The Poetics of Sympathy Towards War Victims in Wordsworth’s Salisbury Plain Poems

This paper examines William Wordsworth's poetic expression of sober sympathy for the victims of war in Salisbury Plain Poems, focusing on the female vagrant in "The Salisbury Plain" and the sailor in "Adventures on Salisbury Plain." Utilizing the moral philosophy of sympathy developed by the Third Earl of Shaftesbury and Adam Smith as a framework, this paper analyzes how Wordsworth integrates these philosophical models of sympathy into his restrained yet profound sympathy. This approach acknowledges the shared vulnerability of individuals and communities while carefully avoiding excessively sentimental responses. Wordsworth's representations capture the internal struggles of victims displaced by the American Revolutionary War. For contemporary readers witnessing the ongoing devastation of global conflicts, Salisbury Plain Poems serves to reawaken moral consciousness and cultivate sympathy amid suffering, grounded in deep human understanding.