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Kyle Thomas
ENG 521
Seminar Draft 1
23 Nov. 2010
Disease as Romantic Disillusionment in “The Discharged Soldier”
The era of the late 18th century was comprised of remarkable feats in exploration,
discovery, and an overall surge of British expansion and global identity. Colonialism
was becoming widespread in many parts of the world including the West Indies, Africa,
and India. British identity was quickly represented by economic growth and military
power. England was beginning to see the effects of colonialism as sailors and soldiers
returned home injured and diseased, and the idea of British grandeur and global
dominance was diminishing as the negative effects were beginning to compete against the
supposed triumphs of colonialism, creating a paradox of purpose in the collective
consciousness.
Wordsworth’s “The Discharged Soldier” represents the disillusionment of British
expansionism as well as a disturbance of the Romantic view of the Self. Wordsworth and
the other Romantic poets were great images for British society in the sense of selfcontrol, self-empowerment, and peace in the individual. The Romantic notion of the
individual imagination as a mode of making meaning was central to the poets’ purposes
and important to the reader as well. Although a reader can find much of that idealistic
success in Romanticism, at times there also looms the feeling of struggle and ambiguity
of the poet’s search for meaning in the texts. “The Discharged Soldier” is an example of
such a poem where the narrator is confronted with an attack on the serenity with the Self
and nature. The concept of disease can be seen as an attack by nature on the human
body. This is in conflict with the Romantic idea of harmony between the human and
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nature. In this poem, the Romantic sense of “self-possession” is destabilized and put into
question for Wordsworth’s narrator.
In examining Wordsworth’s “The Discharged Soldier,” I will also look at colonial
narratives as a backdrop that greatly influenced the perceptions of the time toward British
expansionism. Since Wordsworth was an eminent voice in literature and consequently a
voice of social issues, I think this poem shows the effect of colonial disease not only as
disturbing to the Romantic poet but to England’s perception as well. To give a brief
background of colonial narratives concerning contact with diseases, I will look at a few
of these sources but mostly focus on accounts in James Lind’s Essay on Diseases
Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates (1768) and Alan Bewell’s introduction on Lind
in Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation titled Medicine and the West Indian Slave Trade.
The inflation of diseases and rapidly spreading contagions were largely due to
European colonists coming into contact with the indigenous people and new
environments which resulted in the appearance of new and complex diseases which were
never encountered before. The immediate rise of these new diseases led Europeans to
believe that the causes were these foreign places and the native people. Colonial
narratives simultaneously became medical narratives as writers like James Lind began
recording the development of these diseases. Lind’s essay about the West Indies is a
lucid example of the medical narratives associating disease with the drastic climates to
which Europeans over time could acclimate to and become immune to the diseases. In
one passage Lind writes, “Men who thus exchange their native for a distant climate, may
be considered as affected in a manner somewhat analogous to plants removed into a
foreign soil” (Lind 26). Lind’s descriptions of the tropical climate of the West Indies
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represents the tropicalization that colonists were attributing to certain locations and began
the method of “geographical mapping” which Europeans used for labeling places by their
prevalence of disease. In the introduction to Lind’s essay, Alan Bewell writes, “One
unfortunate consequence of its emphasis upon European health is that it produced a view
of the tropics as being essentially pathogenic spaces or ‘unhealthy climates’” (Bewell
23).
In 1679 Thomas Trapham wrote A Discourse of the State of Health in the Island
of Jamaica which was one of the earliest medical narratives and also represented the
distorted view that Europeans had of the tropical islands. Trapham wrote that Jamaica
was a ‘paradise’ compared to the amount of sickness in England at the time; however,
about the same time Richard Ligon had also assigned the exotic island as a ‘hell’ with the
severity of its diseases. This difference exposes the unknown places and accounts in such
areas that comprised much of the contradictory records of the time. It was recorded that
from the 1640’s onward that yellow fever epidemic outbreaks began in the West Indies.
Yellow fever is the presumed disease that the soldier has in “The Discharged Soldier,”
and represents one of the most pervasive and threatening of diseases during the time.
This cursory background of disease and colonialism illustrates the European ideology of
diseases contracted from abroad and the recognition of ill soldiers returning home which
were prevalent during Wordsworth’s time.
Before delving into the poem, I think there is an underlying course of perspective
by the narrator that should be brought to attention—the spatial trajectory of the narrator’s
perspective. The poem begins with the narrator on the outskirts of a town, but towards
the middle of the poem upon hearing the soldier’s tale, the narrator’s view fixes upon a
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small village; it is important to recognize this shift in the tone of the poem as it might be
seen that the village represents a city, or perhaps in the narrator’s mind a representation
of metropolitan England and the majority of the populous. Although this is perhaps of
secondary importance in reading the poem, I think being attentive to the spatial shifts
through the narrator’s gazes can be read as a sub layer to the perception of disease in
relation to what is ‘outside’ of England and what is ‘inside.’
The rural environment at the beginning of the poem is an essential factor in
creating the narrator’s Romantic state as is common with Wordsworth. Although the
narrator begins on a public path, the quietness of the night and his course as he ascends
further up the path to a rural outlook allows the sense of solitude. The narrator regards
the scenes of nature and pauses to evoke the images for the reader: “I slowly mounted up
a steep ascent/ Where the road’s watery surface…seemed before my eyes another stream/
Stealing with silent lapse to join the brook/ That murmured in the valley” (6-11). Like a
familiar Wordsworth beginning, the narrator begins to recognize the power nature has in
eliciting a feeling of harmony the individual has with nature. The narrator continues,
“Above, before, behind,/ Around me, all was peace and solitude” (24,25). In identifying
the ubiquitous feelings of “peace and solitude,” the narrator begins to feel the external
forces encompassing his mood and having effect on his state of mind. All of the
narrator’s senses are mingled into a state of synesthesia where the feelings become
palpable: “I looked not around, nor did the solitude/ Speak to my eye, but it was heard
and felt” (26,27). By experiencing the sensuous effects of nature, the narrator recognizes
his own physical strength and vitality—nature is an agent that evokes the awareness of
the narrator’s own human physicality: “A consciousness of animal delight,/ A self-
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possession felt in every pause/ And every gentle movement of my frame” (33-35). The
Romantic notion that nature can elicit in the individual a feeling of self-control or “selfpossession” is conveyed in this passage, and it is a critical feeling that Wordsworth
expresses that will be challenged through the rest of the poem. The narrator’s sense of
certainty and dependency on his own body is starkly contrasted to the upcoming
encounter with the soldier.
The instance the narrator first sees the soldier comes by a change in the course
in which he was walking: “It chanced a sudden turning of the road/ Presented to my view
an uncouth shape” (37,38). This spatial change of direction marks the shift in which the
narrator is presented with the soldier, and it turns from his quiet, rural path to a sharp
unknown scene. The narrator backs into the shade not to be seen and begins describing
the man. Following the previous passages of the narrator’s awareness of his own body,
the narrator’s perception continues on the body as he describes the soldier. “He was in
stature tall,/ A foot above man’s common measure tall,/ And lank, and upright. There
was in his form/ A meagre stiffness. You might almost think/ That his bones wounded
him. His legs were long,/ So long and shapeless that I looked at them/ Forgetful of the
body they sustained” (41-47). The diction the narrator uses such as “uncouth shape,” “his
form,” and “shapeless” conveys a vagueness to what the narrator sees and is like
describing the makeup of something unknown or non-human.
Continuing in observation of the man’s body, a sense of illness or injury is
immediately evoked by the narrator commenting on the “meagre stiffness” and “his
bones wounded him.” He describes the limbs and face as the image of an unhealthy and
almost non-human figure: “His visage, wasted though it seemed, was large/ In feature, his
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cheeks sunken, and his mouth/ Showed ghastly in the moonlight” (49-51). The narrator
notices that the man is in military uniform and then contemplates the overall nature of the
soldier. Proceeding from the soldier’s physical descriptions, Wordsworth seems to
convey that the narrator’s perception of the man stems from seeing the lack of physical
health and the man’s loss of vitality: “He appeared/ Forlorn and desolate, a man cut off/
From all his kind, and more than half-detached/ From his own nature” (57-60). In this
sense of the soldier’s isolation not only from society but even his “own nature,” the
narrator sees that the physical state of the man is signifying his apparent sense of selfidentity. He is described in phrases of incompleteness such as him “half-sitting and halfstanding” and “half-detached from his own nature” (53,59). The narrator’s perception of
this ‘half-formed’ man in no control of his own body lies in direct contrast to the
narrator’s earlier feeling of “self-possession.” Wordsworth and the Romantics’ idea of
the Self and its holistic characteristics as one’s individual identity and security seem to be
confronted here in the encounter with the soldier.
After the narrator’s first impressions of the soldier, it is important to pay attention
to how the narrator chooses to continue watching the soldier and how to react. Again the
description as something non-human is expressed by the narrator in commenting on his
clothing: “I think/ If but a glove had dangled in his hand,/ It would have made him more
akin to man” (64,65). This, again, evokes the feeling of detachment from society and
humanity. Here the narrator also begins to recognize the weakness of the soldier in the
manner of his speech: “From his lips meanwhile/ There issued murmuring sounds, as if
of pain/ Or of uneasy thought” (68-70). This attention to the loss of voice and language
in the soldier will be further contemplated in the narrator’s encounter. At this point,
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juxtaposed to the narrator’s deeper recognition of the man’s detachment, the narrator’s
perspective is immediately turned to a nearby village “whose silent doors/ Were visible
among the scattered trees,/ Scarce distant from the spot an arrow’s flight” (73-75). This
brief interruption of the narrator’s observation of the soldier indicates the narrator’s
thoughts from this man to a village or the idea of society. A little further in the poem, his
gaze will return to the village and will seem to signify his concern not only with the
soldier but with the village as a representation of a city and England as a whole.
While still listening to the “murmurs” and “groans” from the soldier as well as
hearing a mastiff barking in the distance, the narrator decides to approach the man. A
brief conversation is held, but the narrator quickly recognizes the reticence in the
soldier’s speech. When the narrator asks him about his experiences, the soldier’s
response is described as “neither slow nor eager; but, unmoved” (95). Empty of feeling,
the soldier’s reply seems to the narrator as hopeless as his outward appearance. The
soldier then plainly explains that he has returned from the West Indies and “with the little
strength he yet had left/ Was traveling to regain his native home” (102, 103).
Immediately after he explains this, the narrator seems to unconsciously turn his gaze
toward the village: “At this I turned and through the trees looked down/ Into the village.
All were gone to rest… ‘No one there,’/ Said I, ‘is waking; we must measure back/ The
way which we have come” (104-110). At the moment the soldier states what had
happened and exposes the reason for the state he is in, the narrator seems to take the
return of the soldier and the ill-health as now being brought to the mainland.
Although the narrator declares that nobody in the village is awake, this passage
seems to suggest that for the idea of the spatial trajectory of the narrator, he recognizes
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the significance of what the soldier has brought to England. At this moment his is faced
with a decision to lead him to the village or take him to the laborer’s home further in the
country. It is the complexity of the narrator’s feelings toward the soldier that Bewell
notices: “Complex, contradictory feelings of “fear and sorrow” are produced as
Wordsworth looks on this individual whose body is marked by violence and disease”
(Bewell 117). He decides to take him to the laborer’s home for food and lodging.
Although neither the narrator nor the soldier enter into the village, the spatial perspective
is changed here from the rural to the urban. It is here that a recognition of the war and
disease that was associated with abroad is now recognized to already have been in the
cities of England and perhaps not to be improved. Accompanied with the narrator’s tone
of “fear and sorrow” in the poem, he decides to stay in the rural space as he walks with
the soldier. Bewell writes, “…this emaciated soldier brings the hunger, malnutrition, and
disease of the colonial world home” (Bewell 117).
As they walk on toward the cottage, the narrator continues to notice the weakness
of the soldier’s speech. Aside from his physical weaknesses, his very attempts at
communicating and telling his stories are impaired by his ill state. Bewell comments on
Wordsworth’s technique here: “Instead of attempting to voice their experience, he
explores their speaking silence” (Bewell 119). The narrator again describes the soldier in
a non-human manner as a “ghostly figure,” and then stays focused on his speech (124).
Upon asking him of what “he had endured/ From war, and battle, and the pestilence,” the
narrator makes comment of the soldier’s responses: “Solemn and sublime/ He might have
seemed, but that in all he said/ There was a strange half-absence, and a tone/ Of weakness
and indifference, as of one/ Remembering the importance of his theme/ But feeling it no
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longer” (136-144). In recognizing the narrator’s emphasis on the soldier’s words, Bewell
writes, “…we are just as conscious that the paucity of speech reflects a maimed and
exhausted state, as if the colonial experience has affected not only his body, but his very
being” (118). The narrator mentions the “half-absence” again as an incomplete
characteristic of the soldier. In the soldier’s story-telling, the narrator notices the “tone/
Of weakness and indifference,” and may suspect that there is something more than just
physical exhaustion from the soldier, but a stoic apathy for his past and service in the
colonies.
It is here that the soldier may be reflecting the feeling of a cold distaste for the
purposes to which he had served. The sense of disillusionment is perceived in the
soldier. By observing the soldier as “one/ Remembering the importance of his theme/
But feeling it no longer,” the narrator is perhaps implying a double meaning. In the sense
of “his theme,” it could be understood that the soldier isn’t feeling what he is saying at
the moment to the narrator; however, it can also be interpreted that “remembering the
importance of his theme” was his duty as a soldier and the “theme” of colonialism was
the effort he had served for but no longer feels its value. When the soldier returned to his
country only to be discharged because of disease due to his service, the British idea of
honor and glory seemed to have dissipated along with the soldier’s health.
* * My plan for the final draft is to go back to the portion of analyzing the poem
and include more outside sources such as Bewell’s comments on “The Discharged
Soldier,” colonial narratives of Lind and others, and also Harrison’s article. I wanted to
make sure I have a basis for my interpretation of the text. For this last part about the
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disillusionment of British expansionism, I will also support it with more sources and
expand on the theme, tying it in with the how I interpret “The Discharged Soldier” as
disillusionment crossing over into the Romantic perspective.
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Works Cited
Bewell, Alan. Romanticism and Colonial Disease. Baltimore: The John Hopkins
University Press, 1999. Print.
Harrison, Mark. “The Tender Frame of Man”: Disease, Climate, and Racial Difference
in India and the West Indies, 1760-1860. Bulletin of the History of Medicine. Vol.
70, No. 1. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Spring, 1996. 68-93. Web.
Lind, James. “Essay on Diseases Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates.” (1768).
Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation: Writings in the British Romantic Period.
Ed. Alan Bewell. Vol. 7. London: Pickering and Chatto, 1999. 23-101. Print.
Wordsworth, William. “The Discharged Soldier.” Romanticism: an Anthology Third
Edition. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 418-422. Print.