An Analysis of William Wordsworths The Female Vagrant

In Wordsworths narrative poem The Female Vagrant, a British female vagrant who grew up in the country narrates her plight which took place during the later part of the eighteenth century when Britain was under urbanization, industrialization, and fighting in the American war for independence. Her plight was a result of the effects which these above mentioned events which were taking place in Britain had on her rural family life. This essay will explore how in the poem, The Female Vagrant Wordsworths portrays the effects of these events on rural family life. Wordsworth portrays the effects of urbanization on rural family life as horrible. At the start, the female vagrants life and her fathers was like a happy dream; One field, a†¦show more content†¦All perished; all, in one remorseless year,Husband and children! One by one, by swordAnd ravenous plague, all perished. Every tearDried up, despairing, desolate, on boardA British ship I waked, as from a trance restored. (127-135)The only peace she ever knew afterwards was when she was in the midst of the dark broad empty sea, on her voyage back to Britain. The nature of the sea was much similar to the nature of her life at that moment. She says it seemed to bring a joy to my despair (143). It removed the reality of her situation from her mind; And oft, robbed of my perfect mind, I thought / At last my feet a resting-place had found (172-173). But her peace could not last for long. She eventually reached her destination; and homeless near a thousand homes I stood / and near a thousan d tables pines, and wanted food (179-180). The vagrants misery took another direction in the city. She had to do with sleeping outside and learn to beg for food. This was not easy for a woman who grew up in a Christian family. Her experience of and her interactions with the well to do city people broke her heart further. It proved to her that her upbringing did not prepare her for the cold facts of life. The city people and their looks; looks where common kindness had no part, (204) and even when they offered some service, it was with careless cruelty (205). Help for theShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Gothic Genre and What it Entails6177 Words   |  25 Pagesinto neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid German Tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse. The human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants.. William Wordsworth, Preface to The Lyrical Ballads, 1802. ..Phantasmagoric kind of fiction, whatever one may think of it, is not without merit: twas the inevitable result of revolutionary shocks throughout Europe thus to compose works of interest