Michael
An old shepherd above Grasmere, made liable for a nephew's forfeited bond, must either sell half the fields his family has worked for generations or send Luke, his only son, to a kinsman in the city. Before the boy leaves the two of them go up the ghyll to lay the corner stone of a sheepfold, and the father asks him to carry it in mind as a covenant. Subtitled a pastoral poem and stripped of every shepherd convention the label implies, it is the plainest account in English of what land costs the family that holds it.
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Lineage
- contained in ↑ Lyrical Ballads
Attributes
Genre
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Plot structure
Symbol / motif
Conflict
Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 65% · 9 shared
- 62% · 9 shared
- 62% · 8 shared
- 62% · 8 shared
- 58% · 9 shared
- 56% · 10 shared