William Wordsworth's "Michael" is a narrative, pastoral poem with 484 unrimed lines. The speaker's purpose is to praise the rural life, lived close to nature.
Wordsworth’s Foreword
In a brief foreword to “Michael,” Wordsworth explains the circumstances that prompted the poem. He says that he wrote the poem at about the same time he wrote “The Brothers,” which was around 1800, when he was living in the house at Town-end, Grasmere, where his fictional characters live in the narrative.
The house was called Evening Star in his poem, but that name did not actually apply to that house but another one a bit farther north. An important relic in the poem is the sheepfold, which he reports still remains, “or rather the ruins of it.” He also alerts the readers that the sheepfold is very important to the poem’s narrative.
The Characters
The narrative features primarily three characters: Michael, an eighty-year old shepherd. Isabel is Michael’s wife, who is twenty years his junior, and Luke their son. Michael and Isabel have lived on land he inherited for many years. Michael is an industrious, dedicated worker, who has learned the meaning of each shift in the sound of the wind. Isabel is equally industrious, keeping her home, spinning wool and flax. And Luke their son is a model son, helping his parents in their arduous but rewarding life. They are the essence of morality and happiness.
Summary of the Tale
The opening of the poem describes the landscape on which the family of three lived and struggled. Their land was situated in a valley, and the speaker has made the trip on foot and reports the difficulty of accessing such a lonely and desolate terrain.
The narrative’s plot is quite simple: the family living close to nature is happy and content for many years, but when their son turned eighteen, a financial burden is laid on them from Michael’s having signed a document that made Michael liable for his brother’s son’s debts. Michael determines that instead giving up part of his land, he will send Luke to work for some rich merchant until Luke can make enough money to pay off the debt.
Good son that he is, Luke readily agrees to go. The family struggles with this decision but believe it is the correct one. On the evening before Luke is to leave, Michael takes Luke to a place on the side of mountain where he has been intending to erect a sheepfold.
Father and son have a heart-to-heart talk, and Michael has Luke place the cornerstone, telling him that he will finish the sheepfold while Luke is away. He also attempted to give the boy advice that would keep his character pure: “When thou art gone away, should evil men / Be thy companions, think of me, my Son, / And of this moment; hither turn thy thoughts, / And God will strengthen thee: amid all fear / And all temptations, Luke, I pray that thou / May’st bear in mind the life thy Fathers lived, / Who, being innocent, did for that cause / Bestir them in good deeds.”
After Luke leaves, he prospers well at first, sending home glowing letters, but later he changes, becomes a criminal and has to flee “beyond the seas.” Michael mourns the loss of his son, never finishes the sheepfold, where he daily goes to mourn. After seven years of mourning, Michael dies, and three years later Isabel dies.
Commentary
Wordsworth’s obvious purpose is to support his notion that a pastoral life is pure, moral, and happy. He believed that living close to nature, living an uncomplicated, spiritual life devoted to honest labor was the ideal. His narrative suggests that if Luke had remained in the natural valley with his parents and continued to live the pastoral life, he would have retained his moral character and saved his parents’ later years from grief.
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