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william wordsworth and nature
william wordsworth and nature
Impacts of industrial revolution
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During the industrial revolution of England, by engaging in monotonous work, humans became disconnected with nature. By the nineteenth century, when William Wordsworth wrote the sonnet The world is too much with us, the process of industrialization had transformed a worker’s life, leaving no time or place to enjoy or take part in nature. In his Petrarchan sonnet, Wordsworth criticizes humans for losing their hearts to materialism and longs for a world where nature is divine.
In the first four lines, the poet angrily addresses the theme of the sonnet which is that the modern age has lost its connection to nature and to everything meaningful. The words “late and soon” (1) are part of a list that continues in the next line with the phrase “getting and spending” (2). The line break is for the purpose of the structure of the sonnet. Late and soon refer to the fast pace of the industrial age, and they describe how the past and future are included in the poet’s characterization of mankind. “Too” (1) and “soon” (1) have a long vowel “oo” sound since industrialization, and therefore, exploitation of nature, had been occurring for a long time before Wordsworth wrote this sonnet. Wordsworth wanted to express how “soon” (1) this exploitation would become known to others by placing the sharp consonant “n” after the long vowel sound. The caesura in line 1 after the word “us” (1) gives the reader a chance to feel and reflect upon the weight of the world resting on humanity’s shoulders after the poet’s statement that the world is too fragile for humans to handle. Humanity’s “powers” (2) have gone to “waste” (2), which in this context means that they have been used inefficiently. However, other connotations for the word “waste” (2) are things t...
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...ch the narrator responds to her death, is connected to nature but dies before she can attain her own distinct consciousness away from nature. Lucy is connected to nature and exists in a state between the spiritual and human. However, she represents a state of consciousness and exists within the poem as part of the narrator's consciousness. Nature is being portrayed as something almost devine, just as the mythical Greek gods from The world is too much with us were Wordsworth’s favorable alternative to human exploitation of nature. Nevertheless, there is a difference between one being too connected to nature, as Lucy was, and one being nearly disconnected from nature, as humanity was portrayed in The world is too much with us. The only way to be in harmony with nature is to accept nature for what it is – to not to be overly connected with it, but not to exploit it.
America had a huge industrial revolution in the late 1800”s. Many changes happened to our great nation, which factored into this. The evidence clearly shows that advancements in new technology, a large wave of immigrants into our country and new views of our government, helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth from the period of 1860-1900.
William Wordsworth who was born in 1770 was a poet during the Romantic Period. Before he graduated from St. John’s College, he traveled across Europe which intensified his love for nature and influenced his poetry. In his Petrarchan sonnet, “The World is Too Much with Us”, Wordsworth explains that society is corrupted because they are more focused on luxurious items than on nature. To convey his message, he put an emphasis on a shift of point of view. In this change, he switches his tone from complaining to scolding. Wordsworth uses figurative language and allusions to express his feelings that “as society changes, its values change as well” (saifjw).
Cheng’s title ‘Report to Wordsworth’ relates to the English poet William Wordsworth. William Wordsworth was a poet who wrote about the beauty of nature, whereas Cheng describes all the problems nature faces today. Cheng’s ‘Report to Wordsworth is written as a Petrarchan sonnet, however Wordsworth wrote his poems in Shakespearean form. This relates to the content of the poems written by the two poets; they both have the same subject which is nature, also, they are both written in form of a sonnet. However, although the poets write about the same theme, they discuss different sides of it. Their poems contradict; Wordsworth describes the beauty of nature whereas Cheng describes how nature has been laid waste. By using Wordsworth and extracts from his poems actively throughout ‘Report to Wordsworth’ ...
The two sonnets, “The World Is Too Much With Us” by William Wordsworth and “The Sea View” by Charlotte Smith, were both written during the romantic period in Britain, in response to the Industrial Revolution and advanced industrial production. Both poems present a problem in the octave followed by a solution in the sestet. Wordsworth has an angry tone; he is frustrated with society because there is no longer a connection to nature in people. The focus of people is solely on materialism, and not what Wordsworth regards in upmost importance, nature and divinity. Smith’s poem starts in a much different direction than
Wordsworth and Hopkins both present the reader with a poem conveying the theme of nature. Nature in its variety be it from something as simple as streaked or multicolored skies, long fields and valleys, to things more complex like animals, are all gifts we take for granted. Some never realize the truth of what they are missing by keeping themselves indoors fixating on the loneliness and vacancy of their lives and not on what beauty currently surrounds them. Others tend to relate themselves more to the fact that these lovely gifts are from God and should be praised because of the way his gifts have uplifted our human spirit. Each writer gives us their own ideals as how to find and appreciate nature’s true gifts.
“The World Is Too Much With Us” has a variation of the strict form for a poem called a sonnet. A traditional sonnet contains fourteen lines, each line with exactly ten syllables. Wordsworth uses many means to keep the correct amount of syllables per line. “… blow his wreathèd horn” (Line 14) here he uses an accent mark to insure the reader pronounces the word in such a way as to get the correct amount of syllables. While the traditional rhyming pattern is as follows, ABBA ABBA CDDC EE, Wordsworth puts a little variation on it and does an ABBA ABBA CDCDCD rhyming pattern. In this poem, Wordsworth creatively transforms the sonnet form in just the right amount to make it his own, while using inventive solutions to fit to the rest of the requirements.
Wordsworth truly emphasized the influence nature had on human morals and emotion. He spiritualised nature and regarded the environment as a philosophical moral teacher, as a mother and even guardian, as the one true elevating influence that was greater than any other. He believed that between man and Nature there is mutual consciousness and understanding, as well as a spiritual connection. According to him, human beings who grow up in the lap of Nature like he did were the ideal humans, the perfect kind. Above all, Wordsworth emphasized the moral influence of Nature as this pastoral influence. “They are second only to nature, which is "the breath of God." (Wordsworth 221). It was his special characteristic to concern himself, not with the strange and remote aspects of the earth, and sky, but nature in ordinary, familiar, everyday moods.Wordsworth stressed upon the moral influence of Nature and the need of man’s spiritual discourse with it “Great and benign, indeed, must be the power/ Of living nature,” (Wordsworth 167). He did not recognize the scary, hideous side of nature, only its
The World is too much with us is a poem by author William Wordsworth. This poem has a negative tone, emphasizing that humans focus too much on objects. Today in our worlds society the natural beauty of the world is overlooked because of money and success. In this poem Wordsworth uses literary devices and figurative language to help explain the theme to his poem. Within this poem the types of figurative language used is imagery, symbolism, and a rhyme scheme. Each one of these literary devices helps Wordsworth to explain the meaning of the poem.
William Wordsworth was a poet that lived between 1770-1850. He among others were known to be romantic poets who emphasized passion, emotion, and nature And wrote in common everyday language for all to relate this poem is another addition to that collection. The historical context of this poem was during the Industrial Revolution. Industrialization brought about an increase in size and variety of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some, it also resulted in often grim employment and living conditions for the poor and working classes. There was a frenzy to see who could make the most efficient factory,
This relatively simple poem angrily states that human beings are too preoccupied with the material and have lost touch with the spiritual and with nature. 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 ...
Moreover, searching for the different mechanics in each of these poems makes it easier for the reader to analysis and interpret them. To begin, in “The World is Too Much with Us” the way the punctuation is fit into the poem is different since there are many semicolons between each line and one period suggesting that the poem is actually one long sentence. Then I believe the speaker to be someone who acknowledges that he too has lost connection with nature since he’s been preoccupied with other things in the world. This is proven throughout the whole poem since he talks in first person using the word “I.” The tone of this poem is angry, frustrated, and dissatisfied because of how the world has changed. The rhyme scheme is also another appealing mechanic here too since Wordsworth only uses fou...
In the poem, “Lines Written in Early Spring”, Wordsworth displays a theme of nature’s perfection contrasted with the imperfection of humanity. This notion is further promoted through examples of nature’s harmony, fairness, and purity which is viewed as being absent from mankind. The poem calls into question what has become of the human race, implying that perhaps we have completely strayed from the path that nature had intended.
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.
Wordsworth is deeply involved with the complexities of nature and human reaction to it. To Wordsworth nature is the revelation of god through viewing everything that is harmonious or beautiful in nature. Man’s true character is then formed and developed through participation in this balance. Wordsworth had the view that people are at their best when they are closest to nature. Being close creates harmony and order. He thought that the people of his time were getting away from that.
In William Wordsworth’s poems, the role of nature plays a more reassuring and pivotal r ole within them. To Wordsworth’s poetry, interacting with nature represents the forces of the natural world. Throughout the three poems, Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey, and Michael, which will be discussed in this essay, nature is seen prominently as an everlasting- individual figure, which gives his audience as well as Wordsworth, himself, a sense of console. In all three poems, Wordsworth views nature and human beings as complementary elements of a sum of a whole, recognizing that humans are a sum of nature. Therefore, looking at the world as a soothing being of which he is a part of, Wordsworth looks at nature and sees the benevolence of the divinity aspects behind them. For Wordsworth, the world itself, in all its glory, can be a place of suffering, which surely occurs within the world; Wordsworth is still comforted with the belief that all things happen by the hands of the divinity and the just and divine order of nature, itself.