The Nutting-Wordsworth, Interpretation-by Alani

The Nutting:
...
"Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings
I felt a sense of pain when I beheld
The silent trees and the intruding sky." (Wordsworth Pg.158, L. 50).

In class we discussed the Poem by Wordsworth called, The Nutting which is where the quote from above is taken. We discussed how the poem was about a man that regretted ruining such a beautiful place by harvesting all the hazels in the woods. We also discussed that Wordsworth did his best to be direct and concise in the way he describes his nature scenes and how we find humanity in them. One idea that I thought of was that maybe the patch of invaluable hazels could be seen as the people working themselves to the bone doing agricultural, working class work and being taken advantage of by the rich. Another is that these people's work was destroying land to make others rich, and when the man in the poem did it of his own accord, he was no better than the rich he slaved for. I think if this was what he meant then the man in the poem would be saddened that he destroyed something so resembling himself. The workers made the kings rich, just like the hazel nuts made him rich, and he ruined them for his own benefit. In class we discussed that the way we read K-12 Literature is always finding a "deeper" meaning in things and to not do that when we read this. But I can't help myself. I understand that Wordsworth wanted to write in a way everyone then could understand, but I don't believe he wrote it without there being some metaphors that people could read and easily relate to their lives and give them not just something they can relate to, but something that gives them hope.