Spirituality in John Greenleaf Whittier's The Worship of Nature
If man ever said that he could not experience God outside of the walls of a church, it is evident that he never read John Greenleaf Whittier. John Greenleaf Whittier was a Quaker who, like all Quakers, placed an emphasis on a simple life. Quakers believe in leading a life without artificial things. Because of his Quaker beliefs, he had a deep understanding of the spirituality of the natural world. In his poem, The Worship of Nature Whittier takes his readers on a spiritual journey through a world untouched by man.
The title of the poem is an indication that the reader should prepare himself or herself for some sort of spiritual experience. Whittier uses the word "worship" to title his poem because by the end of the poem the reader will learn that there is much more to the natural world than water, land, and sky. The poem starts with the birth or creation of nature. Whittier explains to his readers that the natural world has existed since God created it. He compares the creation of nature to music. This stanza is very appealing to the senses because nature is musical. The insects, winds, and birds are all a part of this "song" that "has never died away". The poet reminds readers of this very important idea because we as humans have a tendency to forget the value and importance of nature. The second stanza takes readers beyond the initial creation and introduces readers to the many purposes that nature serves. Whittier explains that "prayer is made and praise is given." Personification is an important tool used in this poem. Obviously nature cannot really pray or give praise, but the various functions of nature in this world give the illusion that it does pay homage to a higher being. For instance the lines in the second stanza, "The ocean looketh up to heaven, /And mirrors every star" says that the ocean is a mirror for heaven. If we look into the deep sea, we are in essence looking into a reflected image of heaven. Other instances when Whittier uses personification in this way are the first and second lines in the third stanza, "Its waves are kneeling on the strand/As kneels the human knee". Whittier tells his readers that just as man bends his knee to show respect to God so the ocean waves bend when they reach the shore as a sign of respect.
Though Madison faced many predicaments, he also made many fine choices. As Madison tried solving his problems with negotiation, isolationism failed to ensure the safety of the nation. Madison tried to solve his problems by talking to the leaders of Britain and France. “If you agree to stop attacking…” Madison said, “…the United States will stop trading with your enemy”(Hart 168). This reveals how at first, intervention seemed so farfetched and out of the question and intervention was a first priority. In Madison’s mind, this seemed like such a reasonable request, but apparently, to Napoleon and the King of England, it was way too much to ask. Even though Napoleon promptly agreed to Madison’s...
With this image, the speaker expresses that she wants the readers to experience the literary work. The narrator wants the readers to imagine a water buffalo working hard, then imagining people who work just as hard as the water buffalo. The poet uses this stanza to conveys her messages, ideas and thoughts through. Next, the speaker uses a rhetorical device, metaphor, which is found in stanza two line one: “I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,” (8). The speaker uses metaphor describing people who work hard, to an ox working hard. With this metaphor, it enhances images described by the speaker by making them more creative and interesting. It also makes the story sounds poetic without writing the story in verses. The last r...
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
When thinking about nature, Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” John Muir and William Wordsworth both expressed through their writings that nature brought them great joy and satisfaction, as it did Andersen. Each author’s text conveyed very similar messages and represented similar experiences but, the writing style and wording used were significantly different. Wordsworth and Muir express their positive and emotional relationships with nature using diction and imagery.
...ter of the Quaker faith lies the concept of the Inner Light. This principle stated that in every human soul there is implanted a certain " element of God", " The need of Christ", and " the need of light" which means, in the words of John 1:9 " the light which listens to every human coming into the world. In another words, following the inward light would lead spiritual development and toward individual development
This work is a staple in British Literature, it has moral values that will never cease in our world. It has biblical allegories referring to Jesus Christ. The albatross hung around the neck refers to Jesus dying on the cross and The Mariner shooting the albatross is compared to Jesus. The sun and the moon symbolize God as does the Albatross. That in itself is a reason to use this book in life as It can really help one get moral values and live life to the fullest. This poem should be known as a moral lesson by everyone because the lessons told in this story are ones one should never forget.
In these poems and many others, Dylan Thomas expresses God’s presence and unconditional love for everyone. He has conventional spiritual views, occasionally alluding to the Bible, but his images are unique. He describes heaven with the stars and the wind, and connects God with thunder, rainbows, and gravel. Using the motion and life on the earth, Dylan Thomas facilitates these concrete ideas to describe his abstract spiritual beliefs. Nature is an ideal way to describe God because He is present everywhere on our earth. Whether it be the soul’s redemption into heaven with God and the earth or God’s great force that creates all motion on the planet, His presence is the theme that Dylan Thomas expresses best of all of his poetry.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” is an encouraging poem in which Longfellow has utilized many different poetic elements including imagery, rhyme, metaphor, simile and others. The poem is very easy to understand and is engaging to the reader because of the images the poem invokes. Of all of the elements used, imagery is the most consistent and prevalent poetic element in the poem “A Psalm of Life”. Using imagery, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem describes a life not fully lived, how to live and what a life fully lived looks like.
The title of the poem is very significant. The title penetratingly outlines how precious they view the water to be. He does this by titling the poem ''Blessing''. Water is something which most people take for granted, so by making this the title he emphasizes the value they place upon the water. The poet highlights how much value they place upon the water in the fourth stanza when the pipe bursts by using word choice. ''As their blessings sing'' is the quote from the poem and the effect of this is that it gives you a sense of harmony. The words sum up a peaceful ending for the last two stanzas where the mood of the poem changes from desperation to the contrast of greatfulness. The poet has chosen the phrase ''blessings sing'' as when put together it has conitations of bountful amounts of happiness which accuratly shows their joy and relief they would of felt in that moment of time. I think the poet has used this quote to symbolise the end of a struggle which turned into a celebration and the word ''sing'' to create the passion for the villagers in that moment.
Metaphors are often used in order to further introduce and explain an idea. The speaker compares “And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church, / Our little Sexton – sings” to help the reader comprehend that she feels as if she is in church when in fact she can be with God in her own home. By comparing the church bells to her own sexton, which refers back to the Bobolink, the speaker explains that the lavish and ornate decorative items within a church are merely physical, and that true relationship with God comes from a relationship, not by attending church only because one believes that is the correct way to honor the Sabbath. Emily Dickinson also compares the clothing in which the speaker and the regular church attendance wears. The different dress between the church and the speaker is described as “Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice – / I, just wear my Wings”. A surplice is a long, white gown worn by church clergyman and the chorister. The church believes this outfit demonstrates respect towards God. The speaker knows that clothing does not matter to God or towards one relationship with him. This is why she only wears her wings. The wings in the poem seem to represent angel wings which would imply the closeness the speaker holds with God. The metaphors in this poem help Dickinson to further extend her point of different ways to honor the
“Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! (Shelley Line 1)” Shelley takes a little object in nature, the skylark, and transforms it into a mysteriously beautiful thing that represents freedom and passion in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “To A Skylark.” The poem, very unique, is used to express his emotions through the characteristics of the bird. The song of this skylark can be seen as a guide about being free from all burdens. Animals are sort of disconnected from certain emotion that effect humans such as sadness and pain. The speaker appears to a micro degree jealous of the liberty of the skylark that travels wherever it pleases. It doesn’t matter once or wherever, whether or not it's dusk (“the sunken sun”) or morning (“the silver sphere”) the speaker feels that the skylark is usually flying high above. Although one tend to not see it, or maybe hear it, “we feel it is there (Shelley Line 25).”
There is an association between the development of mass media and social change, although the degree and direction of this association is still debated upon even after years of study into media influence. Many of the consequences, either detrimental or beneficial, which have been attributed to the mass media, are almost undoubtedly due to other tendencies within society. Few sociologists would refute the importance of the mass media, and mass communications as a whole, as being a major factor in the construction and circulation of social understanding and social imagery in modern societies. Therefore it is argued that the mass media is used as “an instrument”, both more powerful and more flexible than anything in previous existence, for influencing people into certain modes of belief and understanding within society.
In the first stanza of the poem, Whitman explains what he is doing in that, “I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass” (5). Although one might just think that grass is only grass and there is nothing more, Whitman feels as if there is so much more beneath the surface of this simple object. Whitman also really emphasizes the idea of eternity and that the grass represents something more than life.
In the first stanza, the poet seems to be offering a conventional romanticized view of Nature:
After reviewing the history of the development of music, it seems that without mathematics music would not exist. The relationship between the two could even foster embellishing opportunities for education. Students may be more intrigued to learn about math if it is compared to music or vice versa. With this strong combination, it is important to consider that mathematics is as much of an art as music.