The first poem selected to be in this collection is entitled I wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth (1807). In this poem it can be identified that Wordsworth personifies the daffodils that he writes about: “A host of, golden daffodils; / Beside the lake, beneath the trees, / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze”. (Wordsworth, 1807, p.732). By using the lexical choice of ‘dancing’, Wordsworth appears to humanize the daffodils and give them qualities of a real person.
Throughout this poem there is also the idea of alienation and loneliness which is explored through the idea of nature: “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” (Wordsworth, 1807)
Wordsworth uses the image of a cloud in order to indicate to the reader how he feels and to present them with an image to compare the text to. The feeling of being lonely is not usually what people go and seek in life but in this poem, Wordsworth presents the idea that for him, being lonely is a chance to escape from reality.
The impression that is created from the poem is that nature is a form of pastoral escapism for the poet and that instead of seeking happiness with someone, he is seeking the pleasure of escapism. Wordsworth’s perception of nature also changes throughout the poem with connotations of negativity arising from the term ‘crowd’ and then positive connotations being identified in the line: “Tossing their heads in a sprightly dance.” (Wordsworth, 1807)
This creates the impression that the poet is unsure of his true feelings and that he sees the world in two different lights.
Another poem that speaks about nature, this time to do with a rose, is William Blake’s The Sick Rose (1974) in which a beautiful image of a rose, which is the literary symbol for love, becomes infected by a worm, which represents death and decay. The “crimson joy” of the rose connotes the idea that the rose’s joyful attitude towards love is tainted.
The idea of nature is also explored in another of William Wordsworth’s poems entitled Tintern Abbey (1798). This poem, which is divided into verse paragraph, is a texture of contradictions from beginning to end and also uses nature to explore loneliness and escapism which is emphasises by the poet’s repetition of the word ‘secluded’: “That on a wild secluded scene impress/ Thoughts of more deep seclusion…” (Wordsworth, 1798, p.699)
The descriptions of these conventional pastoral scenes correspond between the descriptions of nature and the poet’s mood. This poem guides the reader through Wordsworth’s recollections of this landscape which he visited as a child and takes the reader through the process of past, present and future.
Although Wordsworth describes his surroundings, he creates the impression of silence around him which in turn, emphasises all the sounds around him: “These waters, rolling from their mountain springs.” Wordsworth, 1798)
This emphasis of sound and the landscape around him acts a as a retreat for the poet and has a therapeutic effect upon his mind and body. The poem describes to the reader how nature has affected Wordsworth in a moral sense and how the world has become intelligible to him: “We see into the life of things.” (Wordsworth, 1798, p.700)
Wordsworth tries to tell us that we should look into the uniqueness of the individual and get away from the harsh realities of everyday life.
We can also see the effects that nature can have upon someone in the poem Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1978). As we see in Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth describes how he felt when he had a connection with nature throughout his childhood and went to re-visit the countryside to relive his memories. In Frost at Midnight, Coleridge questions Wordsworth’s easy identification with nature because when he was brought up he saw “naught lovely but the sky and the stars” (Coleridge, 1978, p.744) and felt lingering effects of alienation. He goes on to say that although he was deprived of the connection with nature he can only hope for his child that …”’my babe! shalt wander like a breeze/ By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags/ Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds…” (Coleridge, 1978)
The poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Nightingale (1799) is very similar to the previous poem written by him, Frost at Midnight as they can both be described as conversational poems. Coleridge again visits the characteristic themes of childhood and relationship to nature and relies on a central metaphor, in this case the nightingale and its song to impart his ideas on nature.
The ode To Autumn by John Keats (1820) is different in comparison to the two previous poems as the three stanzas that it boasts moves through the three processes of autumn.
There are similarities in this poem when compared to I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud as it personifies autumn just as Wordsworth personifies the daffodils. For example:” sitting careless on a granary floor” (Keats, 1820, p.849)
This not only gives the images human qualities but also creates the impression of weariness and intoxication. This description of the landscape gives the landscape its own personality and also shows the second process of autumn which moves away from everything being ‘plump’ and ‘ripe’, to showing hints of the fruit decaying: “Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours” (Keats, 1820)
Keats’ literal and realistic choice of words slow down the pace of the poem by using longer vowel sounds which indicate that the harvest process is coming to an end.
The use of sight and sounds plays a part in the poem to show the emptiness and how the harvesting is getting ready for spring: “Where are the Songs of Spring? Aye, where are they? /While barréd clouds bloom the soft-dying day” (Keats, 1820)
This exploration of nature presents the reader with underlying emotions of sorrow and sadness because of the ending process.
The poem by William Blake The Lamb (1789) is one of the poems in this anthology that speaks about animals. The poem is a child’s song and is in the form of question and answer: “Little Lamb, who made thee? / Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,” Repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza makes these lines into a refrain, and helps to give the poem its song-like quality. The flowing l's and soft vowel sounds also contribute to this effect, and suggest the bleating of a lamb.
Although the questions that the child asks appear quite naive and adolescent, the child does ask some quite deep questions about life and where it originates from and this in turn, leads us to believe that the lamb is of course Jesus as he is the one who guides the children an answers their questions.
In the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind (1820) which has seven parts, which in turn contains seven stanzas, the poet describes the wind as a “destroyer” and a “preserver” and asks the wind to sweep him out of his torpor "as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!" (Shelley, 1820, p.802)
In this poem Shelley explicitly links nature with art by finding powerful natural metaphors with which to express his ideas about the power, import, quality, and ultimate effect of aesthetic expression.
All of the poems that are featured in this anthology all relate in one way or another to the main theme of nature. As we have seen, the poems do not necessarily have to be about nature itself; underlying themes and ideas such as death and life can be identified but are described to the reader by metaphors or similes through the theme of nature in order to create mental pictures and images for the reader.
Word Count: 1307
Bibliography
Primary sources
Ferguson, J. et al (eds). (1996) Norton Anthology of Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc.
Secondary sources
Bradford, R. (1996) Introducing Literary Studies. London: Prentice Hall
Strachen, J and Terry, R. (2000) Poetry. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
