Lines

Wadsworth’s “Lines” reveals a powerful truth of humanity involving our perception of pleasure and how within the context of time, pleasure can be altered. He articulates the feelings that we all possess, to some degree, that it is hard to enjoy the moment when future stability is unclear. The poem immediately subordinates “present pleasure” (63), when it connects this pleasure to “thoughts / that in this moment there is life and food / for future years” (63-65). The poem suggests that in any particular moment we are still constantly striving for permanence. It is not enough to have “life and food” in the moment, because our instinct is to worry about a future reality when we may no longer possess them. In a sense, Wordsworth is discussing the tendency of all people to worry about avoiding death, rather than celebrating life.

             He goes on to say that he moves like a man “flying from something that he dreads, / than one who sought the thing he loved” (290), but in a way, this reality is unavoidable. The man who chases what he loves without considering the risk of such a chase does not survive. It is, in a sense, a requirement of survival to recognize the temporariness of life and somehow try to defy it.

            The poem also speaks to the struggle that all humans face in understanding and facing our loneliness. As the poem walks the reader through the “wild seclusion” (6) of nature, the reader comes to the “Hermit” as he “sits alone” in his cave (289). It is then the reader begins to connect with the Hermit, because in a way, we are all confined within our own cave, as embodied individuals, we are both figuratively and also very literally separated from everything around us. However, the poem conclusion restores hope to the reader, as it helps reconnect us with the world around. The poem suggests that while we all inherently exist in isolation, it is possible that the “green pastoral landscape” exists both for “themselves,” but also for “thy sake” (159).  This final line confirms the hope that we all possess that we can break through the barriers of our separateness and simultaneously live within our own world, while also living outside of the confines of our minds in order to connect with the larger world around us.