ENGL 222 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Leech Collector, Romantic Poetry, Man Man
Document Summary
Wordsworth wanders around a wood considering how as one ages, they become less carefree and that care and pain must exist for carefree to exist. He then runs into an elderly gentleman who seems full of care and who is collecting leeches. The man enjoys his work and shows wordsworth that one can be contented even with care; they simply have an earnest resolve and endurance as they grow older. If someone this marginal can endure being at the bottom, humanity might have a power it can"t lose no matter what its condition. If the human condition has become somber and still, then its these characters who endure, there"s a chance a human power which can survive the blindness of its beggars condition. The landscape also represents the thrill of pleasure that helps ease the cynicism of the aging poet.
