Plain living and ungarnish'd stories: Wordsworth and the survival of pastoral

Abstract

The essay reconsiders Wordsworths preoccupation with the pastoral, and argues for the importance of attending very closely to his language. It focuses on 'Michael' and suggests that, far from representing a retreat from public or moral issues, Wordsworths renewal of the pastoral is part of his larger concern with the health of the nation in 1800-1802. Nor is his criticism of poetic diction a straightforward rejection of classical pastoral; he is rather preoccupied with stripping away the false, in order to reveal truths that had become obscured. In 'Michael', he alerts readers to what they 'might see and notice not', and his own language in the poem is carefully chosen to reveal things that might not be immediately obvious. His admiration for 'plain living' is conveyed in language that is 'ungarnish'd', but its true value comes through the gradual recognition of what it is not. The pastoral, in Wordsworths hands, is not an idle tale of the Golden Age, nor is Michaels tale one of irredeemable despair. The language of the poem counters nostalgia by directing readers to the future, to new life, and hope, even as it acknowledges the experience of profound loss unflinchingly. Wordsworth revitalises the pastoral for the new century, in a profoundly literary engagement that is also central to his political and social concerns.