![]() The speaker notices that despite his tireless efforts, Simon is simply too old and weak to cut down the tree on his own. Most notably, “one summer-day chanced to see / This old man doing all he could / About the root of an old tree, / A stump of rotten wood” (81-84). Since he is not just an outside narrator but also a participant in the poem’s plot, the speaker also has the ability and obligation of moral behavior. Even though Simon’s constant efforts are not enough to save him and his wife or even delay his inevitable death, the speaker clearly demonstrates that Simon Lee is responding to his situation in the best way possible, and therefore acting morally. ![]() If the joint efforts of Simon and “his wife, an aged woman” who is only slightly stronger and more able than he, are not enough to produce a living, what good would it do to waste time by thinking about his bad luck? (30). He has no one to provide for him as “he has no son, he has no child” and “his master’s dead, and no one now / dwells in the hall of Ivor” (28-29, 21-22). For all the thinking that the speaker urges the reader to do, Simon Lee clearly cannot afford to just sit and ponder. Throughout the poem, Simon is always doing something as opposed to simply reflecting on his situation. Remaining surprisingly cheerful is one of two ways that Simon deals with his horrible circumstances he also pushes himself into his daily tasks, working harder than any man of his age and situation should. Even describing him in the form of a ballad suggests that Simon is a hero, and by continually emphasizing how horrid his living situation is, the speaker ensures that the reader realizes how amazing it is that “no man was so full of glee” as Simon Lee (86). The speaker clearly believes that Simon Lee is a good person, either because he pushes himself to his physical limits, or because he is so physically limited. Although he is a pitiful sight, no longer able to competently perform physical labor, Simon Lee is “forced to work” to survive because he and his wife live in poverty in an abandoned town (39). ![]() 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. He 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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