The Leeches in "Resolution and Independence"

On the whole, I gleaned that Wordsworth's "Resolution and Independence" puts forth the idea that we must sometimes gain strength from others' suffering because simple beauty does not always suffice. That's not to say that the speaker in the poem wishes suffering upon the old man (nor does he relish in the suffering itself), but rather, he uses it as inspiration because his life, in comparison, is not so bad. In the poem, the speaker falls into a state of "despondency and madness" despite the natural, blissful beauty in stanza 5 (49).

The speaker then comes to the realization that he can comfort himself by will of mind in the final stanza of the poem. However, the realization strikes only after the old man explains that he gathers leeches to sell to doctors for a living (100). The speaker sees this as such a dismal existence that he is able to be thankful for his own existence and overcome his misery. I find it interesting that the old man is a leech gatherer for two reasons: firstly, the image's symbolic significance, and secondly, the image's historical magnitude.

In this time, leeches were used to suck out poison of the blood, ailments, etc. as a healing device. Meanwhile, the little leeches could be fat and happy, gorging themselves on the blood they craved. The method was supposed to be a symbiotic relationship for both parties. In this sense, the old man could be likened to a leech, sucking the mental ailments right out of the speaker. The old man might even gain from the exchange: he smiles as he repeats his means of subsistence for the speaker (although this may be a stretch) (120).

Historically speaking, though, this leech arrangement was far from symbiotic. It in fact drained both good and bad blood (and too much of it) from the human bodies. So, when I read this poem over again, I could not help but instead liken the narrator to a leech, sucking the life right out of the old man to quench his own selfish needs while the man wastes away before him.