Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room
Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room - meaning Summary
Solace Within Strict Limits
Wordsworth argues that voluntary constraints can be liberating. He catalogs nuns, hermits, students, workers and bees who find contentment within limited spaces, then applies that insight to poetry: the sonnet's narrow form becomes a pleasurable discipline. The poem presents restraint as a source of solace and creative focus, offering relief to those burdened by excessive liberty and celebrating the comfort of self-imposed limits.
Read Complete AnalysesNuns fret not at their convent's narrow room; And hermits are contented with their cells; And students with their pensive citadels; Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom, Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells, Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells: In truth the prison, unto which we doom Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me, In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground; Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found.
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