BA English Poetry: Main Theme of William Davies' poem 'Leisure'

Williams Davies’ ‘Leisure’ unveils the richness of life as embodied in nature and wants us to avoid falseness of life as found in our daily pursuits. The poem has an important theme that is to change our attitude to nature;

from that of non-seriousness to seriousness. 

The main theme is that we should abandon our material pursuits and establish a firm contact with nature to lead a rich life. The poem starts with a rhetorical question, i.e. the author is sure you will agree with him that it is important to have free time. The idea of

"stand and stare"

is picked up all through the poem. He reminds us that even animals have time to look at things; then moves on to looking at animals and then to broader pictures like the wonders of the night sky and finally

Beauty itself - personified as a dancing girl. 

So by the end of the poem we've realized that if we don't forget our pursuits, we miss everything - all the beauty, joy and movement of life. Thus, the writer has criticized modern man for his material life devoid of natural beauty.