William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth Essay – Midterm
The bond between poet and nature is at the heart of Wordsworth’s poetry .Discuss.
William Wordsworth was one of the most influential romantic poets in the early 18th century. Born on the 7th of April 1770, Wordsworth was a man with a profound love and admiration for nature that developed through the course of his life. From the 6 poems I have studied as part of my course, each and every one of them features the bond that Wordsworth has with nature.
Through the course of Wordsworth’s life his understanding of nature changed and his bond with nature grew stronger. Over the years Wordsworth had many experiences with nature that helped flourish this relationship.
As a child, Wordsworth had a strange encounter with nature, and encounter that ultimately formed a new opinion of nature in his mind. The poem “The Stolen Boat”, an extract from the Prelude, describes an occasion in his youth when he impulsively borrowed a boat without permission in order to go rowing on a lake. It’s clear that Wordsworth had a strong appreciation for nature even as a child and that there is an evident bond between him and nature. As he begins to row out on the water the beauty of the scene around him unfolds , the sparkling circles of the moon tmelt into one track behind the boat, like a swan heaving in the water, nothing but a grey sky full of stars. Yet out of nowhere as he rows further back, a huge peak “up-reared its head “from behind the horizon’s boundary he had fixed his eyes on. This huge peak seemed to be, to Wordsworth, a living thing. A living thing with “purpose of its own” he felt as if it was striding after him with powerful, towering movement and so Wordsworth fled and returned the boat. After this encounter young Wordsworth was beyond confused. The sight he has seen caused him to become tormented by dreams , casting a temporary darkness over his love for nature ,”No familiar shapes remained, no pleasant images of trees, of sea or sky
The bond between poet and nature is at the heart of Wordsworth’s poetry .Discuss.
William Wordsworth was one of the most influential romantic poets in the early 18th century. Born on the 7th of April 1770, Wordsworth was a man with a profound love and admiration for nature that developed through the course of his life. From the 6 poems I have studied as part of my course, each and every one of them features the bond that Wordsworth has with nature.
Through the course of Wordsworth’s life his understanding of nature changed and his bond with nature grew stronger. Over the years Wordsworth had many experiences with nature that helped flourish this relationship.
As a child, Wordsworth had a strange encounter with nature, and encounter that ultimately formed a new opinion of nature in his mind. The poem “The Stolen Boat”, an extract from the Prelude, describes an occasion in his youth when he impulsively borrowed a boat without permission in order to go rowing on a lake. It’s clear that Wordsworth had a strong appreciation for nature even as a child and that there is an evident bond between him and nature. As he begins to row out on the water the beauty of the scene around him unfolds , the sparkling circles of the moon tmelt into one track behind the boat, like a swan heaving in the water, nothing but a grey sky full of stars. Yet out of nowhere as he rows further back, a huge peak “up-reared its head “from behind the horizon’s boundary he had fixed his eyes on. This huge peak seemed to be, to Wordsworth, a living thing. A living thing with “purpose of its own” he felt as if it was striding after him with powerful, towering movement and so Wordsworth fled and returned the boat. After this encounter young Wordsworth was beyond confused. The sight he has seen caused him to become tormented by dreams , casting a temporary darkness over his love for nature ,”No familiar shapes remained, no pleasant images of trees, of sea or sky