INTRODUCTION (By
Annalisa Garofalo)
BLAKE(By M.
Elena Mármol Rodríguez )
WORDSWORTH
AND HIS VISION OF NATURE (BY ARANTXA)
First of all I would
like to say that “Nature” has taken an important role in poetry of different
periods of literature and countries. Nature is present not only in English
literature but also in French and Spanish poets such as Garcilaso de la
Vega and Émile Zola. But I would like to focus my attention in
Wordsworth treatment of this topic and the romantic vision of nature.
Secondly, I am going
to enumerate some characteristics that have something to do with the romantic’s
vision of nature and Wordsworth own perception.
Romanticism is a
general, collective term to describe much of the art and literature produced
during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Romanticism can be
seen as a revolution in the arts, alongside the political, social and industrial
revolutions of the age: all spheres of human activity were undergoing great
change. Wordsworth and Coleridge were among the first British poets to explore
the new theories and ideas that were sweeping through Europe.
Their poems display many characteristics of Romanticism, including:
1-An emphasis on the
emotions (a fashionable word at the beginning of the period was ‘sensibility’.
This meant having, or cultivating, a sensitive, emotional and intuitive way of
understanding the world)
2-Exploring the
relationship between nature and human life
3-A stress on the
importance of personal experiences and a desire to understand what influences
the human mind
4-A belief in the
power of the imagination
5-An interest in
mythological, fantastical, gothic and supernatural themes
6-An emphasis on the
sublime (this word was used to describe a spiritual awareness, which could be
stimulated by a grand and awesome landscape)
7-Social and
political idealism.
(c.f.http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/Default.asp?Page=119
)
We can say that “nature” is always present (sometimes
meaning something different depending on the poem) in Wordsworth poetry and it
is the main theme in most of his poems. Furthermore, I would like to say what
this poet thought about this topic.
William
Wordsworth is the Romantic poet most often described as a "nature"
writer; what the word "nature" meant to Wordsworth is, however, a
complex issue. On the one hand, Wordsworth was the quintessential poet as
naturalist, always paying close attention to details of the physical
environment around him (plants, animals, geography, weather). At the same time,
Wordsworth was a self-consciously literary artist who described "the mind
of man" as the "main haunt and region of [his] song." This tension
between objective describer of the natural scene and subjective shaper of
sensory experience is partly the result of Wordsworth's view of the mind as
"creator and receiver both." Such an alliance of the inner life with
the outer world is at the heart of Wordsworth's descriptions of nature.
(c.f. http://users.dickinson.edu/~nicholsa/Romnat/wordsworth.htm
)
With regard to his poems, we can
say that all of them deal, in some way, with nature. And this is what we are
going to see now.
For example:
The presence
of water in those poems where the sea appears, such as “ Lines written near Richmond
upon the Thames, at evening” when Wordsworth
says:
Oh glide,
fair stream! for ever so;
Thy quiet
soul on all bestowing,
Till all our
minds for ever flow,
As thy deep
waters now are flowing.
In this poem,
appears a very huge ocean, and that ocean’s majesty and greatness still
controls the individual and the species.
Another
example would be “Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey”:
How oft, in
spirit, have I turned to thee o Sylvan Wye!
Thou wanderer
through the woods,
How often has
my spirit turned to thee!
Here, that
deep blue sea or that river, show us that water which is apparently calm, can
change into huge strength waves and that would produce some inspiration in the
poet that would change his feelings.
We can also find
“nature” in his poem named “The Excursion” where he defends the nature’s
contemplation to achieve the moral knowledge.
(c.f.
Corugedo y chamosa, 11, 12 and 13)
I have
written all these examples because I think that it is interesting to see how
Wordsworth saw nature in some of his poems as we can say that nature is his
main topic and this theme takes a very important role in all his works.
However, I would like to focus my attention on the poem called “Lines written
in early spring”, also written by Wordsworth, where we can find a lot of
examples of nature. It mainly talks about this topic.
Lines Written In Early Spring
I heard a
thousand blended notes,
While in a
grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet
mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad
thoughts to the mind.
To her fair
works did Nature link
The human
soul that through me ran;
And much it
grieved my heart to think
What man has
made of man.
Through
primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The
periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my
faith that every flower
Enjoys the
air it breathes.
The birds
around me hopped and played,
Their
thoughts I cannot measure: --
But the least
motion which they made,
It seemed a
thrill of pleasure.
The budding
twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the
breezy air;
And I must
think, do all I can,
That there
was pleasure there.
If this
belief from heaven be sent,
If such be
Nature's holy plan,
Have I not
reason to lament
What man has
made of man?
(c.f.http://quotations.about.com/od/poemlyrics/a/wordsworth17.htm
)
"Lines
Written In Early Spring" is a classic Wordsworth poem. Basically, it
expresses his love of simplicity, tenderness and love of nature.
In this poem,
Wordsworth contrasts the perceived happiness and pleasure of the natural world
with the grim state of mankind. He introduces this theme with the last two
lines of the first stanza: "In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
bring sad thoughts to the mind."
Wordsworth
then suggests that the happiness of nature should be paralelled by a hapiness
of mankind: "To her fair works did nature link the human soul that through
me ran; And much it greaves my heart to think what man has made of man."
(c.f.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WrittenEarlySpringWilliam/xmn/Post.htm
)
This poem is
mainly talking about nature in a very positive way. It really recreates a
spring atmosphere because he says “and ‘tis my faith that every flower”(line
11) or “the birds around me hopp’d and play’d”(line 13). What he is describing
in this examples is very much related with that season( the spring).
It makes you
feel very calm and relaxed because he describes that season with harmonious
adjectives and tenderness. We can also see that calm in lines 17, 18, 19 and
20) where he says “the budding twigs spread out their fan, to catch the breezy
air, and I must think, do all I can, that there was pleasure there”. Here he
also recreates that feeling of breathing pure air, because it has always been
said that when you are close to nature, the air is not polluted so it is more
pure and there are not difficulties for breathing. So, here he is saying that
he was lying in a tree seeing the lovely nature and breathing that pure air
that nature brings him.
I think that
in this poem, nature has a very important role and, although for Wordsworth,
nature had different meanings depending on the poem he is talking about, in
this one we can easily see that nature is here described as that sensation of
calm, of being in harmony and seeing birds playing or leaves flourishing and
breathing. So, we must say that this poem is a very good example of Wordsworth
view of nature.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/Default.asp?Page=119
Home: <www.wordsworth.org.uk>
http://users.dickinson.edu/~nicholsa/Romnat/wordsworth.htm
Home:< www.users.dikinson.edu>
.http://quotations.about.com/od/poemlyrics/a/wordsworth17.htm
Home: <www.quotations.about.com>
.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WrittenEarlySpringWilliam/xmn/Post.htm
Home: <www.englishforums.com>
(c.f. Corugedo y chamosa, 11, 12 and
13)
Corugedo, Santiago and Chamosa, Jose
Luís. Baladas líricas, Madrid, Catedra, Letras Universales, 1990.
COLERIDGE (By
Ani Tadevosyan)
SHELLEY (By
Inma C. Sanchis Garcia- Astilleros)
BYRON (By
Barbara Cortes Martinez)
KEATS (By
Mari Carmen Mora Vives)
CONCLUSION (By Sara Lozano Aragó)