The Romantic Poets And The Role Of Nature Essays - Romantic Poets

The Romantic Poets: And The Role Of Nature The Romantic Poets: and the role of Nature Craig Williamson The poetry of the English Romantic period (1800-1832), often contain many descriptions, and ideas of nature, not found in most writing. The Romantic poets share several charecteristics in common, certainly one of the most significant of these is their respective views on nature.Which seems to range from a more spiritual, if not pantheistic view, as seen in the works of William Wordsworth, to the much more realistic outlook of John Keats. All of these authors discuss, in varrying degreess, the role of nature in acquiring meaningful insight into the human condition. These writers all make appeals to nature as if it were some kind of living entity calls are made for nature to rescue the struggling writer, and carry his ideas to the world. One writer stated in his introduction to a Romantic anthology: The variety of this catalogue implies completedness; surely not phase or feature of the outer natural world is without its appropriate counterpart in the inner world of human personality. Nature, then, can be all things to all men. To the revolutionary Shelley, the rough wind wails, like the poet himself, for the world's wrong; or it lifts his own thoughts to scatter them like leaves, like glowing ashes, over the world in an apocalyptic prophecy of the coming Utopian spring. To Keats, beset by longing and heart-ache, the happiness of the nightingale's song intensified an unbearable consciousness of unattainable pleasures. (6) Nature took a different role in each of the Romantic poets, and even the PreRomantics, and Victorians writings, but each of these writers has that one major thing in common: They all write extensively on the role of nature in the lives of people. The English Romantic poets, hailing mostly from the Lakeside district of England, would have grown up in a region that is known for its natural beauty. These writers did not know the ugliness of the city, nor do they have any experience of the crowded streets, and polluted air of London. To these writers, the world is a very beautiful place. There are wonderful virgin forests, pristine lakes and rivers, and beautiful wildlife, making this region a wealthy little virtual paradise. Certainly this would (at least partly) account for the facination with the natural world that can be found in these poets. They mostly grew up seeing nature in its highest form of beauty, and they were definately influenced by their environments. Throughout the course of this paper, four poems, written by three poets, will be discussed in some detail. Additional poems and poets will also be mentioned briefly as this discussion progresses. They are Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality, stanzas: One, two, four, and eleven, as well as parts of five and eight. The second Wordsworth poem is: My Heart Leaps Up. The second poem will be Percy-Byshe Shelley's Ode to the West Wind. And the final poem will be: Bright Star by John Keats. Each of these poems contain strong references to nature, and its role in the developement of human identity, and additionaly, of the sacredness, almost divinity that is to be found in nature. Throughout these poems, the reader will find, as has been mentioned, a varrying (yet still somewhat common) idea of the importance of nature. This should help the reader to catch a little insight into how the English Romantics viewed man and his role within nature, as well as nature's role within human soc iety and specificaly, how nature can effect and individuals development over his lifetime. Let us now turn to the first poet that we will discuss, William Wordsworth. Wordsworth, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, released a book of poems titled: Lyrical Ballads. With this book came the beggining of the Romantic period. Wordsworth declared that: Poetry, should be written in the language of the common man and should be about incidents and situations from common life (Francis, 36). Clearly this is a rejection of the Neo- Classical tradition, and an embracing of ordinary things and people. Wordsworth can really be classified by his very romanticized view held toward nature: A love of nature is one of Wordsworth's predominate themes. For him, birds, trees, and flowers represent and invisible spirit that is present everywhere