
In today’s world people tend to view restrictions or restraints as a negative force that leads to their downfall or oppression. This causes them to avoid the restrictions and live as freely as possible. This has led to a generation that is scared of regret, and fears the concept of never having lived. Famed poet William Wordsworth shines a different light on the concept of restraints in a person’s life in his poem “Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room.” The poem discusses the ideas of restraining yourself to establish focus in order to succeed. By looking at William Wordsworth’s “Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room” we can see that restrictions can allow people to excel; and this is important because to many people it is a common belief that restraints are always bad which is not the case. 

Wordsworth makes it clear that people who become isolated from distraction and focus on their job will become the best them they can be. He states “Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room; and hermits are contented with their cells; and students with their pensive citadels; maids at the wheel; the weaver at his loom, sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom….” (Wordsworth 65)This meaning that people are assigned a role, whether it be to pray, learn, or work with your hands everyone has a job, and the people who focus on their job solely are content with their lives because they know that they are becoming the best at their job that they can be. When people take on a job they tend to worry about things other than their task. For example, students trying to study become distracted by phones, television, and even friends. This results in a drop in the students grades because they did not put the time forward to do their job. But when you restrict the student from being exposed to the outside elements they will study and get their job done, and become better as a result of it. 

Wordsworth was not saying to completely isolate yourself from the things that you love though. The next part of the poem reads, “High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells, Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells: Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me, In sundry moods, ‘twas pastime to be bound.”(Wordsworth 65) The goal is not to restrict people from what they like to do and force a life of solitude and hard work on them. The meaning is for someone to find their relevance in this world, which is to find the thing they love to do and can do every day for the rest of their life. But the trick is to focus all your work and energy to your relevance and do it to the fullest of your ability. If you enjoy teaching, then become a teacher and really teach the students about the subject and about life. When you do this than all the hard work does not feel like a prison or any sort of restriction. This is a big decision for people to make, especially at a young age. People have the freedom to choose their destiny, however can too much freedom in the choice be a bad thing?

Wordsworth concludes the poem by saying “Within this Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground; pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found.”(65) Wordsworth is explaining that having too much freedom can lead people to being unhappy. People need to find their role in the world that provides the right balance of freedom and work for them. When people are given too much freedom they tend to suffocate in it. A good example is somebody who is given a lot of options for what to write a paper on, they ultimately struggle to choose one topic and end up regret what they write about. Being restricted to picking say one out of three given topics for the paper, people tend to feel better about what they chose to write about. This is why finding the one thing to focus on in life helps people find happiness. They never feel overwhelmed of what to do, they are happy doing it, and they do it to the best of their ability by focusing on it. 

William Wordsworth’s goal was to impart an important life lesson on people through writing this poem. He wants people to find something they love and restrict themselves to that for the rest of their lives. This way they will focus on becoming the best at it that they possibly can and live a happy and fulfilling life. JJ Watt, NFL defensive lineman, is a prime example of how people should live their lives. He stated “Right now my job is to watch film, work out and treat my body right… Right now, I am a football player and I will sacrifice whatever is necessary to be the best.” (247Sports) This attitude is the one that Wordsworth attempts to explain, maybe not to the same degree of a professional athlete but the same concept. 

