nature makes our speaker "grieved" about "what man has made of man." Perhaps our speaker is a bit misanthropic. Juxtaposing humans—or "man"—with nature makes us think that our speaker is someone who believes that humans in general have become too separated from nature. These humans don’t appreciate it enough.

Unlike the unnamed human who narrates this poem, we get the idea that general humans don't tend to sit in a grove and gaze on the "fair works" of nature. We could probably safely conclude that one of those general humans is not our speaker.

Of course, William Wordsworth, the author of the poem, was a noted Romantic. He adored nature and was anxious about the increasing separation between humans and nature. Perhaps our narrator is not as nameless as we've made them out to be. Perhaps our narrator is William Wordsworth himself.

Technically speaking, there is no evidence at all in this poem to indicate who the speaker is. Wordsworth does not give any indication as to whether the speaker is a man or a woman, how old they are, what they do, or anything else about them. What he does tell us is that this is a person who has a great appreciation for nature, and that the speaker is moved into a mood both "sweet" and rather melancholic by the beauty of nature.

At the end of the poem, the speaker explicitly states that by watching the natural world and seeing how much "pleasure" the birds seem to take in it, he is actually inclined to "lament" the fact that human beings do not simply enjoy the world they have been given in the same way. On the contrary, human beings fight with and degrade each other, which seems impossible and terrible to the speaker when seated in a place like this, observing the beauty of the natural world around him.

This said, it is not very often that a poem is read completely without context. In context, we know that these beliefs and preoccupations are in accord with those of the poet himself, Wordsworth, who wrote many poems on similar subjects. Therefore, we can assume that the speaker is probably synonymous with the poet himself.

In this poem by the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, we find the speaker of the poem—which is probably, but may not necessarily be, the poet—sitting "reclined" in a grove, or a quiet area surrounded by trees. The title indicates that the events of the poem take place in early spring, so it is a part of the year when the grove is especially verdant and there are many birds to look at and listen to, as well as many flowers and "tufts" of plants just coming into bloom. This makes the atmosphere around the speaker particularly beautiful.

However, while the area makes the poet's mood "sweet," he soon begins to think about the fact that nature seems so happy with what it has been given. The birds seem to take pleasure in every part of their day; the song of the birds is beautiful to listen to. The speaker considers that even the flowers seem to enjoy the air they breathe. This, in fact, causes him to feel sadness. He notices the beauty of nature and "lament[s]" that not all humans can take as much joy from nature as he can. While birds and plants simply enjoy themselves and their time on earth, men instead ("man" standing in for humankind generally) behave horribly towards each other. The poet sits in the grove and thinks about how sad this is.