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"Michael" has great power and strength in its form of pastoral legend. It may seem material for song or visual portrayal since the details in almost 500 lines are so vivid. Unusual for Wordsworth, it deals more with actual images of objects than impressions given on a receptive mind. In fact, the land he describes is so isolated and difficult that is seems contrary to the usual green and lush surroundings of the poems normally so suggestive to his mind. But this may be for greater effect: the poet narrates a story of intense devotion, even fanatical love of the land and family. At the time of its composition in 1800, the poem's story is already dealing with changes in ownership of land in England under the Industrial Revolution when properties were bought and consolidated and often long-standing ownership ended. Michael's family is small, but tightly united and bound to each other. The story has distinct echoes of the Bible and the aged fatherhood of Abraham in one story and the sending off of Joseph into captivity in another. This gives greater depth to the poem, which might otherwise seem mostly a folktale of a time and place. There is much attention given to all aspects of the family life, how they live, and how they light their surroundings and spend their time, including the devoted mother. Clear symbols are given in the lamp, the tree, the stone for the sheepfold never built, the debt that can never be paid, the dog that replaces Luke in its loyalty to Michael, and the eventual disappearance of their presence from the land—which remains after they are gone. Through these images, Wordsworth praises the duties inherent in the rural way of life as opposed to the variabilities of existence away from it. His pessimism may cloud for readers the love of the family members, since one senses as the story unfolds that it will end badly. Tears are shed in the story, but at the end, adult strength of character remains. Michael can die knowing his land was as much his as it ever was during his lifetime, just as his fierce paternal devotion outlasts the temptations that lead his son astray. What could seem sentimental instead stands as flinty and hard as the land where he has laid the one stone his son could take as a sign of faith in human relationships, even if Luke does not fulfill his part of the promise. As in the "Ode on Immortality," the fear of loss and abandonment that the parents suffer in sending Luke away and see realized is finally too deep for tears in old age. The poem ends in stoicism and acceptance of changes in life and humanity, but the parents at least are true to each other, to the land, and to their son. The silent sheepfold stands as witness to their love and faith.