
One would not expect a worker with a large amount of freedom to fail since he has more room to work with. A worker that is overly restricted with rules and confined to cramped elements that would not allow originality to be expressed would consider the job tedious and banal. However, too much freedom with a lack of guidance can create issues for the worker such as not knowing how to do his job effectively. The key is finding the appropriate medium with a directed routine and the liberty to make the work unique and interesting to the worker and to the recipient. William Wordsworth’s sonnet “Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room” demonstrates through the confined poetic form of a sonnet how a worker limited with his working conditions allows him to work best. 

The sonnet form is restrictive by nature. A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, traditionally written in iambic pentameter that first became popular during the Italian Renaissance. In the three quatrains, the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final two lines. According to Wordsworth, sonnets are “narrowing avoidably the range of thought, and precluding, though not without its advantages, many graces to which a freer movement of verse would have naturally led” (64). Iambic pentameter can limit the poet as well. Iambic pentameter is a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. Having to not only be limited to fourteen lines to convey a message but also having to have those lines rhyme and have a certain beat severely limit’s the poets freedom with how to get the theme across. A poet can use free verse, but the use of iambic pentameter shows how Wordsworth illustrates the theme of the work in its entirety, because the limitations of iambic pentameter correlates with the limitations a writer has with the sonnet form as a whole. The confining, prison-like sonnet structure gives the poet directions for how to shape the poem without forcing a specific subject or theme. While this form can limit the poet’s options, it can also give direction and stability. 

In lines one through seven, Wordsworth uses working-class examples to emphasize how workers were content with their jobs despite their tedious, repetitive nature which was characteristic of the Romantic period (early nineteenth century), when the sonnet was written. During this time, few people had few options to break free of the confining work of the lower class and move into the higher noble class. Examples such as “hermits in their cells” (2), “students at their citadels” (3), and “a weaver at his loom” (4), suggest that jobs restrict the worker to one specific location to perform one specific task. So, it is not only the limiting nature of the job but that the job must be completed in one exact location. These examples help develop the theme because they show how being in a specific, confined, and restricted setting can cause the worker to put forth his best effort versus having the opportunity to do his work in any setting, which may result in poor work. The examples also show how workers can be content with doing their task for an extended period of time. In line five, Wordsworth states that nuns, hermits, students, maids, and weavers “Sit blithe and happy,” content with not only the jobs that they are doing but also the place in which they must do them. The mandatory mechanisms in which these tasks must be completed do not imply that workers are unhappy with their jobs. The mechanisms actually imply that the workers are appreciative of them. 

This leads into the eighth and ninth lines, which state “In truth the prison, unto which we doom ourselves.” Wordsworth is hinting at the perspective that many tired and disgruntled employees make while on the job. Workers tend to complain about their careers and what is expected of them when they feel they are not given enough freedom to do the job in the manner they prefer. Nonetheless, Wordsworth recognizes that these workers would much rather have jobs to complain about versus not having a job at all. Even if it is a mind-numbing, boring task, workers would rather do those jobs day in and day out than have nothing to do. Complaining about being bored is better than having to sit, idle, and wallow in their dull lives with nothing to do. Wordsworth effectively uses the metaphor of prison-like jobs because they confine the worker mentally and physically, and especially creatively (8). 

In the last five lines, Wordsworth confirms its restrictive form and that sonnets are helpful for poets to structure their works because it gives them a set of guidelines to follow. Wordsworth uses the phrase "sundry moods" which shows that there is a generally fickle mood in the poem. Perhaps he feels that he can use the sonnet form when he is feeling fickle, especially if he cannot concentrate. The next line "within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground" refers to the limitations that the sonnet form produces. The sonnet form is exact and precise, so the “scanty plot of ground” refers to the small amount of space one has when creating a sonnet. The amount of movement with the  format is small, but the direction of the subject can be whatever the writer wants it to be. This metaphor further enforces how this passage illustrates to the theme of this work as a whole. "Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)" points out that anyone can feel the pain of writer's block, and anyone can use the sonnet form to produce an eloquent piece. The sonnet’s confining structure forces the poet to elevate his expression to a higher plane. The sonnet form can prevent writer’s block as it forces the poet to think deeper about how to express his creativity and assert his message to the audience. The line amount, rhyme scheme, and syntax all limit the poet but can inspire him as well. As stated above, the last two lines of a sonnet solve a problem proposed in the three quatrains above the couplet. The last two lines of the poem explain how Wordsworth uses the sonnet form and how he is gratified by it. This gratification comes from Wordsworth facing the challenge of creating a sonnet about how difficult sonnets are and also having that sonnet convey the message about workers in their environments. The closed but organized space of the sonnet, as the metaphors in this poem suggest, becomes a place of refuge from the chaos of the outside world.