Wordsworth as a nature poet

Name :Jayshree kunchala

Roll No :15

Class   : M.A. 1

Sem : 1

Submitted to : Dept.of English.M.K.Bhavnnagar Universty

Assignment Topic : Wordsworth as a Nature Poet

 

William Wordsworth as a Nature Poet

Wordsworth is a worshiper of Nature.His love of Nature is tender and truer than any other English poets.There is a separate status of Nature in his poems.He believed that there is a divine spirit in nature.He believed that the company of nature gives joy to the human heart and he looked upon nature as a healing force.Above all, he regarded her as a great moral preacher.He believed that there is a link between man and nature.In his eyes,"Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn if we will,and without which any human life is vain and incomplete."He believed in the education of man by nature."Sweet is the lore which Nature brings
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things
We murder to dissect." He has mystical sense of life in natural things.
Wordsworth is concerned with the spiritual significance of nature.It has its message for man.The primrose and the daffodils are the symbols to give nature's message to man.A sunrise to him is a moment of spiritual consecration.The poet says sweetly in his poem “The Tables Turned”: "' Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.



She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless--
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.



One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.



Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.



Enough of Science and of Art;"
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives."



Wordsworth is concerned with the spiritual significance of nature. It has its message for man. The primrose and the daffodils are the symbols to give nature's message to man. A sunrise to him is a moment of spiritual consecration. See the beautiful description of nature in The Prelude, Book Fourth, and Summer Vacation:



Magnificent
The morning rose, in memorable pomp,
Glorious as e'er I had beheld--in front,
The sea lay laughing at a distance; near,
The solid mountains shone, bright as the clouds,
Grain-tinctured, drenched in empyrean light;
And in the meadows and the lower grounds
Was all the sweetness of a common dawn--
Dews, vapours, and the melody of birds,
And labourers going forth to till the fields.
Ah! need I say, dear Friend! that to the brim
My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows
Were then made for me; bond unknown to me
Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly,
A dedicated Spirit. On I walked
Alone upon the rock--oh, then, the calm
And dead still water lay upon my mind
Even with a weight of pleasure, and the sky,
Never before so beautiful, sank down
Into my heart, and held me like a dream!



William Wordsworth is deeply mystical and nobly poetical, in his presentation of Nature.
Wordsworth is very sensitive to every subtle change going on in the world. Joy of spring is to be felt by him:
"It was an April morning: fresh and clear
The Rivulet, delighting in its strength,
Ran with a young man's speed, and yet the voice
Of waters which the river had supplied
Was softened down into a vernal tone."
He derives pleasure in a tranquil lake:



“The calm
And dead still water lay upon my mind
Even with a weight of pleasure, and the sky,
Never before so beautiful, sank down
Into my heart, and held me
like a dream."









The peculiar power of Wordsworth lies in actualizing sound and silence.
Wordsworth has not the wild and stormy aspects of Nature ;like Byron or the changeable aspects of Nature, the scenery of the sea and sky like Shelley or purely sensuous impressions like John Keats.