As, in God, there was a harmony between these two, there is the presence of God in nature and man, the possibility of the restoration of this harmony. Then communion between the two becomes possible, and these two independent souls are viewed as the unfolding or expression of the divine. With this soul thus conceived it is possible for the soul of man to bring about, according to Wordsworth, a close intimate relationship. In his later poetry, he frequently speaks of this living soul in nature as entity distinct, definite and independent, existing irrespective of the thinking mind of man. Here his pantheism becomes a distinct element. But in other pieces, he refers to the pleasure or joy felt by nature, and in some, as in ‘ Tintern Abbey‘ he speaks of an all-pervading presence in nature as much as in the thinking mind, thus rising to the conception of a unity between the subject and the object. In some poems such as ‘ Nutting‘ it is yet vague. The second stage is reached in the ‘Lyrical, Ballads,’ where Wordsworth begins to present his idea of nature as something alive. In his early poems such as ‘Evening Walk‘, or ‘Descriptive Sketches‘, his attitude is one akin to that of the precursors of Romanticism– Gray, Collins and Cowper. Above all, the originality of Wordsworth is that he never thinks of Nature in any other way than as a Mighty Presence, before whom he stands silent, like a faithful high-priest, who waits in solemn expectation for the whisper of enlightenment and wisdom Wordsworth’s treatment of Nature It is not for nothing God has set man in this world of sound and vision: it is in the power of Nature to penetrate his spirit, to reveal him to himself, to communicate to him Divine instructions, to lift him into spiritual life and ecstasy. He teaches us that between man and Nature there is mutual consciousness and mystic relationship. It may be said that Wordsworth differs from all other poets in the stress he puts upon the moral influences of Nature.įor Wordsworth, Nature is endowed with personality– “the mighty Being.” He declares that Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn if we will, and without which any human life is vain and incomplete. But there is something in Wordsworth’s treatment of Nature which differs from the poetry of his predecessors as well as his contemporaries. In Wordsworth’s own day both Byron and Shelley were writing poems thoroughly imbued with the love of Nature. The love of Nature is to be found in all the English poets, from Chaucer downwards. It goes to his credit that he propounded a new and original philosophy of Nature, and expounded a new and individual view of Nature. Criticism of Wordsworth’s Nature poetry.Three stages in Wordsworth’s treatment of Nature.Classification of Wordsworth’s Nature Poetry.
Wordsworth and the other Romantic poets.
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