Physical Corruption Turning to Ecological Purification in William Wordsworth’s “Michael”

Nature, the long viewed source of energy and the unifying tranquilizer of human being’s psyche, has long been considered as the core issue weaved into the fabric of different works of literature through its interrelation vividly expressed in the background of such outstanding works as William Wordsworth’s “Michael: A Pastoral Poem” (1800). By the same token the choice of a pastoral setting in this poem has a lot to do with the majesty of Nature, drawing the attention of ecocritics to the new reading of it [the poem] in the lens of Ecocriticism. Taking these issues into consideration, the current paper is devoted to delve into a major point: that is, examining bucolic elements, as the signifying factors of an ecological study of “Michael” so as to shed light on the pastoral significance of the poem that leads to the ecological rebirth of the Shepherd Michael at the end. Accordingly, the ecological background of the poem can be seen as a work of social criticism protesting against what happens to the innocent people, who have a deep interconnection with Nature, in the city. Thus, the main conclusion that can be drawn from this short research paper is that Wordsworth, as a poet of Nature, tells the readers how living a pastoral life can enlighten us about the knowledge of the power of love, whose beams of hope can lighten the hearts of pastoral shepherds and rural men even in their graves.