The Figures
There's something spooky going on here. In the first stanza, three ghostly figures appear to the speaker, and it takes him about six stanzas to get them to leave. In the meantime, he discovers a th...
Idleness
Ah, to be lazy all day, without a care in the world. The speaker praises laziness (hence the title of the poem) and prefers its sedation to any other pursuit. As a result, sleepy, idle imagery is s...
Nature
Ah, nature—a favorite topic among the Romantics. In the poem, the pleasure of being lazy is intensified by nature's pleasure, and the speaker seems to associate one with the other. In the second...