Mai Pham Thanh 11D
How does the poet convey his sense of dismay at environmental damage?
In “Report to Wordsworth”, the writer conveys his dismay by describing humanity’s atrocities to Nature, and the deterioration of Nature, while echoing Wordsworth throughout the whole poem.
The first line refers to the title of the poem; in using the word “report” we get an impression that Cheng is trying to account or complain about the environmental damage; by addressing it to Wordsworth we believe the poet wanted to address someone who would have cared about this matter. Cheng addresses Wordsworth directly and pleads for help in name of Nature – this is mirroring Wordsworth’s address to Milton in “London, 1802”.
In the second line, Cheng describes what happens to Nature. Cheng writes that waste has been dumped on Nature – “She has been laid waste”; this could also mean that Nature is not in its former glory, that she is deteriorating. The poet refers to Nature as “she” resembling Wordsworth’s address to Nature in “The World Is Too Much with Us; Late and Soon”. This also invokes feelings of pity – we read, thinking that Nature is a female being, who is harmed. When Cheng writes that Natures is “Smothered by the smog”, we get an impression that Nature is choked by the pollution. When Cheng writes “the flowers are mute”, we get a sense that Nature and its components are losing beauty and colour. By personifying flowers, Cheng creates an image of flowers being muffled to deaden a sound or noise and we look at them as oppressed beings. The poet includes apocalyptic notions of Nature, when he writes – “the birds are few in a sky slowing like a dying clock”; we get an impression that one day Nature will cease existing altogether.
