Lol...I wonder if Wordsworth would agree or be turning in his grave...
Wordsworth had his affairs. Poems can be interpreted in several ways, but I see a reveling of female beauty and eroticism in his writings
From 'Nutting'
"Nutting" is a self-contained narrative, as complete and satisfying as a fairy-story told by the Brothers Grimm. It emerges from silence, as the indented first line suggests, and it finally returns to silence.. Not until the closing lines does an unexpected "turn" occur, which changes the nature of the poem. That sudden apostrophe to the "dearest Maiden" reveals that the poet has all the while imagined a silent listener. He has not merely been describing a remembered incident for his own pleasure and edification, but composing, in beautiful, reflective, un-moralising language, a parable – a lesson tenderly set out before a beloved child. The whole thought is re-cast, and intensified. "Nutting" turns out to be a wonderful hybrid, and might even be considered a kind of Conversation Poem, the genre Wordsworth's friend Coleridge made his own.
As in all his profoundest poems, the moral "story" is seamlessly entwined with the psychological one, and both are realised through a rich mixture of naturalistic and idealised pastoral imagery. The "fairy-tale" qualities are apparent from the start. The poem begins with a quest. The young boy sets off, armed with his nutting-crook and wallet: he is dressed in raggedy old clothes, for the practical reasons proposed by the "frugal dame" - but an element of disguise ("More ragged than need was!") is strongly suggested. Having forced his way through the brambles and over the "pathless rocks" the young adventurer finds the treasure he is seeking. And, although there are no monsters or goblins in sight, and the lesson is purely psychological, he learns like any young hero that treasure is not as easily taken as he had believed.
Both the laden hazel-tree and the "dear nook unvisited" have magical qualities, and a moral suggestiveness which the boy partly responds to. He defers gratification, experiences sheer delight in the loveliness and abundance of his surroundings. But then another, more primitive self breaks through and lays waste to the trees. The hero of this fable is also its monster.
The movement of the syntax over the blank verse lines has been almost relaxed until this moment, rhythmically one of abrupt high drama: "Then up I rose." No reason is given: none is needed. A natural human impulse drives the boy to jump up and rake the trees of their hazel-nuts. After he has seized the hoard, the sight of the "silent trees" themselves and "the intruding sky" awakens another response, a terrible sense of guilt at the destruction caused by his innocent greed. That he has "deformed and sullied" the "bower" is the wisdom, the "knowledge of good and evil", that he has painfully achieved – and so he imparts the lesson to his listener.
And who is she? It's suggested here that there was a "beloved Friend" named Lucy who, as "a ravager of the autumn woods", reminded Wordsworth of himself as a child. The beautiful imagery of the hidden violets and the stones "fleeced with moss" may well link "Nutting" to the "Lucy" poem, "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways", in which the "maid" herself is compared to "a violet by a mossy stone". The fact that a young female is being given the warning seems to undermine the narrowly sexual interpretation that "Nutting" sometimes attracts. Of course, as a parable, it can contain many metaphors, and defloration is one of them. But both genders can be rapacious, after all, and this poem is not about rape, in the usual sense, but rapacity.
The lingering, opulent scene-setting in the "dear nook" section is impressive, but most remarkable are the changes of mood and pace in the 14 concluding lines – a sonnet's-worth of compressed drama – that culminate in a miraculously structured tercet. The syntax here is so arranged that the poet seems to be extending an invitation rather than a prohibition: "In gentleness of heart, with gentle hand/ Touch …" The line-break and the comma-and-dash punctuation that create pauses before and after "Touch" are wonderfully judged. That word, like a delicate finger-tip, restores the poem's human balance, bringing us out of shame and degradation and back to the initial reverence and "wise restraint" that had been practised without understanding. Now the poet and his listener fully understand the respect and moderation required of them in their dealings with nature. The lesson is emphasised by a new turn into enchantment. "Numen in est" as the Romans said: a spirit is present. And with that the poem slips into a silence not only magical but sacred.
Lord Byron, his contempoary, would also write of sexual innocence while being a sexual profligate so why not Wordsworth ?
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
II.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
III.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
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