Natural Connections
Heather Conway
ENG/106
January 20, 2014
Nikki Moorman

Natural Connections
Early works of literature show many concepts of emotion from anger and wrath, to love and devotion. In these works, it is sometimes not easy to find what the author is tying say or convey when it comes to his or her work. As a reader, it can be difficult to comb through what the author is trying to establish in their work, whether it be love, hate, envy, or a personal struggle for the intended characters. In some of the more modern works, it is apparent that romantic emotion is a constant and can easily be discerned from each individual piece. In John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”, it is automatically assumed that the narrator is speaking of something that is loved. In this case, it appears as if the narrator is speaking of a bird, but it can also be said that he is speaking about a love, or lover, that he had once and then lost. In the first stanza, the first line, it suggests that he is missing a piece of himself, and his ‘heart aches’. He later describes this ache as the complete opposite of what it is to be in the ‘singest of summer in full-throated ease.’ (pg. 2160, 10) As the poem continues, Keats continues to use descriptions of nature and other things, showing a true connection there between the way the narrator feels and how it compares to certain aspects of nature and natural things.
In the second stanza, the narrator continues to describe his heart break, and the things that he would like to do. In the final line of the stanza he says ‘That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, and with thee fade away in the forest dim.’ (pg. 2160, 20) It can be suggested by this that the narrator is in so much pain that he’d like to disappear into a deep dark forest and never resurface again, that he couldn’t bare life without the love that he had lost. It could also possibly be used as a metaphor for suicide if one wanted to look even deeper and perhaps read between the lines. And so the piece continues, the narrator, speaking of Death and what it would be like to just fade away into nature, because the love he had lost is truly gone.
Annette von Droste-Hulishoff, author of “In the Grass”, uses nature in a completely different way than Keats, but often touches on the same kind of subject, romance. While hers isn’t straight out about a love lost, or someone longing for something or someone, she uses romance to describe something. In the third stanza of the poem, she describes ‘hours, more fleeting are you than the kiss.’ She may not be particularly describing someone in love, or some kind of ruined affair or whirlwind romance, but she uses love, such as the kiss, to define and describe nature and the beauty that nature holds. It is something she definitely has in common with Keats and many of the other great poets and writers, but at the same time there are many more differences. Keats’ narrator was heartbroken, needing something to ease the pain. Droste-Hulishoff uses the positives of love to describe what is happening in the busy grass.
Henry David Thoreau, author of “Walden”, writes of nature in his works. His works, however, don’t have a feel of romance, but more of something matter-of-fact. He describes, in the first couple of lines of ‘from Spring’ that the tonic of wilderness is something everyone needs. He describes nature as mysterious, something that needs to be explored and discovered, unfurled in all its many wonders. Unlike Keats and Droste-Hulishoff, nature is something magical and special and something a great many people seem to take for granted. It isn’t just described, but brought to life in more ways than one as is the power of words. As the reader journeys on, they are captured by the wording that Thoreau uses. The reader could almost imagine themselves in that setting with ease, a great quality for any writer to have, a quality that both Keats and Droste have as well. As we move further into “from Spring”, we see Thoreau’s vision further explored. He explains that ‘we can never have enough of Nature’, leading to believe that no matter who a person was, or where they were from, they couldn’t get too much of the good thing nature offered, the beauty of it is all around us. One only has to look, really look to see it. Thoreau does however, speak of love. Not the romantic type of love, but the love for something that is purely emotional all the same. “I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another.” There are many kinds of love and it doesn’t always have to be a romantic plot, as some of the others have shown well. But that’s not to say every once in a while, a good love story isn’t needed all the same.
Whether it is the physical kind of love, like Keats describes in “Ode to a Nightingale”, or something being compared to something beautiful in Annette’s “In the grass”, or even a physical love for nature as in Thoreau’s “Walden”, the same can be said for all of these works. Love is something that transcends time and space, and is used through history in many writings. Even writers, such as Hesoid, Sophocles, and Plato all wrote about love and how it is defined in the individual. Love is something that, even if it isn’t outright romantic, can be written about in any era, and has been over and over. Keats, Annette, and Thoreau, all from different periods of time, come together under one aspect and that aspect is love. It brings together author and reader and makes something magical, timeless, and something that is always remembered. So whether reading a timeless tale such as “Ode to a Nightingale” or something familiar such as Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, love is something that can be found, monopolized, and used to captivate any reader. Romance is, and always will be, as timeless as any other emotion.