Social Issues: ‘the mean and vulgar works of man’

Abstract

Wordsworth is often and popularly thought of as a ‘nature poet’, one whose primary concern is scenery, the mountains, rills and ghylls, wandering clouds and, of course, those daffodils. But the poet himself always regarded his true subject matter as the study of mankind itself.

A time there was, ere England’s griefs began,

When every rood of ground maintained its man;

For him light labour spread her wholesome store,

Just gave what life required, but gave no more:

His best companions, innocence and health;

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

But times are altered: trade’s unfeeling train

Usurp the land and dispossess the swain

(Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, 1770)