The poem is suggestive of the poet’s loneliness and isolation in the society he lives in. A typical small town scene sets the background of the poem where the people living are involved in same events.
People moving on bicycles in flocks and village dance being performed in a shelter or hall is a common scene that creates an amiable picture of a summer evening in the small towns. The poet stands like a detached spectator watching all these activities. Though the dance is an informal, normal event yet the poet is not a part of the dance that is going on in Billy Bernnan’s barn.
The fact that there is an intellectual divide between the people of Inskeen and the poet is suggest in the phrase’ half –talk code’. It means that the language and the means of interaction used by the teens and the young people are not very easily comprehended by the poet.
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As the time passes by and the evening moves towards night, the dance gets over and the people who had gathered to watch the dance move back to their homes. But at 8:30 in the night, the poet stands alone amongst the roads and the stones. The poet expresses his hatred for the isolation and aloofness that the poets commonly undergo by rest of the society. Wordsworth had suggested that poetry is meant to be composed in solitude. But this seems to be interpreted by the people in a way that poet’s like to stay aloof from rest of the society. The contradictory truth is that poet has a strong dislike for this loneliness and isolation. He gives a vent to his feelings using the lines-‘I have what every poet hate in spite of all solemn talk of contemplation’.
The reference to Alexander Selkirk as “being the King, the government and the nation” is an indication to the poet’s sense of isolation that he experiences in the Inniskeen society.
The poet finds himself socially desolated and excluded from the society intellectually and is extremely unhappy about it. His frustration is more evident from the lines “I am a king of banks and stones and every blooming thing” emphasizing that he is a mere observer and cannot play an active role in the society where he dwells. His solitude is like what was endured by Selreik on the island of San Fernandez.
A poet in the Inniskeen society is bound to stay on the periphery and is banished from being able to appreciate the social involvement as other people. The thoughts of a poet may bloom more when he is in isolation but that does not mean that he does not become a part of the dance.
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As per the poet, a balance between the engagement and the solitude is essential and complete withdrawal from social events cannot make a poet more effective or capable. Poet has excellently acknowledged that he may have gained better insight into his writing works by isolating but he is disgusted inside and wants to be a part of the community.