William Wordsworth
Obviously, the title character in this poem is the legendary Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Shelley takes the opportunity to both praise and bury Wordsworth here, while subtly proposing that he is the natural heir to the position that Wordsworth has left vacant. The William Wordsworth to which this poem is directed is both the younger, more radical figure that first inspired the New Wave of Shelley’s peers like Byron and Keats, as well as the older figure whom Shelley accuses of betraying those earlier ideals expressed in what Shelley calls “songs consecrate to truth and liberty.”
The speaker
Written in the first person, the “I” is intended to be Shelley himself on one level, but also more broadly, all those whom Shelley feels Wordsworth betrayed. His language generalizes Wordsworth's early poetic strengths. After a listing of poetic themes and motifs often associated with this unique quality of the younger Wordsworth, Shelley bitingly remarks that they have become “common woes I feel.”
