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The speaker addresses the soul of the dead poet John Milton, saying that he should be alive at this moment in history, for England needs him. England, the speaker says, is stagnant and selfish, and Milton could raise her up again. The speaker says that Milton could give England “manners, virtue, freedom, power,” for his soul was like a star, his voice had a sound as pure as the sea, and he moved through the world with “cheerful godliness,” laying upon himself the “lowest duties.”
This poem is one of the many excellent sonnets Wordsworth
wrote in the early
The speaker of this poem, which takes the form of a dramatic outburst, literally cries out to the soul of John Milton in anger and frustration. (The poem begins with the cry: “Milton!”) In the octave, the speaker articulates his wish that Milton would return to earth, and lists the vices ruining the current era. Every venerable institution—the altar (representing religion), the sword (representing the military), the pen (representing literature), and the fireside (representing the home)—has lost touch with “inward happiness,” which the speaker identifies as a specifically English birthright, just as Milton is a specifically English poet. (This is one of Wordsworth’s few explicitly nationalistic verses—shades, perhaps, of the conservatism that took hold in his old age.)
In the sestet, the speaker describes Milton’s character, explaining why he thinks Milton would be well suited to correct England’s current waywardness. His soul was as bright as a star, and stood apart from the crowd: he did not need the approval or company of others in order to live his life as he pleased. His voice was as powerful and influential as the sea itself, and though he possessed a kind of moral perfection, he never ceased to act humbly. These virtues are precisely what Wordsworth saw as lacking in the English men and women of his day.
It is important to remember that for all its emphasis
on feeling and passion, Wordsworth’s poetry is equally concerned
with goodness and morality. Unlike later Romantic rebels and sensualists,
Wordsworth was concerned that his ideas communicate natural morality
to his readers, and he did not oppose his philosophy to society.
Wordsworth’s ideal vision of life was such that he believed anyone
could participate in it, and that everyone would be happier for
doing so. The angry moral sonnets of
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