The Suppression of the Other and Self-Enlightenment in William Wordsworths Resolution and Independence :: essays research papers

My response to William Wordsworths Resolution and Independence focuses upon the precept that Wordsworths narrator uses the tale of the sponger Gatherer as a federal agency to achieve resolution to his own internal crisis. This is highlighted by, in my opinion, the narrator not so much paying attention to the Leech Gatherers tale, in time instead his pre- business enterprise with what he wants to interpret from the tale in order to satisfy his needs. I further argue that in doing so Wordsworths poem constructs the Leech Gatherer as the other, and that his otherness is suppressed by converting him into a mere instrument by which the narrator attains enlightenment. Although my containing of the poem is heavily focus on the encounter between the narrator and the Leech Gatherer, this doesnt occur until the eighth stanza. The poem starts with the narrator out for a stroll, feeling as riant as a boy marveling at the offerings of nature in the sunshine following a roaring in the wind all night. What struck me from these rise stanzas was the rhyming pattern used throughout the poem. Set in rhyme royal I found the meter both inviting and accessible, which made for an entertaining read from the outset. However from this pleasant beginning, quite an suddenly and apparently inexplicably during the fourth stanza, the narrator undergoes a violent mood swing As high as we commit mounted in delight/In our dejection do we sink so low/ To me that morning did it happen so. This sudden change left me quite disorientated and perplexed as to cause of his depression. After re-reading the passage and considering it in the context of the entire poem I felt that this mood swing was the readers first indication of the narrators status as a poet. This notion of a poets perspective remained at the foreground of my reading and I felt constantly reminded that the narrators subsequent quest for resolution and enlightenment came from the perspective of a poet, not merely an individual . My view of the narrator in spite of appearance this context was not an entirely positive one, as in addition to seeming over-analytical and emotionally fragile Perplexed and longing to be comforted - I felt he came across as condescending toward the Leach-Gatherer as if he came from a position of higher moral ground by virtue of his occupation as a poet. Within this context, an observation I found significant was