ワーズワスとエクローグとエコロジー : Michaelの「パストラル」をめぐって

Abstract

My objectives in this paper are summarized as follows． First，I examine the relationships between Michael and Tintern Abbey Lines, which have been ignored by critics. Second，in light of Wordsworth’s faith cherished in Tintern Abbey Lines （‘‘Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her”）I clarify the meaning of the line in Michael "There is a comfort in the strength of love" . My claim is that this line evokes the true theme of the poem: the theme of man's restoration to his physical and mental health by "the power of Nature" . Third, I consider the extent to which Wordsworth identified himself with the protagonist in Michael. Fourth, I offer an ecocritical revaluaton of the pastoral poems of Wordsworth in terms of the 'therapeutic' effects that such poems may have on the modern reader. Finally, I suggest that Wordsworth's pastoral- or natural- poems may have provided only a limited means of 'salvation' for the poet in his later years.