"The Ruined Cottage" by Wordsworth

I think Courtney did a great job with the summary she included in her post, so I won't repeat that portion here. Instead, I thought I'd ruminate on some of the things that stood out to me in the poem.

The biggest thing to me is the significance of The Wanderer. I am not referring specifically to the character, "the wanderer," but rather to the idea of the wanderer, which many of the characters participate in.

The Old Man's wandering takes the form of a sage-like role in the poem. He is at peace with the world now and offers the narrator instances of worldly perspective to reflect upon. The opening of the poem reveals just how calm and meditative he is. Wordsworth writes, "Supine the wanderer lay" (li. 1). The word supine means "lying on one's back with the face or front upward" (OED online). I feel like this word choice really stands out because it is rarely used and syntactically strange to begin the sentence with an adjective. Thus, Wordsworth emphasizes the condition of the Wanderer. In addition to his relaxed position, he is also completely at ease with his surroundings, not noticing the footsteps of the narrator or the drops of water soaked into his hat (li. 4-9). The Wanderer is a pedlar, traveling all his life, even "to a country far remote" (li. 208). He describes his travels in lines 254-275, which illuminate his connection to nature. It is as if he is compelled by nature to travel, moving with the winds and "whispering trees" (270).

The husband can be considered a wanderer as well because he abandoned his wife and children to join a "Troop of Soldiers going to a distant Land" (li. 243-244) Margaret acknowledges that he has become a wanderer when she reasons why her husband has left without telling her. She says, "he fear'd that I should follow with my Babes, and sink/Beneath the misery of that wandering Life" (li. 245-248).

Even Margaret herself takes on the role of a wanderer, although not as literally as the pedlar and her own husband. She is tied to the cottage because she constantly awaits her husband's return. However, she admits to the Old Man, "I've wandered much of late,/and, sometimes--to my shame I speak--have need/ of my best prayers to bring me back again" (li. 323-325) And again she states, "to-day/ I have been traveling far; and many days/ About the fields I wander, knowing this/ only, that what I seek I cannot find" (li. 332-335). Thus, Margaret too is a wanderer, seeking after her beloved husband, only to return to the cottage alone.

The narrator as well could be seen as a wanderer although we are not given much detail about his travels.

I have not come up with a good reason what wandering signifies more generally in the poem. With the Old Man, it seems to represent something peaceful and consistent with the natural order of things. Yet, with Margaret and her husband, it seems to signify something negative and detrimental to the human spirit.

I wanted to make a few more points but I'm too sleepy so maybe we can bring these up in discussion tomorrow:
How does the state/condition of the cottage represent the state/condition of Margaret herself?
What is the significance of the seasons?
What do you make of the Old Man's comments about how once someone dies, everything in their "peculiar nook of earth/ dies with [them]" (li. 35-36). He also goes on to say there "is no memorial left" (li. 37).
Isn't it ironic that he says this and yet, he is actually passing on Margaret's story to the narrator, and thus to the reader (meaning that Margaret really is getting a memorial after all)? --Maybe this is what he refers to in lines 37-44.