
Imagine waking up to a continuous high pitched beeping noise that is your alarm clock. You’re half asleep and it takes all the effort you have to turn it off. When you finally do shut it off you look at the clock and notice that it is really early in the morning. You begrudgingly start to get out of bed and start the morning process of getting ready which has been engrained in your head for quite some time now. As the coffee is being made you get dressed in the same style outfit that you wear five days a week to work and quickly find something to eat. Next you brush your teeth and then run out the door to avoid being late for work. Of course the traffic is terrible and when you finally get to work you have no desire to be there. Although your job and morning routines might be very demanding as well as restricting, you somehow find joy in what you do. No matter how much you complain about work, in the end you continue to wake up because it gives you something to do and the outcome may be beneficial. 

In Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room, William Wordsworth, the author, uses figurative language to contribute to the theme of confinement. He starts off the poem by using the title as his first line which says, “Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room” (line 1). The narrow room is a figurative device for confinement and Wordsworth is using this word to describe a group of people and what they are associated with. This title and first line show that Wordsworth will address confinement using examples to further prove his argument that confinement and restrictions are not always as bad as they seem. 

The figurative device Wordsworth uses throughout the text is a metaphor. Wordsworth continues the poem saying, “And hermits are contended with their cells; And students with their pensive citadels;” (lines 2-3) In line two he is referencing prisoners staying in their cells and in line three he is using students sitting at their desks as an example. He uses the term citadel to describe students which I thought was interesting because when I think of this word, the military and fortress come to my mind. These two mentions in Wordsworth’s poem seem very different to each other because to put students and prisons as having something in common just doesn’t make sense. But, they do have something in common. These two types of people are both being confined to a space and seem to have a negative connotation. By using these metaphors, he adds structure to his poem to show that the topic of confinement is important. 

Towards the end of the sestet, Wordsworth concludes his examples of confinement using an example of an everyday worker. Wordsworth writes, “Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom” (line 4). Looking at the bigger picture, Wordsworth is trying to get the point across that everyone has a job or task to do and it doesn’t matter how tedious it is. The maid cannot just leave the wheel nor can the weaver because that’s what they were assigned to do. This adds on to his reoccurring theme of confinement and builds his argument about the narrow room. Although all these jobs do not sound fun, Wordsworth then says, “Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells, Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells” (lines 5-7). He shows the reader that even though everyone-including bees- has a job that has limitations these people doing them are actually happy. The instance of this figurative device depends on similarities throughout the poem to convey the message of confinement and gain meaning to the concept of confinement or restrictions as being something that is not bad but actually bringing happiness. This turning point does not contradict with his thesis but contributes to it. He creates a new idea into his writing to add to the other half of his argument which is that people should find happiness in what they do. 

Each line in the poem before the turning point contains another metaphor for the narrow room and refers to confinement in some sort of way. All these metaphors seem similarly the same each time but what’s different about them is the group of people Wordsworth uses to support his idea that confinement and restrictions aren’t always bad. In the text it says, “In truth the prison, unto which we doom, Ourselves, no prison is” (line 9). This shows that going about our lives and doing our jobs may be tiring and stressful but in the end we still have positive outcomes when we enjoy what we do. In the first few lines Wordsworth starts the poem with examples that are not happy and makes you think the poem is going to have sad meaning throughout but then he uses the ninth line as a turning point to show that there is clear context for joy. Wordsworth now wants us to see that there is joy in suffering by using the same –now joyful- metaphor to show his concern for this topic. 

This poem was written in a very challenging poetic form where the fourteen lines must be written in iambic pentameter. This makes the rhyme scheme challenging as well. Knowing this helps me better understand Wordsworth’s argument on confinement because he chose to write this piece with restrictions. It is up to the reader on how they will take away from Wordsworth’s contribution to his personal definition of confinement. We can either go about our everyday lives, unhappy and living in our routines. Or we can find happiness in what we do no matter how bad the setbacks are. At the end of line eight, Wordsworth references himself finding joy in the tedious lifestyle of his. This is really important to his argument because he is using a personal statement and showing the reader that this is what he believes. Wordsworth shows the reader that he too, will find happiness in confinement.   