"Hart-Leap Well" is a poem written by the Romantic Literature poet William Wordsworth.Bennet 2015, p. xvii It was first published in 1800 in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads.Chandler 2002, p. 19 The collection consists of two volumes and "Hart-Leap Well" is an opening poem of volume II. The piece has been considered by some critics as a manifestation of Wordsworth’s stance against hunting animals for pleasure and an inducement to show compassion towards them.Perkins 1998, pp. 422 & 427Mortensen 2000, pp. 303-304Oerlemans 2004, p. 90 The author also expresses his respect and appreciation of natureBruhn 1994 p. 41 and ponders the problem of human-nature relations.Fosso 1999, p. 3Perkins 2003, p. 80Mortensen 2000, p. 298
Origin Wordsworth wrote the poem around 1800 when he and his sister Dorothy were living in the Grasmere village in the Lake District in England.Bennet 2015, p. 12Wordsworth 2007, p. 65 He started writing it “one winter evening in the cottage (...) and finished it in a day or two”.Wordsworth 2007, p. 65 A few weeks before it was composed the siblings went on a journey during which they discovered the eponymous “well” and some stones next to it and they met a peasant who told them a folk tale that was a direct inspiration for the poem.Wordsworth 2007, p. 65 Wordsworth then wrote about the site, located “about five miles from Richmond in Yorkshire”, in a short introduction to his poem.Wordsworth 1800, p. 1 The well where the poem is set was known as “Bowes Well,”Chandler 2002, p. 20 but there was another site in the vicinity, described in George Young’s History of Whitby, and Streoneshalh Abbey from 1817, where two large stones could be found, one of them bearing the inscription “Hart Leap” and serving as a memorial for a stag which died there out of extreme tiredness after being chased by dogs.Young 1817, p. 797Chandler 2002, p. 21 While there is no clear evidence as to whether it was Wordsworth who first referred to the spot from his poem as “Hart-Leap Well”, if he did, he could have been inspired with that other location later described by Young, which he might have either visited himself or heard of.Chandler 2002, p. 21 There is also a theory, though again a conjectural one, concerning the origin of the main character of the poem – Sir Walter. Since the Barden house was located near the original spot of Hart-Leap Well, the main character of the poem could have been modelled on a historical figure of Sir Walter de Barden, “‘a sturdy knight who fought in the Scottish wars’ and died in 1309”.Chandler 2002, p. 21 Critics agree that, apart from the peasant’s tale and the site visited by Wordsworths, there is another direct inspiration for the poem, namely Gottfried August Bürger’s ballad “Der wilde Jäger” from 1773.Mortensen 2000, p. 297 Both works concern the topic of hunting. “Der wilde Jäger”, which was translated by Walter Scott as “The Chase” in 1796, “tells the story of a callous huntsman who faces eternal punishment”.Bennet 2015, p. 107
Structure of the poem “Hart-Leap Well” consists of four-line stanzas, with an ABAB rhyme scheme. The first part consists of 24 stanzas and the second of 21 stanzas.Wordsworth 1800, p. 1-13 The meter is iambic pentameter, unlike most of Wordsworth’s poems in Lyrical Ballads, which consist of four foot lines.O’Donell 1995, p. 159 Brennan O’Donnell compares “Hart-Leap Well” with the English translation of Bürger’s “The Chase”, which is written in tetrameter. He argues that different rhythm schemes applied in the two poems produce variant paces and ways of reading the poems. While “The Chase” sounds more rapid, the tempo of Wordsworth’s poem is much more toned down. That, in turn, reflects the two speakers’ disparate approaches to their stories – a sensationalist, as opposed to a more contemplative one.O’Donell 1995, p. 159 The structure of “Hart-Leap Well” being divided into two parts can be called a diptych, meaning that we are dealing with “two pictures representing different and related views of the same event (...) in the same frame”.O'Donnell 1995, p. 161 The first part narrates the events of the hunt and it tries to get the reader engaged in the story.O'Donnell 1995, p. 160 The second part serves as a commentary to those events in the form of a dialogue between the speaker and a shepherd concerning the significance of the hart’s story.Mortensen 2000, p. 306 The first part employs archaically styled language and inversion that make it sound like an ancient story, whereas the second one is simpler in style and language.O'Donnell 1995, p. 161
Plot summary The first part of the poem tells a story of a knight, Sir Walter, who is hunting a stag. The chase lasts so long that he needs to use three horses in sequence and his dogs die of exhaustion running after the stag. The hunt is eventually ceased when the animal is run to death and ends its life near a spring of water.Perkins 2003, p. 80 In the act of commemoration of this event Sir Walter raises three stone columns representing the three last leaps of the stag and builds a “pleasure house” and an arbour.Perkins 2003, p. 80 In Part Two, set in times contemporary with its composition, we learn that all of the monuments and buildings that Sir Walter erected are almost gone now.Perkins 2003, p. 80 The narrator, whom Perkins identifies as Wordsworth himself,Perkins 2003, p. 80 meets a shepherd who tells him the story of the hart and claims that the place is either cursed because of a murder that allegedly happened there, as some say, or that the current condition of that place is a result of Sir Walter’s actions, as the shepherd himself believes.Wordsworth 1800, p. 10 He also thinks that it will stay this way “Till trees, and stones, and fountain, all are gone”.Wordsworth 1800, p. 12 The poem ends with a lesson provided by the narrator, “Never to blend our pleasure or our pride/ With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels”.Wordsworth 1800, p. 13
Analysis and interpretation The presentation of the hunter – Sir Walter The first part of “Hart-Leap Well”, which narrates the course of the hunt, focuses on the knight and his emotions. It places emphasis on how exhilarated and determined he is.Perkins 1998, p. 436Mortensen 2000, p. 300 Some critics argue that Sir Walter’s behaviour is shown already in the first part as ambiguous and “morally questionable”.Perkins 1998, p. 437 Sir Walter is depicted as the only hunter that perseveres in chasing the stag, leading his three horses to exhaustion and causing the death of his dogs as well as the hunted deer.Gravil 2003, p. 176Perkins 1998, p. 426 His brutality and callousness are stressed, which makes him appear as impulsive, aggressive and insensitive.Gravil 2003, p. 177 His sadistic tendencies are also pointed out. Critics highlight the “silent joy” he exhibits while staring at the stag’s corpse.Nash 2011, p. 63Gravil 2003, p. 176Perkins 1998, p. 437Mortensen 2000, p. 303 Whether or not Wordsworth sympathizes with Sir Walter’s emotions is also the subject of critics’ discussions. Don H. Bialostosky argues that the “poet-narrator”, as he calls him, displays a certain affinity for Sir Walter’s emotions by frequently stressing how uplifted he is and that this amazement is not different from his own feelings.Bialostosky 1984, p. 90 Similar view is shared by David Perkins, although his judgement is not unequivocal. On the one hand he agrees that the narrator identifies with the hunter but on the other hand he claims that “the chase, its practices, and the emotions it evokes in hunters are exhibited and criticized”. He acknowledges the relatedness of the narrator and Sir Walter but, nonetheless, concludes that this adds to the poem’s message to be empathetic towards animals since it makes the reader sympathize with Sir Walter only to get him to feel involved in the hunter’s guilt later on.Perkins 1998, p. 437 & 427 This thesis is, to some degree, assented to by Richard Nash, although in his opinion the positive emotions concerning hunting are emphasized more than the misery of the stag.Nash 2011, p. 63 The aforementioned relatedness is also referred to by Mark J. Bruhn. He agrees that there is a “congruity” between the narrator and protagonist but it becomes seriously compromised in the second part of “Hart-Leap Well” where the narrator fully approves the shepherd’s view and condemns Sir Walter’s behaviour.Bruhn 1994, p. 40 Peter Mortensen’s criticism is, like Perkins’, focused on the violence towards animals and repeatedly stressing the denounced cruelty of the hunter.Mortensen 2000, pp. 302-303
Relationship between man and nature Many critics agree that Wordsworth in the poem in question denounces the use of violence and cruelty towards animals.Mortensen 2000, p. 302Perkins 1998, p. 427 It is strongly connected with the theme of the conflict between nature and culture where the hart represents nature and the hunter – culture.Fosso 1999, p. 12Bruhn 1994, p. 40Mortensen 2000, p. 198 Killing the hart serves as Sir Walter’s attempt to dominate the world of nature. He raises the “pleasure-house” not because of the respect for the hart, to commemorate the animal, but to feed his own ego and to celebrate his achievements.Mortensen 2000, p. 303 However, his triumph is only temporary because after all nature shows its power and causes the knight’s monuments to vanish from the earth:Bruhn 1994, p. 41 ‘‘She leaves these objects to a slow decay/(...) These monuments shall be overgrown”.Wordsworth 1800, p. 13 Nature will recover only when the remains of the knight’s pleasure-grounds will completely vanish from the surface of the earth. This way it will purify itself from the horrifying deed.Bialostosky 1984, p. 90 “Hart-Leap Well” can be read as a cautionary reminder that people should respect nature and care for it.Mortensen 2000, p. 308 Another issue that the poem has been said to argue for is compassion towards animals.Nash 2011, p. 61Perkins 1998, p. 424 According to this line of interpretation, the poem’s message is that animals can suffer various types of pain like humans and, therefore it is a moral imperative that people should stop causing them such pain.Mortensen 2000, p. 304
Stag’s death as a sacrifice As Raimonda Modiano points out, “by voluntarily leaping to its death the hart changes a hunt into a sacrifice”. This brings an association to the ritual sacrificing of lambs and, following from that, to Christ.Modiano 1993, pp. 496-497 In this way the death of the stag takes on a glorious and even godlike character.Modiano 1993, p. 497 Despite the animal’s sacrifice attaining such importance Sir Walter does not benefit from it, since, as Modiano observes, he fails to properly carry out the mourning rituals. Because Sir Walter so eagerly pursued pleasure, he failed to commemorate the sacrifice of the stag.Modiano 1993, p. 498 He contravened the “rule of mourning”Modiano 1993, p. 497 and was not sorry for the death of the hart. Therefore, his actions are considered unholy.Modiano 1993, p. 497 Without mourning and pity the animal’s death is seen as a murder and becomes “truly profane”.Modiano 1993, p. 499
Transience of time and history While the first part of “Hart-Leap Well” speaks of a living deer, the second part presents it as long gone, showing a “decisive break with past history”.Nash 2011, pp. 62 & 63 Thus, the hunting functions as a symbol of something that simply has to pass, as “old world that must and will be left behind”.Perkins 1998, p. 425 The narrator also expresses his hope for the future times to be better and expects “the coming of the milder day”.Perkins 1998, pp. 443 & 445
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