“The Old Cumberland Beggar” by Willian Wordsworth

In one of the poems out of his “Lyrical Ballads” dating from 1800, William Wordsworth
depicts the life and its meaning of “The Old Cumberland Beggar”. Using the narrative flow of a
lyrical I, the poem accentuates the beggar’s closeness to nature, the emotions he evokes in people,
and the demand to preserve his freedom. The paramount statement it conveys however is the
beggar’s value for other people.

Starting with a portrayal of the beggar’s appearance over the first 21 lines, it moves on to
indicate people’s sympathetic attitude towards him. The long middle passage stretching from line
67 to line 154 deals with the worth the beggar possesses and what he gives to society. Its language
is more sophisticated than the beginning and the end of the poem and will also be central for this
analysis. Eventually, the poem concludes with the reward which the beggar earns for the social
function he fulfills.

The guiding question to be followed throughout this analysis will be in which way
Wordsworth implies social criticism in connection with the function of the beggar. The starting
point to trace all of the aspects mentioned above will be the poem’s formal structure. Formally, the
poem is divided into 7 stanzas amounting to 189 lines. On the one hand, its language is highly
narrative and not subdued to any regular rhyme scheme. Most striking on the other hand is, that
there are two different levels of language.

From line 1 to line 66, simple language is used, probably to allow easy access to the poem,
but mostly to clarify and allude to the beauty of nature and the old order. In these first lines the
beggar, who represents the old order, and his way of life in connection with nature are depicted.
Also, the way the village people treat him with kindness is described. The language applied in this
passage can easily be understood by everyone, since it does not differ too much from the language
of lower-class people.

In line 67 the second level of language is introduced, which boasts a much more complex
language. It stretches up to line 154. Here the language applied is more complicated. It is rather
similar to the language of more educated people on a higher social footing who are probably
addressed here. In this large part, there are many enjambments, which make it more difficult to
read than the other part in more simple language.

From line 155 up to the end, there is a shift to the simple level once again because
everybody needs to understand that the old beggar must not be put into workhouses and that this
kind of captivity would harm him. The middle part with its level of complex language is embedded
into the simple language level and carries the main message of the whole poem.

The lyrical I in this poem is the narrator, unnamed and not described. It has known the
beggar since its childhood and describes the beggar’s situation and how the village people deal with
him or how they should treat him. It wants the reader to realise that every human being is worth
living and should be respected. It shows them how they can learn from the beggar and how
everybody can personally benefit from the act of charity. But it also criticizes people who do charity
work only to save a place in heaven for themselves (Cf. line 154).
 The lyrical I wants the reader to become a better person, doing an office of charity and
experiencing the special happiness, joy and pleasure this can bring. The act of caring for others
makes people feel human, and so it is important that even the very poor should have a chance to
feel this: "man is dear to man" (ll.147-153)

Furthermore, also the connotations of the lyrical I are noteworthy. As already mentioned,
there are hardly any hints of description of the lyrical I whatsoever. Considering the author’s
biography though, it appears plausible to see some sort of identification with Wordsworth himself,
who had a personal encounter with a beggar at the time when he was in France during the
Revolution. That time has also found its entry into the poem with regard of social criticism.

Social criticism is an important theme of this poem even if Wordsworth refers to it

The formal structure as well is used in order to convince the reader. There are 31 lines in
which the lyrical I “fights” for the liberty of the beggar subdivisioned in 6 parts, every single one of
them beginning with the request: “let him…”. Only in the middle of the poem the workhouses and
the institutionalized life appear in a way that one gets the impression they are only mentioned to
show us our enemy, to let us know whom to fight against. The repetition of “let him…” first of all is
a strong, nearly penetrating emphasis of the beggar’s liberty, but besides that also a direct address
to politicians, or humanitarians as we can call them in general, not to interfere with the beggar’s
life even if he will possibly be the last person to fight for his own rights. Everything in this final part
is written in such a simple language and stressed by such obvious stylistic devices that everybody,
even the simple village people Wordsworth observed so much, easily understands his intention.

It is correct that nature does not always resemble a warm and caring “mother”, but still
Wordsworth holds the opinion that even the coldest wind or snow blows a blessing on the old
man’s head. Apart from that he belongs to this environment across all seasons, because he has
done so his whole life and so he should have the opportunity to end it there, which Wordsworth
points out in a parallelism:

“As in the eye of Nature he has liv’d,

So in the eye of Nature let him die”

Here he uses the first line as a reason for his concluding request. It is also true that the beggar is a
very old and bow-bent man who is hardly aware of the world surrounding him. His daily life is of a
mechanical and nearly subhuman monotony focused on the struggle to survive. But it is all that
which makes the beggar so different from other people who are aware of the beautiful landscape
around them, able to look at the hills and valleys and the sun. The beggar does not separate himself
from the world around him but nearly becomes one with it which makes him a part of the earth.

From this angle we can see the beggar as a symbolical figure for all beggars and their
function. The lyrical I points out that the beggar’s function is to create acts of charity and bind the
community together in the knowledge that they all have one human heart. He’s a monitor of
them all and can thus be seen as a pathetic parody of their own nature and good for the awareness
of their own social state. That is another very important argument Wordsworth gives, If the beggar
will be put off the streets the dialogue between the givers and him, their object of charity will be
destroyed and the community will have to miss one important limb.

So on the one hand we can conclude that Wordsworth is against the institutionalization of
the beggar because in his eyes his function in society is too important to be missed. On the other
hand he makes an appeal to our human respect for the individual to let the beggar live in freedom.
As we implied above, William Wordsworth had met a beggar girl in France during the Revolution.
Taking this into consideration, some underlying intentions of “The Old Cumberland Beggar” can be
linked with the French Revolution’s leitmotif of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité“. These ideas are of
course strongly connected with on the one hand social criticism in general and the specific social
criticism in this poem.

A revolution always starts with people who are dissatisfied with their situation. They criticize
people who decide about what they should do although they can hardly imagine their feelings,
wants and needs. It is important for the beggar that he can live his own life in personal liberty.

“The old man does not change his course”

and he is free to follow his own way of life close to nature and its laws, which can once more be
proved by the parallelism at the end of the poem, e.g. :

“As in the eye of Nature he has lived,

So in the eye of Nature let him die“