Man's Relationship with Nature in Hughes and Wordsworth's Poetry
Concentrating on one Poem by each Poet, Compare and Contrast the ways
in which Hughes and Wordsworth Present Man’s Relationship with Nature
Both Hughes and Wordsworth have beliefs about man’s relationship with
nature, but I feel that they see the relationship between the two in
different ways. Hughes has a more pessimistic and negative approach,
feeling that nature must protect herself from man’s destructive
nature, while Wordsworth believes that nature is a teacher and
nurtures you. Wordsworth uses a more optimistic and positive approach
in his poetry. Wordsworth sees nature in a romantic and spiritual
sense that protects and is constantly feeding and inspiring man’s mind
and helping it to grow. On the other hand Hughes sees man as
interfering and destructive towards nature and is excluded from its
harmony. Hughes personality is much more complicated and hard to deal
with, so to speak, than Wordsworth’s; this is reflected in his
attitude towards nature because he thinks that nature is a violent and
brutal enemy towards man and even itself. From this you can tell that
he is quite a brooding and depressive man. I have chosen to compare
‘Work and Play’ by Hughes and by Wordsworth I have chosen
‘Expostulation and Reply’ and ‘The Tables Turned’ which are poems on
the same subject but ‘The Tables Turned’ is set later on in the day
and is the ‘Companion-Piece’ to ‘Expostulation and Reply’. I chose to
study these two poems because I think that it is very interesting how
the beliefs of Hughes and Wordsworth are presented, showing that they
both have an admiration for the beauty of nature and its power, and
how Hughes believes that in comparison m...
... middle of paper ...
... the relationship between man and
nature. This is because Wordsworth lived in a period in time that was
called the romantic era, this is reflected in his views and the ways
he writes as a poet. Whereas Hughes who lived in the 20th century, had
quite different views about man’s relationship with nature. I think
that this is because the period of time that you live in influences
you very heavily in the way you write or express anything. This is
because public attitudes change along with what is accepted and what
is not, or what the public will find most popular. I think that if
Hughes had lived in Wordsworth’s time his style of writing would not
have been as popular as it is today, this is because Hughes style of
writing has a more dramatic and dark edge to it whilst Wordsworth’s
poetry is more romantic so to speak and has a gentler way of putting
things.
Dafydd ap Gwilym has been acclaimed as the greatest poet of the Welsh language. As Rachel Bromwhich commented, Dafydd’s life "coincided miraculously in both time and place with an unprecedented opportunity to mate the new with the old" (Brom 112). Perhaps "mate" is a more appropriate choice of words here than Rachel intended. As his poetry depicts, Dafydd tried to mate a great many things in his time; the man is immortalized as a ball of raging hormones. A self-proclaimed "Ovid’s man," Dafydd took pleasure in identifying himself with the authoritative source of courtly love, a fresh trend in Wales during his life (Summer 29). Love, specifically courtly love, was among the new themes Dafydd merged with the traditional themes like nature. Even the ancient topic of nature, under Dafydd’s molding, took on new forms. Dafydd personified elements of nature to be his trusted messengers in poems such as "The Seagull." In the "Holly Grove," nature is subtly described as a fortress or protector of sorts. Variations of these elements of secret, protected, and secluded love mesh with images of nature throughout Dafydd’s poetry. However, nature seems to be much more than a confidant or mere factor in his search for love; Dafydd’s poems such as "Secret Love" suggest that nature is essential in this endeavor. Though Dafydd’s attempts at love are not limited to the natural realm, poems such as "Trouble in a Tavern" make it evident that only in the natural setting is Dafydd a successful lover.
William Wordsworth is easily understood as a main author whom expresses the element of nature within his work. Wordsworth’s writings unravel the combination of the creation of beauty and sublime within the minds of man, as well as the receiver through naturalism. Wordsworth is known to be self-conscious of his immediate surroundings in the natural world, and to create his experience with it through imagination. It is common to point out Wordsworth speaking with, to, and for nature. Wordsworth had a strong sense of passion of finding ourselves as the individuals that we truly are through nature. Three poems which best agree with Wordsworth’s fascination with nature are: I Wandered as a Lonely Cloud, My Heart leaps up, and Composed upon Westminster Bridge. In I Wandered as a Lonely Cloud, Wordsworth claims that he would rather die than be without nature, because life isn’t life without it, and would be without the true happiness and pleasure nature brings to man. “So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me
One of the most popular American poets is Walt Whitman. Whitman’s poetry has become a rallying cry for Americans, asking for individuality, self-approval, and even equality. While this poetry seems to be truly groundbreaking, which it objectively was, Whitman was influenced by the writings of others. While Whitman may not have believed in this connection to previous authors, critics have linked him to Emerson, Poe, and even Carlyle. However, many critics have ignored the connection between Walt Whitman and the English writer William Wordsworth. A major proponent of Romanticism, Wordsworth’s influence can be seen in Whitman 's poetry through a Romantic connection. Despite differences in form, one can see William Wordsworth’s influence on Walt
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.
just shows us how cruel we are as a race and how unnecessary it is for
The Influence of Nature in Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
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.
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
When the Industrial Revolution started, Wordsworth was appalled by the idea of factories and how workers were hired to work such long hours, with hardly any pay for all of their hard work. During the Industrial Revolution there were many factories being built up, these took away most of the open countryside that everyone had so enjoyed. So like most romantic poets of his time Wordsworth decided to revolt against the Industrial Revolution and wrote many pieces about nature to show his feelings of opposition to the revolution. Wordsworth always thought of himself as a humanist writer, so it just made sense that his poems written during the industrial revolution were completed about nature du...
...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.
William Wordsworth rejected all the traditional assumptions about the proper style, words, and subject matter for a poem during the Romanics period. When explaining his writing Wordsworth said, “There will be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetry diction; I have taken as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily take to produce it.” (Marshall) Because he took such a different approach to his writing, many people criticized his poems. Literary critic Harold Bloom said, “The fear of mortality haunts much of Wordsworth’s best poetry, especially in regard to the premature mortality of the Imagination and the loss of its creative joy.” Wordsworth does in fact express fear of mortality in the poems The World is too much with us, London, 1802, The Prelude, and Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
Wordsworth's Poetry A lot of literature has been written about motherhood. Wordsworth is a well known English poet who mentions motherhood and female strength in several of his poems, including the Mad Mother, The Thorn, and The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman. This leads some critics to assume that these poems reflect Wordsworth's view of females. Wordsworth portrays women as dependent on motherhood for happiness, yet he also emphasizes female strength.
Both Shelley, in "Ode to the West Wind," and Wordsworth, in "Intimations of Immortality," are very similar in their use of nature to describe the life and death of the human spirit. As they both describe nature these two poets use the comparison of how the Earth and all its life is the same as our own human life. I feel that Shelley uses the seasons as a way of portraying the human life during reincarnation. Wordsworth seems to concentrate more on the stages that a person goes through during life. Shelley compares himself to such things as clouds, leaves, and waves. 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 like meadows, fields, and birds and uses them to show what gives him life. Life being what ever a person needs to move on, and with out those objects 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 was known as the poet of nature. He devoted his life to poetry and used his feeling for nature to express him self and how he evolved.
"The Poetry of William Wordsworth." SIRS Renaissance 20 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 06 February 2010.