The Passions of "Michael"

In, “Michael”, Wordsworth paints an emotional portrait of a complicated man.  Though he the title character lives the simple life of a shepherd, he is a man of great passion.  Michael is what Wordsworth calls a, “natural heart” (line 36).  Though the speaker never refers to Michael as this directly, he implies it.  Michael has, “learn’d the meaning of all winds”, (line 48) travelled, “Up to the mountains: he had been alone/ Amid the heart of many thousand mists”, (lines 58-59).  The valleys, streams, rocks, fields, the animals, the air, “Which were his living Being, even more/ Than his own Blood,” (75-76).  Michael has a very deep connection with for nature.  He has great passion for the land and the animals he cares for.  It is this connection that drives Michael’s actions during his life.  

Michael’s passion for nature is rivaled only by his love for his son, Luke.  “Old Michael, while he was a babe in arms,/ had done him female service, not alone/ for dalliance and delight, as is the use/ of Fathers, but with patient mind enforc’d/ To acts of tenderness,” (lines 163-167). He raises his son to be a shepherd, like him.  When Luke turns five, Michael carves a shepherd’s staff for him and begins teaching him the ways of the land.  At the age of ten, Michael is going out with his father daily.  “He [Luke] was his [Michael’s] comfort and his daily hope,” (line 216).  

It makes sense then, that Michael would try to bind his two greatest loves.  He sends Luke into town to work for the money to keep the land so that it can become his inheritance.  Before Luke leaves, Michael makes a covenant with him.  “Luke stoop’d down,/ And as his Father had requested, laid/ The first stone of the Sheep-fold;”, (lines 428-430).  The cornerstone was intended to anchor Luke to the land, to the life of his father.  Michael wanted to ensure that all the joy, all the love he had experienced could be passed on to Luke.  So when Luke, “gave himself/ To evil courses,” (lines 452-453) and fled, one can only imagine Michael’s grief.  Yet, Michael keeps going.  He continues go out and care for his land, to tend to his sheep.  “There is a comfort in the strength of love;/ ‘Twill make a thing endurable, which else/ Would break the heart,” (lines 457-459).  Michael’s passion for the land is so strong that it keeps him going, despite his grief.  

It is my interpretation that part of him never gives up hope that his son will someday return.  Michael never finishes the Sheep-fold.  The arrangement still stands, and Luke can come and pick up where he left off.  This small pile of stones, “Of the unfinished Sheep-fold may be seen,” (line 490) long after everything else is gone.  It becomes a symbol of Michael’s undying love for his son.  Furthermore, it almost seems like an invitation to other “natural hearts”.  If they come and finish the sheep-fold, if the love and care for the land as Michael did, it is theirs.