...Question of Nature to Wordsworth and Shelley One of the defining features found in the poems from the age of Romanticism is the prevailing use of nature as a subject for poets to express themselves. Nature is treated as a sacrosanct and inexhaustible source of inspiration. Among the pioneers of these nature-inspired poets are William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Wordsworth, the Poet Laureate who thrust English literature to the age of Romanticism through his poems, spent most of his days living in the countryside and enjoying the splendor of nature. His love for the great outdoors is expressively written in his poems which often concern his fascination on the allure of nature. A few of such works are “Daffodils‘，”I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “The Solitary Reaper” (Diao 9). Correspondingly, Shelley in the same spirit of appreciation of nature made nature his primary subject. The Finest Lyrical Poet conveyed his purest emotion to the readers through the description of all kinds of natural phenomena. For instance, “To a Skylark”, “Mont Blanc”, “The Moon”, and his masterpiece, “Ode to the West Wind” (Diao 57). Although it was clear that both poets use nature as their subject of fascination, the way nature was treated in their poems displayed two distinct styles of both poets. To Wordsworth, nature was the key to spiritual comfort, a symbol of love and harmony, as described in the poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” (Zhao 35). In this poem, Wordsworth...
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...between the surroundings and how Victor “[drinks] in a tranquility to which [he] had long been a stranger (page 188),”. It is also noted that “The mountains of Switzerland are more majestic and strange (page 189),”. It is to a point where an excerpt from William Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern Abbey” is quoted. “Tintern Abbey” is about how a speaker absorbs the sensations of nature and the world that surrounds. In Victor’s case, he “[drinks] in a tranquility to which [he] had long been a stranger (page 188),”. Victor gives picturesque perspectives of the surrounding areas, such as “the plains of Holland . . . steam of the river was too gentle to aid [them] (page 190),”. and with “The banks of the Thames [presenting] a new scene . . . flat but fertile (page 191),”. 8. Both Victor and the monster have their own “journeys” that they experience. The monster, being a protagonist on his own, has the goal of escaping civilization so that “neither [Victor] nor any other human being shall ever see [the monster and his wife] again (page 176),”. The monster has to go through being “shunned and hated by all mankind (page 174),” which is the reason for the monster to escape to South America. The monster is peaceful in nature as he “would like to make peace with the whole kind (page 175),”. This changes when Victor ends up cancelling his plans of creating a female companion and becomes vengeful by taunting Victor saying that “[he] will be with [Victor] on [Victor’s] wedding night (page 206),”. Victor...
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...Nature in Romanticism The Romantic Period came as a reaction against the Industrial Revolution and the rising emphasis on science and technology that the movement brought along. People traditionally living in the country now gathered into urbanized areas in hopes of employment as farmland gradually developed into factories (“Introduction”, Pages 5-7). As a result, cities became crowded and unsanitary as this sudden influx of population was not accounted for in city works. The lack of a citywide waste disposal system created an environment where litter dusted the streets and smog suffocated the populace (Wood). In the heavily industrialized cities of the time, flora and other greenery became a rare sight. The people of the late eighteenth century became rapidly disillusioned by their surroundings and yearned for the better days of the past where there was more space to breathe and distance themselves to find spiritual meaning in their life (Wood). The people sought for a refuge from the turmoil of society and found that coveted solitude in nature, which became idealized as a meditative sanctuary where people could go to reflect upon life or draw inspiration. Each writer of the Romantic period came upon different interpretations from their experiences with nature and these varying perspectives are reflected in their works. Pantheism was a very pervasive theme found in the works of the Romantic Period. This shared sentiment did not come as a surprise as nature became personal...
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...to express one’s feelings for nature in a way that would encapsulate the reader to make the experiences their own. This kind of writing allowed Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Oliver, and William Wordsworth to write moving poems that allowed them to convey their feelings of adoration to nature onto paper for others to “feel” as they read the inspiring pieces of work they had written. In some poems there’s a common sense of calm and relaxation that the writer is feeling, but will translate to the audience through word cues and usage of the vocabulary in the poem. Another link I found commonly among some of the poems is the personification of nature in some...
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...Part I: One could argue that Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women was one of the earliest feminist philosophical works that set the standard for the feminist phenomenon we know today. In A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Wollstonecraft states that it is indeed not a normal incidence that instated the variances between man and woman, but it is civilization and convention that introduced these differences. Furthermore, she positions herself to say that it is the way men are taught differently than women that causes contrasting principles and rifts between sexes. The following quote from A Vindication of the Rights of Women perfectly showcases my notions made in the previous sentence: “One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system of education, gathered from the book written on this subject by men who, considering females rather as women than human creatures…” (152). In Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, we are offered a somewhat accurate look into a post-Wollstonecraft world. The two Pride & Prejudice characters that best reflect Wollstonecraft’s feminist demarcations are Lydia Bennet and Mr. Wickham. As the film progresses, Lydia, the youngest of the Bennet sisters, becomes acquainted with Mr. Wickham and begins to display the very essence of what Wollstonecraft was trying to rebut in A Vindication of the Rights of Women. As Lydia’s infatuation with Mr. Wickham intensifies, she begins to act unsophisticated...
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...way Shelley emphasizes and idealizes nature and describes nature as therapeutic (specifically to Victor Frankenstein). The second is Shelley’s emphasis on expressing emotion and how feelings and intuition were more important than rationality during the Romantic. Nature is heavily idealized in the novel and Shelley often uses nature as therapy. Both Frankenstein and the creature find joyous solitude in the purity and tranquility of nature. Each time Frankenstein endures a horrific experience in this novel, Shelley immediately places Frankenstein in a natural setting that causes him joy and replenishes him. Immediately after creating the creature, Frankenstein falls gravely ill and is nursed back to health by Henry Clerval and friends. Once he had recovered, Frankenstein exclaims that, “It was a divine spring, and the season contributed greatly to my convalescence. I felt also sentiments of joy and affection arrive in my bosom; my gloom disappeared, and in short time I became as cheerful as...
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... Shortly after Poems in Two Volumes (1807) appeared, Wordsworth worried about readers misinterpreting "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (Letters 174, 194-95). Still concerned in 1815, he attached a note to the poem in his first Collected Works. "The subject of these stanzas," he asserted, "is rather an elementary feeling and simple impression [...] upon the imaginative faculty, than an exertion of it" (qtd. in Stillinger 539). Some critics have basically followed Wordsworth's lead: To Jack Stillinger the mental experience embodied by the poem is simple and ordinary (544), and to John Milstead the first three stanzas exemplify merely "a physical stimulus-and-response mechanism" through which the poet remains "passive" . Nevertheless, in the preface to the 1815 collection Wordsworth not only argues that the imagination is ruled by "sublime consciousness" (Stillinger 486), but he also places "I Wandered" among poems categorized by "Imagination." Indeed, many critics ignore Wordsworth's comments on the poem and instead read it as representing a moment in nature of spiritual insight that recurs during a later imaginative re-creation (Joplin 68-69, Stallknecht 81-82, Hartman 5). More precisely, though, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" dramatizes an experience of the sublime in its first three stanzas, which the poet recollects and re-experiences as a "spot of time" in the last stanza. Like other sublime passages in The Prelude and "Tintern Abbey," this one draws on...
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... toward nature. In1921, David Nichol Smith commented on William Wordsworth as ‘our greatest nature poet’ and it is an opinion many would still believe in. As a poet of Nature, Wordsworth is at the highest ranking. He is a worshipper of Nature, Nature’s enthusiast or high-priest. The poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ or commonly known as ‘Daffodils’ is one of the last remaining truly well-liked poems. From it, one obtains an image of Wordsworth as someone comforted and enlivened by the flowers he finds while walking among the dales and hills. His worship of Nature was likely more genuine, and more sympathetic, than that of any other English poet. Nature comes to take up a different or independent position in his poem and is not treated in an indifferent or hasty manner as by poets before him. Wordsworth had a mature philosophy, a new and innovative perspective of Nature. Three points in his doctrine of Nature may be indicated: I. Wordsworth understood Nature as a living character. He believed that there is a holy spirit permeating all the articles of Nature. This belief in a pervasive holy spirit may be named as spiritual Pantheism and is completely indicated in Tintern Abbey and in some passages in Book II of The Prelude. II. Wordsworth believed that the system of Nature gives pleasure to the human heart and he regarded Nature as practicing a healing effect on grief-stricken hearts. III. Most importantly, Wordsworth stressed the moral effect of Nature. He gives...
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...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." Wordsworth consistently describes his own mind as the recipient of external sensations which are then rendered into its own mental creations. Such an alliance of the inner life with the outer world is at the heart of Wordsworth's descriptions of nature. Wordsworth's ideas about memory, the importance of childhood experiences, and the power of the mind to bestow an "auxiliar" light on the objects it beholds all depend on this ability to record experiences carefully at the moment of observation but then to shape those same experiences in the mind over time. We should also recall, however, that he made widespread use of other texts in the production of his Wordsworthian (Keats said "egotistical") sublime: drafts of poems by Coleridge, his sisterDorothy's Journals, the works of Milton, Shakespeare, Thomson, and countless others. Wordsworthian "nature" emerges as...
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...France’s royal authority figure, destroyed in the French Revolution. It conveyed the emotion and importance of that particular event. The painting, Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson, created by Jean-Marc Nattier was important piece of art. The painting was indicative of the Enlightenment school of thought because it showed a scholarly, well-dressed man reading a book. Romantic Age Joseph M Turner’s The Chancel and Crossing of Tintern abbey, looking toward the East Window was inspired to paint the Tintern Abbey after visiting the site. The abbey was popular to many Romantics. It inspired the famous poem Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tinten Abbey. The painting itself show the smallness of man, wilderness of nature, and unstoppable power that reclaimed The Tinten Abbey’s edifice. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich was a quintessential Romantic painting. It displayed infinite potential and possibility of man and the mysterious grandeur of nature. The painting also depicted the romantic idea of nationalism and a philosophical revolt against rationalism Music Enlightenment Era Music was no longer for the wealthy. The middle-class could enjoy this music with the incorporation of concerts. Composer Franz Joseph Haydn came up with a new way to entertain these larger audiences by...
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...excluding any reflection about them. But Wordsworth gave equal importance to the element of thought in poetry and says that poems to which any value is attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, has also thought long and deep. Wordsworth believes that artistic process is combination of thought and emotion. This research article will study Wordsworth’s concept of poetic creation Wordsworth believes that artistic process is combination of thought and emotion . During the poetic process, the poet is possessed by powerful passions but he undergoes a period of emotions reflected in tranquility. During this process the influxes of feelings are modified and directed by thoughts. The direction of thought adds a depth of meaning and truth to poetry. For Wordsworth poetry is a method of interpreting the reality or the meaning of life. Introduction Generally the critics criticize the Romantics for being too emotional. They quote Wordsworth’s famous statement, ‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings’ (Wordsworth,1989:57)1 as evidence but overlook Wordsworth’s entire concept of creative process of which emotions are a part. Wordsworth makes this statement twice in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads.The first time he continues ‘but though this be true, poems to which any value is...
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...I wandered lonely as a cloud" In the first stanza the speaker describes a time when he meandered over the valleys and hills, "lonely as a cloud." Finally, he came across a crowd of daffodils stretching out over almost everything he could see, "fluttering and dancing in the breeze": I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. In the second stanza the speaker goes into more detail about the daffodils. They reminded him of the Milky Way, because there were so many flowers packed together that they seemed to be neverending. The speaker guesses that there were ten thousand daffodils, which were "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance": Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. In the third stanza the speaker compares the waves of the lake to the waves of daffodils and decides that even though the lake is "sparkling," the daffodils win because they have more "glee." He then comments that he, like any other poet, could not help but be happy "in such a jocund company." He looked at the scene for a long time, but while he was there he was unable to understand what he had gained from the experience: The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the...
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...teacher 400 years before Christ birth he is found guilty and condemned to die Plato’s theory of forms Images/ Forms Ideas Concepts Images- Beautiful women, Concepts-of beaity will still be around Tintern abbey Comparison bw when he was young and now that is old He lost some things but also gained some things he is getting older and wiser Past to present to future Young and thoufghtkless youth when y9u are young you can enjoy nature withought thibnkibg abo9ut it too much Presence that disturbs me.. thoughts that transcend , a sense, sublime 110- when I am in nature I am closer to the essence that makes me human and when I come face to face with that understanding I am reminded of what really matters . from material things Speaks to young reader 114- If I didn’t think this way I would be lost You can live life depressed or hopeful Follow what I say in the poem Being around young ppl remind him of what he was like when he was young As you age you quickly forget what its like to be young You try to unlearn or forget what you were at that age that is why he likes to be with young people He wants to be able to hold on to what he was and remember what it is like because he relizes he is getting old 125- ppl are not born with happy moods, youre energy comes from nature if you fail to recognize that you suffer decay otherwise known as bad moods, unenthusiastic 132- All of life is either a tuned piano9 or an unturned piano He’s a realist and wants young to know...
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...poetic legacy rests on a large number of important poems, varying in length and weight from the short, simple lyrics of the 1790s to the vast expanses of The Prelude, thirteen books long in its 1808 edition. But the themes that run through Wordsworth’s poetry, and the language and imagery he uses to embody those themes, remain remarkably consistent throughout the Wordsworth canon, adhering largely to the tenets Wordsworth set out for himself in the 1802 preface to Lyrical Ballads. Here, Wordsworth argues that poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech, rather than in the lofty and elaborate dictions that were then considered “poetic.” He argues that poetry should offer access to the emotions contained in memory. And he argues that the first principle of poetry should be pleasure, that the chief duty of poetry is to provide pleasure through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling—for all human sympathy, he claims, is based on a subtle pleasure principle that is “the naked and native dignity of man.” Recovering “the naked and native dignity of man” makes up a significant part of Wordsworth’s poetic project, and he follows his own advice from the 1802 preface. Wordsworth’s style remains plain-spoken and easy to understand even today, though the rhythms and idioms of common English have changed from those of the early nineteenth century. Many of Wordsworth’s poems (including masterpieces such as “Tintern Abbey” and the “Intimations of Immortality” ode) deal...
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... and satire that Johnathan Swift and Voltaire utilized to explain their views on the modern world. Fredrick Douglass, William Wordsworth, and Jean Jacques Rousseau embodied the greatest aspects of the Romanticism era focusing on solitude, nature, and feelings. In 1830 the Realism movement started, a movement strife with inclusiveness and determinism that was highlighted in the works of Gustave Flaubert and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The most recent period was Modernism in which William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot used rationalism and psychoanalysis when writing their poems. Each period uprooted the period before it and the writers values and views contradicted those of the writers who proceeded them. The major aspects of each period are very apparent when dissecting the writers who lived through them. The Age of Reason covered from 1660 to 1770 and focused on order, cities, and used satire as a tool to find reason. Voltaire’s Candide and Swift’s A Modest Proposal were both satire that questioned traditions and philosophical norms of the times. In Candide, Voltaire mocks the idea that eternal optimism of ones course in life by continuously throwing the worst case scenarios at his protagonist. In the end Candide finds solace in nature and focusing on the everyday tasks. Swift’s almost humorous A Modest Proposal questions the idea of lazily accepting the British rule over Ireland. The not so modest proposal from Swift drew questions against the social order and witty comedic...
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