sent

Wordsworth's discussion of his connection with the natural world and with the lone wanderers he encounters in it seems to be preconcieved; he knows what he will find and what lessons he will learn before he even enters the wilderness. He seems to treat everything he encounters as some sort of lesson provided for him. It is very telling that he cut Dorothy out of the leech gatherer scene though her journal records her presence there. This suggests that he envisioned a particular moment that would have particular effects and her presence would deter from the personal and intimate nature of his contrived experience.

Interestingly, Wordsworth himself seems to question this type of attitude; he writes "how can he expect that others should/ Build for him, sow for him, and at his call/ Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all?" (lines 40-42). Yet his treatment of the leech gather suggests that this man exists solely to teach Wordsworth a life lesson. The old man was "from some far region sent/ To give me human strength and strong admonishment" (lines 118-119). Similarly, the old man isn't really even human, for Wordsworth "reads" the old man the same way he reads nature: "his voice to me was like a stream/ Scarce heard, nor word from word could I divide." He's not interested in the person, but more the IDEA of the person wandering around in nature, suffering and working to make a living. Wordsworth even wants the old man to read nature like he does; he describes the leech-man as "fixedly" looking into the water "as if he had been reading in a book" (lines86, 88). In The Prelude - Crossing the Alps Wordsworth writes of the mountains: "With such a book/ Before our eyes we could not choose but read" (lines 473-474).