1579), and Miltons Lycidas (1637). Michael is not about songs of courtship and seduction like in

Pan 2 Raleghs The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd, lamenting the loss of someone, or praising a distinguished person like in Mary Herberts A Dialogue between Two Shepherds. Michael is a simply a poem about Michael and his family and how their story demonstrates a connection between nature and the heart of man and human life (33). Wordsworths intentional use of the word pastoral allows the readers to evaluate Michael within the context of the pastoral tradition. He also deliberately uses this technique to make us question the conventions of the pastoral genre and makes us reassess what exactly constitutes a pastoral poem. In order to evaluate Michael within the context of the pastoral tradition, we must first look at the conventions of the traditional pastoral whether it is employed in poetry or other literary genres. We know that the pastoral deals with shepherds and an idealized picture of rustic life as opposed to a more realistic view that Wordsworth employs in Michael. At first glance, Michael does exhibit the traditional conventions of the pastoral. Michael is first and foremost a shepherd who takes pride in what he does. He is ultimately defined by his role as a shepherd and as a father as we are given a glimpse of his old life. We know nothing about him other than he has a wife, Isabel, and a son, Luke, and the fact that he tends to his animals with the vigor of youthfulness and strength. Although an old man, he is still stout of heart, [] strong of limb, (42) and his mind was keen, [i]ntense, and frugal, apt for all affairs (44-5). The setting is placed in the country rather than in the city. It is set in a lake-district mountain landscape where [n]o habitation can be seen [] with a few sheep, with rocks and stones, and kites (9-11). Although the poem opens up with a sense of foreboding with the tumultuous brook (2) and the upright path [y]our feet must struggle (3-4), it eventually gives way to the peace and solitude of a hidden valley (8). There is an importance given to the pastoral mountains, (5) a literal place where Michael, a shepherd, puts his sheep to pasture and which also offers a literary sense of the

Pan 3 pastoral (Lessa 181). It can be suggested that Michaels love for both son and property is idealized and Romantic as it becomes almost excessive in nature. I would even go so far as to suggest that Michaels love for his son borders on exaggeration: He with his Father daily went, and they Were as companions, why should I relate That objects which the Shepherd loved before Were dearer now? That from the Boy there came Feelings and emanations- things which were Light to the sun and music to the wind; And that the old Mans heart seemed to born again? (197-203)

To be fair, we cant really blame Michael, a father, for devoting himself to the love and care of his son. It is only natural that Michael would feel paternal love for his son yet Luke exists to inherit the land which Michael equally adores. Luke is the only son that Michael can give away his property to; whose own children will inherit the legacy of the land and family and so on. Thus, Michaels selfish and dare I say it, exaggerated love for his son ties in with the fact that he is his inheritor as much as he is blood kin. It is in this way that Wordsworth moves to a more realistic pastoral by tainting Michaels love for his son with that of his property. Lukes tragic fate, on being taken away from the natural setting, can also be seen as pandering to an idealized view of the rustic life as the natural world is given primacy over the artificiality of the cityscape. Luke becomes a victim of the city as he is corrupted with vice and sin. Wordsworth wants us to believe that this tragic situation would not have occurred if Michael had persevered and Luke had stayed in the country. Luke began to slaken in his duty (443) and [h]e in the dissolute city gave himself to evil courses: ignominy and shame [f]ell on him (444-

Pan 4 5) suggesting that it is the fault of living in the city rather than in the natural world. Topics that are common in the traditional pastoral include love and seduction; the value of poetry; death and mourning; the corruption of the city or court vs. the purity of idealized country life and politics (Schwartz). The latter can certainly be seen in Michael as discussed with Lukes tragic fate. Yet we are given another view of the battle between the supposed corruption of the city and the supposed purity of idealized country life. The same cannot be said for Richard Bateman as it did with Luke. Batemans situation acts as a foil to Lukes situation. He is a parish boy, a poor boy supported financially by the poor rates (taxes) paid out by the wealthier members of his parish (Norton 297), who surprisingly finds success in moving to the city. He grew wondrous rich, [a]nd left estates and monies to the poor (267-8) whose fortunate life has Isabels face brightening and the old man glad at the prospect that the same could be said for Luke. Unfortunately that is not the case as Luke is driven at last to seek a hiding-place beyond the seas (446-7). He will not inherit the land left to him because he failed, as well as Michael and Isabel, to save it from being sold to a stranger. The only thing that remains at the end is the unfinished sheepfold. To reiterate, Wordsworth is picturing an idealized version of the countryside in which nature rules over everything, yet the loss of son, property, and the death of the shepherd lends a sense of tragic realism that overshadows the idealized view of the rustic life. This will be discussed later on. Wordsworth further ties Michael to the pastoral tradition by the using an external speaker as a frame for the story (Lessa 182). The frame narrative can be seen in the pastoral writings of Pope (182). The first thirty nine lines do not introduce Michael for whom the poem is about but the poet-speaker who is telling the story. The poet-speaker is entranced by the tragic story of Michael. He is not Wordsworth although the speaker is a poet like him who is telling the

Pan 5 tale for the young poets who will succeed after him, very much like how Luke is the successor of Michael. The eclogue, a dialogue between two shepherds, and elegy, an expression of the poets grief at the loss of a friend, are common pastoral poetic genre (Schwartz). Wordsworths Michael can be seen as a pastoral elegy as the poet-speaker, telling us the tale of Michael, praise the simple life the dead shepherd leads. However, Wordsworth and the poet-speaker are not exactly grieved at the loss of both son and property that leaves Michael in a crippling state. Nor are Wordsworth and the poet-speaker particularly worried at the shepherds death at the end of the poem. Michaels tragic tale only serves to give the poet-speaker inspiration: And hence this Tale, while I was yet a Boy Careless of books, yet having felt the power Of Nature, by the gentle agency Of natural objects, led me on to feel For passions that were not my own, and think (At random and imperfectly indeed) On man, the heart of man, and human life (27-33)

In this excerpt, there is no hint of grief or loss. It gives the reader a sense of importance to the tale the poet-speaker reiterates for the youthful poets (38) who will be my second self when [the poet-speaker] is gone (39). The poet-speakers telling of the tale is without any emotional attachment. The figure of Michael, to the poet-speaker, represents not a flesh and blood human being but rather a construct. We are not lamenting the tragic ending to a very human tale but we are celebrating the values of fortitude, constancy, and love as seen in the endurance of Michael in his old age.

Pan 6 Wordsworth moves away from the conventional pastoral poems of Pope, Gay, and Johnson in his reimagining of the pastoral. Mark Jones, in his article Double Economics: Ambivalence in Wordsworths Pastoral, addresses the question of realism by exploring strained symmetries and restrained hyperboles in Michael. Although he ends his argument by demonstrating that Michael is in fact parodic, even ironic, and not turning toward realism as other critics have suggested, he provides evidence into why that might be so. He says that the strained symmetry suggests a rational design and that the symmetries of Michael speak of artifice, their breaches suggest mimesis (1099). Jones argues that the most common explanation for reading Michael as realism rather than as pastoral, or as a peculiarly realist pastoral, is that it puts so much emphasis on toil and hardship (1101) which lends an air of naturalism. I agree that Wordsworth puts much emphasis on toil and hardship to suggest that living a simple and hardworking life can be rewarding in its own way. Real shepherds, and not idealized ones, have to work hard for their keep. Jones does not agree that Wordsworth was marking a turn away from the pastoral and toward realism, or toward a realist version of pastoral but he does demonstrate why critics might have thought this way. Richard Lessa, on the other hand, believes that Michael reflects a profound change in the conventions of the pastoral and in the end it becomes a more traditional poem, but only when its shepherd-heros life has lost virtually all meaning (181). It is interesting to note his use of the word shepherd-hero (181) because a shepherd is not usually portrayed as a hero in the pastoral tradition. A shepherd better fits in the drawing rooms of polite society than the hills, swamps and sheepfolds of real rustic life (Schwartz) meaning that while they identify themselves as shepherds, it is in name only. It creates a distancing effect which allows the poet to step back from and critique society (Schwartz). According to the Oxford English Dictionary,

Pan 7 a hero is defined as a man distinguished by extraordinary valour and martial achievements; one who does brave or noble deeds; an illustrious warrior. This definition is what we usually associate a hero with and not with what we would equate with Michael. Perhaps a better definition for what Lessa meant in describing Michael as a shepherd hero would be a man who exhibits extraordinary bravery, firmness, fortitude, or a greatness of soul, in any course of action, or in connection with any pursuit, work, or enterprise; a man admired and venerated for his achievements and noble qualities (OED). If we look at it in this context, then Michael certainly qualifies as a hero. Even though he loses his son and land, he exhibits an endurance that is commendable in old age. It is even commendable that Michael, representing small independent proprietors of land, have survived as he did before he lost the collateral on the loan for his nephew. But even the first definition is not that far off in evaluating Michael whose bodily frame had been from youth to age [o]f an unusual strength (43-4). Time and again we are given the picture of endurance and continuity with Michael. It is no wonder that Judith W. Page and Fiona Stafford felt that Wordsworth was in the process of reimagining or reviving the pastoral poem. According to Page, Wordsworths decision to reshape or revise the pastoral is in part a concern over the state of affairs happening around the world (627). She provides a very good question: Should the pastoral be an essentially refined, artificial, courtly genre or should it reflect in its rusticity the realities of the shepherds life and language? (622). Page argues that he does not choose sides although it is apparent that Michael shows the realities of the shepherds life and language. Stafford, too, contends that Wordsworths interest in renewing the pastoral had much to do with what was happening in Britain and France. Due to his preoccupation with the historical crises, Wordsworth saw a need to do away with certain conventions that can be found in the poems of Pope and other traditional

Pan 8 pastorals (118). Stafford argues that Michael is a pastoral poem and should not be seen as a rejection of a traditional pastoral. Instead, it is easier to look at it as being bare of the traditional conventions of the pastoral and in its place is found a universal truth that is merely obscured (118). While Stafford offers a valid point, she forgets that omitting some of the conventions that defines the pastoral genre meant altering it of some kind. To alter is to make (a person or thing) otherwise or different in some respect; to modify, to change the appearance of (OED). Michael is altered from a traditional pastoral and therefore is reinvented. I have already established that Wordsworth is reimagining a new realistic pastoral. He does this by showing the dual love Michael has for both son and property which in and of itself is not that different from a traditional pastoral. It is in his subsequent loss of both at the end that truly deviates from the pastoral tradition by lending the poem a sense of tragic realism. Everything does not resolve itself at the end as one might hope under the circumstances: 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 this Sheep-fold wrought, And left the work unfinished when he died. Three years, or liitle more, did Isabel Survive her Husband: at her death the estate Was sold, and went into a strangers hand (467-475). We are given a sense of hopelessness at the end as the only thing that remains is the oak that grew besides their door and the remains [o]f the unfinished Sheep-fold (480-1). Making everybody die at the end suggest that Michael can be seen as a tragedy, an unusual

Pan 9 combination for a poem subtitled A Pastoral Poem. A tragedy is a play or other literary work of a serious or sorrowful character, with a fatal or disastrous conclusion (OED). There is no doubt that there is a fatal or disastrous conclusion. The ending gives off a sense of tragic realism by showing the realities of what may happen to small independent proprietors of land which Wordsworth saw as rapidly disappearing (Norton 292). Michael seems far removed from the pastoral writings of Marlowe, Ralegh, Campion, Spenser, Herbert, and Milton. Yet the poem does exhibit conventions of the pastoral genre as Wordsworth points out when he subtitled Michael a pastoral poem. Wordsworth moves away from the traditional pastoral and creates his own sense of the pastoral in Michael.

Works Cited

Pan 10 Jones, Mark. Double Economics: Ambivalence in Wordsworths Pastoral. PLMA 108.5 (1993): 1098-113. JSTOR. Web. 10 April. 2011. Lessa, Richard. Wordsworths Michael and the Pastoral Tradition. University of Toronto Quarterly 53.2 (1983-84): 181-94. MLA. Web. 10 April. 2011. Page, Judith W. A History/Homely and Rude: Genre and Style in Wordsworths Michael. SEL 29.4 (1989): 621-36. Web. 10 April. 2011. Schwartz, Debora B. Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Comedy. California Polytechnic State University, 2002. Web. 17 May 2011. Stafford, Fiona. Plain Living and Ungarnishd Stories: Wordsworth and the Survival of Pastoral. Review of English Studies 59.238 (2008): 118-33. OXFORD. Web. 10 April. 2011. Wordsworth, William. Michael. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 2006. 292-301. Print.