Ambivalence: Wordsworth's "Ode to Duty"

"Ode to Duty" by William Wordsworth

Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou, who art victory and law
When empty terrors overawe;
From vain temptations dost set free;
And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!

There are who ask not if thine eye
Be on them; who, in love and truth,
Where no misgiving is, rely
Upon the genial sense of youth:
Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;
Who do thy work, and know it not:
Oh! if through confidence misplaced
They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast.

Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.
And they a blissful course may hold
Even now, who, not unwisely bold,
Live in the spirit of this creed;
Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need.

I, loving freedom, and untried:
No sport of every random gust,
Yet being to myself a guide,
Too blindly have reposed my trust:
And oft, when in my heart was heard
Thy timely mandate, I deferred
The task, in smoother walks to stray;
But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul,
Or strong compunction in me wrought,
I supplicate for thy control;
But in the quietness of thought:
Me this unchartered freedom tires;
I feel the weight of chance desires:
My hopes no more must change their name,
I long for a repose that ever is the same.

Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds
And fragrance in thy footing treads
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.

To humbler functions, awful Power!
I call thee: I myself command
Unto thy guidance from this hour;
Oh! let my weakness have an end!
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;
And, in the light of truth, thy Bondman let me live!

My first thought comes at the title: why is Wordworth oding anything to "Duty"? If you read Wordsworth in a survey course, or for fun, you're reading the passionate and reflective poems of his younger days. It's easy to forget that Wordworth grew into a stately (and socially conservative) Victorian poet laureate. Still, knowing the poet of nature and the imagination, I read the poem skeptically.

And so in the first stanza I think, are you we supposed to appreciate this image of Duty? A "stern daughter," "a rod to check the erring," "victory and law"? Because I don't--and I'm not entirely sure a young Wordworth does either.

And then we come to the next stanza:

There are who ask not if thine eye
Be on them; who, in love and truth,
Where no misgiving is, rely
Upon the genial sense of youth:
Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;

According to Wordsworth, those who don't think about Duty at all are happier, are acting "in love and truth." Sure he adds that they do Duty's work without thinking about it. But think of the nature of "Duty": the very concept involves a sense of requirement. Wordsworth lauds those who act without the sense of requirement--so is that really Duty at all?

The next stanza may again end with a conventional nod to Duty, but throughout the rest of the stanza Wordsworth talks about how happy we'll be when we know longer need Duty to guide us, a time when "When love is an unerring light." Duty may protect us, but hopefully we'll evolve past the point of needing Duty--at that point, we'll be happier. In a religious sense, it is better to behave morally because you sincerely wish to behave morally than to behave morally because there are rules requiring you to do so.

In the next two stanzas Wordsworth talks of his previous days, when he followed his own heart and ignored Duty. I ask you: doesn't that sound more appealing? And doesn't that match the rest of Wordworth's ouevre? But now, he says, he's asking Duty to guide him.

And then Wordsworth presents a different vision of Duty:

Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.

Here Duty is a physical imperative, akin to the Laws of Nature. The entire cosmos acts as it does according to the Laws of Nature. Can we call that "Duty"? The physical laws of the universe require the stars to behave in a certain way. In such a sense, we all have certain natural, biological requirements: we could call this "Duty," but would we attach a moral value to that?

In the last stanza Wordsworth calls for Duty to come and guide him. However, I cannot read this poem as a legitimate "ode to Duty." There is too much ambivalence, too much ambiguity. Wordsworth's consistent suggestion that we'd be happier acting sincerely without a sense of Duty calls into doubt the entire message of the poem.