![]() At least “three score and ten” years old, with “few months of life… in store,” Simon Lee is “the weakest in the village” (7, 65, 40). Without stating outright that Simon Lee is a moral person, the speaker continually implies that Lee’s exceptional work ethic, particularly given his physical disabilities, is the human ideal. “For all the thinking that the speaker urges the reader to do, Simon Lee clearly cannot afford to just sit and ponder.” Since Simon Lee, the reader, and the speaker himself all have vastly different roles in the story and poem, the ideal moral action for each of them manifests itself in diverse ways. In this passage, the speaker seemingly defines moral action as doing as much as possible in any given situation. While this approach to behaving morally appears to radically differ from Simon Lee’s unbounded work ethic, thinking is actually the most active way that the reader can interact with the poem. The speaker’s advice places the reader in an active role rather than simply listening, the reader must think about the speaker’s words to identify and understand the moral tale of the poem. In other words, if the reader wants an actual story, all he has to do is think. The speaker further clarifies that the ballad as presented “is no tale, but should you think, / Perhaps a tale you’ll make it” (79-80). He chastises the listener, saying “O reader! had you in your mind / Such stores as silent thought can bring, / O gentle reader! you would find / A tale in every thing” (73-76). The speaker, however, does not hold his audience in the same high esteem, as illustrated when he takes a break from describing Simon Lee around line 72 to directly accuse the listener of expecting a story. ![]() #Oh gentle reader fullHe repeatedly praises Simon’s work ethic, emphasizing that Simon Lee, while physically incapable of doing all that is expected of him, never stops working and continually remains “so full of glee” (18). Regardless, the speaker clearly respects Simon Lee. However, while the characters in many traditional ballads are either vibrant action heroes or romantic protagonists, and Simon Lee himself “once was tall” and worked as a huntsman, the speaker chooses to describe Simon Lee when he is old and decrepit (4). ![]() Like many other ballads, “Simon Lee, the Old Huntsman” by William Wordsworth is a rhyming lyrical poem that tells a specific person’s story. ![]()
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