Ideal Image of Nature
The World Is Too Much with Us by William Wordsworth represents modern humanity's lost spiritual connection with nature, in which he believed could only be preserved in memory. This poem is a sonnet that through images and metaphors offers an angry summation of the theme of communion with nature. Wordsworth repeats the fatalistic theme of humanities progress at the cost of preserving nature throughout the sonnet. The symbolism created by the images and metaphors represent Wordsworth's deep passion about the conflict between nature and modern progress.
William Wordsworth was raised amid the mountains in a rustic society and spent a great deal of his childhood outdoors, in what he would later remember as a pure communion with nature. The life style that he led as a child brought him to the belief that, upon being born, human beings move from a perfect, idealized realm of nature into the destructive ambition of adult life (Phillips). Wordsworth's deep cynicism to the materialistic ambition of the Industrial Revolution during the early nineteenth century is evident in this sonnet. Images and metaphors alluding to mankind's greed, nature's innocence, and the speaker's rejection of accepted principles all serve to illustrate the speaker's passion to save the decadent era of the early 1800s.
The first part, the octave, of "The World Is Too Much with Us" begins with Wordsworth accusing the modern age of having lost its connection to nature and everything meaningful: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; /Little we see in Nature that is ours; /We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon" (2-4)! The idea that Wordsworth is trying to make clear, is that human beings (adults) are too preoccupied in the material value of things ("The world┘getting and spending" (1-2)) and have lost their spiritual connection with Mother Nature (childhood).
"Little we see in Nature that is ours;" (3) Wordsworth is expressing that nature is not a commodity to be exploited by humans, but should coexist with humanity, and "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon" (4)! he pronounces that in our materialistic lifestyles, nothing is meaningful anymore. He says that even when the sea "bares her bosom to the moon" (5) and the winds howl, humanity is still out of tune.
These lines (5-7) suggest that nature is helpless and unknown to the destruction man is doing. "For this, for everything, we are out of tune;" (8) proposes that even in the spectacle of a storm, human beings
(adults) look on uncaringly implying that we, humans, don't realize the damage we are inflicting on helpless nature.
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.
Most issues on a farm return to the issue of keeping up appearances. (Smiley p.199)
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau was very close author who wrote towards same points by criticizing the corrupted government because people were treated very badly and they were not given individual rights. They were good author who brought people together and made them understand about the system of the Transcendentalist movement in America. The governor and government itself was very poor to control the people and society due to corrupted leaders and government. Due to economic progress and poor system of government Emerson started criticizing government indirectly and wrote the poem about nature and society because maximum people could not enjoy the same facilities and freedom. But his intension was very clear and he wants to make people aware of what is happening around them. He also wants people to appreciate everything nature provides and not take it for granted. He was very disheartened by the anti-businessman for growth of economic progress and trading activities which has spoiled huge area of nature in the society. He explained that “most adults have lost the ability to see the world in this way. In order to experience awe in the presence of nature, we need to approach it with a balance between our inner and our outer senses. Nature so approached is a part of man, and even when bleak and stormy is capable of elevating his mood. All aspects of nature correspond to some state of mind”. That means he indirectly exclaimed that most of the leaders of society were included in the practices of such activities. On the other hand, Henry David Thoreau is another writer aiming to another target writing against the system of government. “Emerson wants his readers to know that tradition is not everything and society only h...
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.
2010 Census statistics for Baker County indicates a population of 27,115 residents, of which 3,226 or 11.9% are age 65 or older (Census 2010). Of these individuals, 10.3% live below the poverty line and are lacking access to healthcare. Surprisingly, when the statistics are subdivided by ethnicity it reveals that 25% of the African American elderly in Baker County live below the poverty line. The rate of dementia among older adults in 2011 was 10.4% and...
Can a society of learners and explorers coexist with an ecosystem that can barely stay afloat? “The Tables Turned” by William Wordsworth and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman both tackle the concept of nature vs. science. While the two agree on many terms, the underlying message of each is drastically different. “Tables” is much more didactic while “Astronomer” is the story of a revelation. With both poems having Romantic themes, the two must agree on the basic notions of Romanticism, in this case, the power of nature. Yet, the two disagree on a major aspect of Romanticism, self discovery. “Tables” and “Astronomer” share the same baseline thoughts, yet still tell their own stories of Romanticism.
... and many residents are even relocating to other states in hopes of acquiring their American Dream.
In Walden, Henry David Thoreau explains how a relationship with nature reveals aspects of the true self that remain hidden by the distractions of society and technology. To Thoreau, the burdens of nineteenth century existence, the cycles of exhausting work to obtain property, force society to exist as if it were "slumbering." Therefore, Thoreau urges his readers to seek a spiritual awakening. Through his rhetoric,Thoreau alludes to a "rebirth" of the self and a reconnection to the natural world. The text becomes a landscape and the images become objects, appealing to our pathos, or emotions, our ethos, or character, and our logos, or logical reasoning, because we experience his awakening. Thoreau grounds his spirituality in the physical realities of nature, and allows us to experience our own awakening through his metaphorical interpretations. As we observe Thoreau¹s awakening, he covertly leads us to our own enlightenment.
In ‘All the Pretty Horses’ Luis states ‘among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion’, by this he means the relationship man has with nature is totally unique, it is sacred; the relationship between men is a misapprehension. In some respects the reader may agree with the statement because it is true, man’s relationship with animals and nature is fairly simple compared to man’s relationship amongst each other which is far more complex due to conflict of opinion and other complications. John Grady Cole’s relationship with Alejandra faced much turmoil and complication, one of the biggest issues they faced was the fact Alejandra’s family condemned their relationship and forbid her to be with him. To a certain extent John’s romance with Alejandra mirrors Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in respects to their forbidden love, however their story does not end in tragedy. Wordsworth shows nature to be more of a companion for man in ‘The Solitary Reaper’. The woman reaps the crops alone in the field singing with a voice so ‘thrilling’ it resonates ‘Long after it was heard no more’. Although she is lonely, she is wholly reliant upon the sustenance she receives and the relationship she has with nature. The poet proceeds to compare her to the Cuckoo and the Nightingale stating ‘No Nightingale did ever chaunt more welcome notes to weary bands’ being compared to birds with such beautiful song surely displays her oneness with nature. Unlike the ‘maiden’ Victor tries to control and dominate nature, this resentment could stem from the fact his mother died of the fever, making him go to extreme lengths in constructing this figure from different body parts to create a cre...
as his understanding and affection with the world of nature established, Thoreau became one of its earliest champions. Watching Concord stripped of its forests for farming and fuel-wood and seeing the village expands into the countryside, Thoreau looked to the future and raised new possibilities. "Each town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest, of 500 or a thousand acres, where a stick should never be cut for fuel, a common possession forever, for instruction and recreation," he wrote. He wants to make the best out of everything bad that was going on.
Nature in which people of the entire universe mostly depend upon is found as the true source of happiness in their own life. This great spectacle of the nature is what most of the people appreciate a lot. However the development taking place all over the world does not seems that people are now appreciating the creation of the mighty God. To live happily we the people have to be associated with nature as both Emerson and Thoreau believes in order to live a happy life people must learn to live in harmony with nature without destroying the nature. Both Emerson and Thoreau tends to have similar ideas upon the nature. Emerson states that the first important influences upon the mind of human is nature because nature has no beginning and has no ending but it is like a circular power that keep on returning again and again to the same place where as Thoreau believes that the harmony which the people get from the nature is far greater and the law of nature is to give happiness to the people. However the contrast appears when both Thoreau and Emerson have different ideas upon the manipulation of human mind by the nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson in his speech which he delivered at Cambridge in 1837 mostly talks about American Independence however, he also talks about America still is under the influence of Europe. In the very first line “Mr. President and gentlemen, I greet you on the recommencement of our literary year” (Emerson, R.W. 1907); here Emerson is talking about the hope for staying independent and the value of the independence. After America got their independence Emerson delivered the speech and offered a declaration of his own arguing Americans to stop being “parrots of other men’s thinking”. While saying this Emerson is showing that American though they got their independence but the way in which they think is still like the European who once invaded America. Now, so that America is independent American people should be thinking on their own not depending on others thinking. The ‘American scholar’ reflects the value of the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution to an extent by relating the idea of man thinking and the mere thinker and how these two ideas can bring about the change in the life of Americans.
reason to it as well; the purpose of it is to make people get a
Through the poems of Blake and Wordsworth, the meaning of nature expands far beyond the earlier century's definition of nature. "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." The passion and imagination portrayal manifest this period unquestionably, as the Romantic Era. Nature is a place of solace where the imagination is free to roam. Wordsworth contrasts the material world to the innocent beauty of nature that is easily forgotten, or overlooked due to our insensitivities by our complete devotion to the trivial world. “But yet I know, where’er I go, that there hath passed away a glory from the earth.
He is writing the poem as if he were an object of the earth, and what it is like to once live and then die only to be reborn. On the other hand, Wordsworth takes images of meadows, fields, and birds and uses them to show what gives him life. Life being whatever a person needs to move on, and without those objects, they can't have life. Wordsworth does not compare himself to these things like Shelley, but instead uses them as an example of how he feels about the stages of living. Starting from an infant to a young boy into a man, a man who knows death is coming and can do nothing about it because it's part of life.