I Belong to Nature or Nature Does Belong to Me

"I Belong to Nature or Nature Does Belong to Me"

Preface to the essay:

This essay is written on the contradiction of view of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth on nature. How do they both feel for nature, what is their interpretation of nature, what style, do they choose to describe nature, these questions are the main concern of mine. I hereby have chosen the poems "Tintern Abbey", "Ode: Intimations of Immortality Recollections from Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to clarify my perspective on their thoughts. The way they have used natural philosophy to embellish the poems are unique in themselves.

Acknowledgement:

First of all our I would like to thank our course Romantic Poetry's (Eng 209) instructor Asst. Prof. Nasrin Islam, for giving me this opportunity to thesis on these great personalities, and helping me in my writing. The next I would like to thank Prof. Mohit Ul Alam, Prof. Golam Sarwar Chowdhury and Asst. Prof. Shayeekh-Us-Saleheen for helping me by giving their valuable time and comments on these poems.

I belong to nature:

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet born on 7th April in 1770 and died on 23rd April in 1850 at the age of 80.

Wordsworth was a pantheist; he was a worshiper of nature. In his poetry we will find the beautiful and simple nature in a gorgeous look. Wordsworth's language to describe nature is in a word marvelous. And the way he uses it that is incredible.

In "Tintern Abbey" Wordsworth is on walking tour with his friend Coleridge and his beloved sister Dorothy Wordsworth. Wordsworth is describing to Dorothy, what is his philosophy about nature.

In this poem he shows us how nature is both liberal and rigid in itself. Nature is spreading out its beauty to give enjoyment to human beings and simultaneously protecting itself from the outer civilized world of humans through its hills and lofty cliffs. His description of each and every aspect of nature is flawless. For example the description of the valley in this poem is so crystal clear here that any reader can imagine himself/ herself in that situation.

Wordsworth believes that nature is all in all. As we all say that God is everywhere, he can see us every time. So it is very general queries of Wordsworth as a human being that how God who is only one, can be present everywhere at a time, how he can see us all. The more experience he gained, he found that nature is spread everywhere; so he got an assumption that may be nature is God. He believed that God is the brain of the body which is nature.

But in the poem "Tintern Abbey" he found that he could not feel the beauty of nature as he could at his earlier age. So he thought at first may be the beauty has gone.

"That time is past, and all its aching joys are now no more"

But at the same time he found Dorothy to have the same mesmerized eyes by viewing the nature. There he thought that may be nature doesn't love him anymore. But in the later stanzas he said nature can't betray someone, it backs you with the same content of love as you have given to it. This philosophy of selfless love of nature gives us the view that how much he loved nature.

In "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" when he couldn't find the celestial light then he asked the question to nature, that where it has gone, if it has gone back to the heaven from where it has come. But in the later stanzas again he talks in the favor of nature. He defended nature by saying that it hasn't gone actually but it is kept dimmed in our memory.

Wordsworth's art of questioning nature and at the same time defending it is unique in itself. As a worshiper of nature he believes that God is nature. He thinks he is not complete without nature. Nature is an essential part of him, which can't be cut off from him. The beautiful image of nature can't be effaced from his heart even after his death. Nature is complete by itself; it can go on in its own flow. Human beings are inferior to nature as to God. They are incomplete without nature.

Wordsworth's portrayal of nature is very simple and subtle. He portrays nature in the way it appears but in an appealing technique. Any normal person who might not be that much intellectual but will be able to understand the inner meaning of his lines. This is the motive of Wordsworth poetry, to involve every person into his poems.

Nature does belong to me:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on 21 October

...