"Resolution and Independence," by William Wordsworth, is a poem about the speaker meeting a very old man, and the good effect that this encounter has upon him. The poem conforms to romantic ideals with the use of simple word choice, and the stress on the beauty of nature. The poem starts off on a fine spring morning. The speaker, who is a young man, is walking in a happy frame of mind. Suddenly, his mood changes, and he is overcome by anxiety about his future. He starts to think about the disastrous fates that have befallen other poets, and may befall him. As he walks in his painful state of depression and fear, he comes across a solitary, old figure, standing in a shallow pool. The poet approaches the man, and asks about his way of life. The old man replies with simple dignity. He makes a simple living by gathering leeches, and the work has been growing more difficult for him as time goes on. He is quite alone in the world. He is so old that it does not seem possible that he should go on living, because he has nothing to live for. Yet, he never complains, and shows no self pity. The poet feels ashamed for having been so distressed by his imagination of his misfortune. He decides to make the old leech-gatherer, his example of strength and fortitude. .
Wordsworth uses metaphors to give the reader a better understanding of the old man. He compares him to something that the audience already knows. A chief characteristic of the old man, is his dignity. Wordsworth compares the old man to a, "huge stone," such as we sometimes see, "couched on the bald top of an eminence." When someone sees a stone on top of a high mountain, they wonder, "how did this stone get there?" Similarly, the poet wonders, "how does this man manage to move?" Wordsworth describes the old man, "motionless as a cloud the old man stood, that heareth not the loud winds when they call; and moveth all together, if it move at all.