Nature as God
God is considered a friend, parent, protector and guide. Book 1 of The Prelude, by William Wordsworth, doesn't directly mention God but Wordsworth does talk about Nature. Nature is all around him and becomes very significant in his past and present. Wordsworth is so enamored with nature it's obvious that Nature is a religion to him.
Parents often make others feel safe and protected and God often plays the role of a parent figure. Wordsworth shows that he feels at ``home'' with Nature, regardless of where he is. He questions, "In what Vale/ Shall be my harbour? Underneath what grove/ shall I take up my home, and what sweet stream/ shall with its murmurs lull me to rest? (Lines 11-14)." He considers all of Nature a home and looks forward to finding out what will sing him to sleep. Nature gives Wordsworth a great feeling of safety, just as God often does for others.
While he allows it be a safety net to fall back on, he also lets the same Nature be a path to the future. Most would think God guides the path but Wordsworth believes that Nature guides his path. Wordsworth says, "The earth is all before me: with a heart/ Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty,/ I look about, and should the guide I chuse/ be nothing better than a wandering cloud,/ I cannot miss my way (lines15-19)." He
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puts his trust and faith into Nature. This is how Wordsworth comes to know that whatever road he is led to he can't be wrong because all roads in Nature are divine. He has blind faith because whatever path nature makes he will follow. Wordsworth takes on a very pantheistic view and sees the universe and nature as divine.
To describe this divinity of nature Wordsworth uses vocabulary...
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...ar to religious praise songs meant for God. Again Wordsworth sounds grateful for the fact that nature is
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everywhere. This is another characteristic of nature that sounds similar to how many would characterize God, omnipotent.
Throughout this poem, we see Nature portraying many different roles. We see Nature as a guide, a parent, a friend and a protector. These are the same characteristics that are attributed to God. No, Wordsworth never mentions God. Nature is in fact his god as it contains all the qualities necessary to play the role of a god. The passages from Book 1 of The Prelude show that this theme of Nature as Wordsworth's god pops up time and time again.
Works Cited
Wordsworth, William. William Wordsworth The Major Works. Ed. Stephen Gill. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Whereas Milton’s epic is profoundly Christian, Wordsworth secularises his poem. Adam and Eve are led by God, Nature is Wordsworth’s guide:
Wordsworth is raised in a simple country side and he views his childhood as a time when his relationship with nature was at its greatest; he revisits his childhood memories to relieve his feelings and encourage his imagination. Even if he grew up within nature, he didn’t really appreciate it until he became an adult. He is pantheistic; belief that nature is divine, a God. Since he has religious aspect of nature, he believes that nature is everything and that it makes a person better. His tone in the poem is reproachful and more intense. His poem purpose is to tell the readers and his loved ones that if he feels some kind of way about nature, then we should have the same feeling toward it as well. On the other side, Coleridge is raised in rural city such as London and expresses his idea that, as a child, he felt connected to nature when looking above the sky and seeing the stars. Unlike Wordsworth who felt freedom of mind, Coleridge felt locked up in the city. Since he did not have any experience with nature, he did not get the opportunity to appreciate nature until he became an adult. In Coleridge’s poem “Frost at Midnight,” readers see how the pain of alienation from nature has toughened Coleridge’s hope that his child enjoy a peaceful nature. Instead of looking at the connection between childhood and nature as
William Wordsworth poem 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey'; was included as the last item in his Lyrical Ballads. The general meaning of the poem relates to his having lost the inspiration nature provided him in childhood. Nature seems to have made Wordsworth human.The significance of the abbey is Wordsworth's love of nature. Tintern Abbey representes a safe haven for Wordsworth that perhaps symbolizes a everlasting connection that man will share with it's surroundings. Wordsworth would also remember it for bringing out the part of him that makes him a 'A worshipper of Nature'; (Line 153).
Wordsworth visualized scenes while he was away, a way for him to feel a spiritual connection until he was able to return. Wordsworth states, “As a landscape to a blind man’s eye: But opt, in lonely rooms, and mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them” (Wordsworth 25-27). Wordsworth gives a sense of conformity and loneliness while being in the towns and cities. That he had his memories of when he was younger to keep him hopeful to return to nature and all the memories he had grasped the memories of. As the society today focuses merely on what they can profit from cities, Wordsworth understood the true meaning of memories. Memories today are mostly captured through social media, and in return being taken for granted. Wordsworth had nostalgic bliss as he replayed his memories, and knowing that in the future he could look back on that day and have the same feeling again. Social media today is destroying our memories and what we can relive in our minds as memories. We can know that when things are posted within social media it will get likes and be shared. However, there are not many people in society today that will remember the true essence of what nature has given to
Wordsworth believed in pantheism, the religion of nature, meaning he believed that nature depicted religion as well as the atmosphere of a particular place. He believed that a positive atmosphere and healthy nature depicted a strong religious vibe of that area, proving the good qualities of it. Wordsworth incorporated this belief into his poem, as he states that the area of London was ‘Bright and glittering’, and that the area was full of ‘smokeless air’. These words show the positivity of London through Wordsworth’s eyes, illustrating his belief of London being a nice and religious area.
...e cannot be destroyed, unlike Wordsworth, who has lost all hope in reviving nature. Hopkins also believes that the Christian God is great, whereas Wordsworth scorns the Christian God and wishes that society would believe in pagan gods instead. These beliefs are drastically different due to Hopkins’ optimism for the future of humanity and Wordsworth’s pessimism. While Wordsworth is “forlorn” (12), Hopkins believes that “nature is never spent” (9). Even though man has “trod” (5) all over nature and exploited it for man’s own economic gain, Hopkins believes that there is always “freshness” (10) within everything that will burst to life once more with “bright wings” (14). The only way to truly be in harmony with nature is to accept it for what it is and to try not to have an optimistic or pessimistic view about it – instead, one should view the results in due course.
Throughout the poem, the poet presents an overall meaning. The main meaning is that nature can bring happiness when it’s needed and that its beauty should be appreciated. The speaker of this poem makes a heaven out of a windy day and a bunch of daffodils. When he felt lonely, the daffodils around him, gave him a boost of joy. The poet is implying that people have become blind to the beauty of nature that is easily accessed, which is why he focused on the visual descriptions of the daffodils. Wordsworth wanted to emphasize the importance of
All in all, throughout all the history of American poetry, we can easily find numerous poems concerning nature from different angles, for nature will never betray a nature-loving heart just as William Wordsworth says.
William Wordsworth existed in a time when society and its functions were beginning to rapidly pick up. The poem that he 'Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye', gave him a chance to reflect upon his quick paced life by taking a moment to slow down and absorb the beauty of nature that allows one to 'see into the life of things'; (line 49). Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'; takes you on a series of emotional states by trying to sway 'readers and himself, that the loss of innocence and intensity over time is compensated by an accumulation of knowledge and insight.'; Wordsworth accomplishes to prove that although time was lost along with his innocence, he in turn was able to gain an appreciation for the aesthetics that consoled him by incorporating all together, the wonders of nature, his past experiences, and his present mature perception of life.
In “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” William Wordsworth accomplishes his ideal of nature by using personification, alliteration, and simile within his poem to convey to the reader how nature’s beauty uplifts his spirits and takes him away from his boring daily routine. Wordsworth relates himself in solidarity to that of a cloud wandering alone, “I wandered lonely as a cloud” (line 1). Comparing the cloud and himself to that of a lonely human in low spirits of isolation, simultaneously the author compares the daffodils he comes across as he “floats on high o’er vales and hills” (line 2) to that of a crowd of people dancing (lines 3-6 and again in 12). Watching and admiring the dancing daffodils as he floats on by relating them to various beauties of
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.
William Wordsworth has respect and has great admiration for nature. This is quite evident in all three of his poems; the Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey and Michael in that, his philosophy on the divinity, immortality and innocence of humans are elucidated in his connection with nature. For Wordsworth, himself, nature has a spirit, a soul of its own, and to know is to experience nature with all of your senses. In all three of his poems there are many references to seeing, hearing and feeling his surroundings. He speaks of hills, the woods, the rivers and streams, and the fields. Wordsworth comprehends, in each of us, that there is a natural resemblance to ourselves and the background of nature.
To conclude, William Wordsworth uses form and syntax and figurative language to stress on his mental journey, and to symbolize the importance of the beauty and peace of nature. In my opinion, the poet might have written this poem to show his appreciation towards nature. The poem has a happy mood especially when the poet is discussing the daffodils. In this poem the daffodils are characterized as more than flowers, but as humans “fluttering and dancing in the breeze” (line 6). In addition, the poet mentioned himself to be part of nature since nature inspires him to write and think. Therefore, the reason that the poet wrote this poem was to express the feeling of happiness in his mental journey in nature.
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.
The power of nature is all around us and can be found almost anywhere. One is able to study nature through experiencing it firsthand, looking at a picture, watching a movie, or even reading a familiar children’s story. I believe that by learning more about nature we can grow closer to God. Emerson states, “Nature is so pervaded in human life, that there is something of humanity in all, and in every particular” (Emerson 508). Like Emerson, I believe that humanity and nature were created by God and we can learn more about the Spirit of God by studying nature. I also see that nature has the power to influence our emotions and actions. I see evidence of this through various landscapes such as the desert, the beach, the mountains and the jungle. I thought about the vastness of the desert during a recent trip to the desert with my class. I think about nature and my love for it when I am scanning through my photo album and see pictures that capture me enjoying the mountains of Utah. When I watched the movie The Beach I was struck out how nature, specifically the beautiful beaches of Thailand, influenced the actions of every character in the movie. Of course it is hard to read a legendary story such as “Jungle Book” and not see what a powerful effect nature and its’ animals can have over humans.