"The Old Cumberland Beggar": Form and Frustrated Sympathy.

In this article the author analyzes the poem "The Old Cumberland Beggar" by Romantic poet William Wordsworth. He explains how Wordsworth defied the expectations of his upper-class readers by challenging their ability to identify with the character in the poem. The author argues that while conventional humanitarian poems create sympathy for beggar figures, "The Old Cumberland Beggar" intentionally displaces this sympathy and creates a feeling of dislocation.