CONCLUSION
It is well-known in the
world of poetry readers and literary persons that nature and Wordsworth more or
less work like synonymous to each other. Without nature, the poetry of
Wordsworth is nothing; since the beginning of his poetic career to the end of
his poetry, one can easily find the impression that nature marked upon him and
his poetry. Nature is the inevitable force when we talk about the poetry of
Wordsworth; it works like the central object around which the cobweb of
Wordsworth’s poetry is weaved. Nature to Wordsworth means everything in his
last stage… however, it was not a sudden ‘flash’, rather it was a
gradual process that integrated nature to the poetry and even the life of
Wordsworth. Nature in the beginning was only of a ‘secondary pursuit’ to
the poet and eventually it became the ‘mistress’ and later ‘mother’
and sustainer of the poet. All the story, Wordsworth records in his celebrated
autobiography – The Prelude.
To Wordsworth, nature
does not only mean the object to see and be pleased with; he perceives nature
as offering security and protection to the world, to humankind, and acting like
an authority to manage the movements of the environment. Writes an author about
this unique trait of Wordsworth:
“In Wordsworth’s The
River Duddon: A Series of Sonnets (1820), the speaker is again drawn to the
thought that nature actively protects – as the stream descends from bare
upland, ‘to form a shade / For Thee, green alders have together wound / Their
foliage; ashes flung their arms around; / And birch-trees risen in silver
colonnade’. In the sequence, individual sonnets present different parts of the
landscape, often raising the possibility of an allegorical meaning for them,
sometimes making it unmistakable. In this case, the trees are like parents
watching over and nurturing the young stream; the course of a life, charted by
the stream, has reached childhood and nature’s nursing of the human soul is
visible in the trees’ protective efforts and again, a moment later, in the
cottage nearby where a ‘mother’s eyes / Carelessly watched’ her children at
play (Sonnet 5). This movement of thought is typical of the sonnets and, as
here, the fancifulness of Wordsworth’s language draws attention to the mind
creating the allegorical sense at the same time as it claims that that sense is
genuinely present.” 1
Indeed, to Wordsworth,
‘human soul is visible in the trees.’ Wordsworth is a unique poet with such
blessed eyes that can actually see nature and human so commingling that one
without the other cannot exist! When the sister of the poet calls him to stay
with her, he composes a poem and writes the first line:
“On Nature’s invitation
do I come,” 2
For Wordsworth, it was
not merely the call of his sister, rather it was the call of Nature unto him…
it was in the habit of Wordsworth, in his poetry and his sensibility to
relate everything to Nature. A serious poetry reader can find certainly the
quality in the poetry of Wordsworth that mingles human emotions and sufferings
with nature – nature that endures all; nature that returns only good; and
nature that acts like the guardian to humankind! It is the company of nature
that lets Wordsworth listen –
“The still, sad music
of humanity,”
And for the asylum, for
the peace Wordsworth releases himself in the arms of nature and so he advises
to everyone else. Wordsworth is the genuine flag-holder of the romantic
revival’s call that advocates ‘return to the nature’.
Wordsworth wished
always the development of humankind and the mutual harmony between man and man,
and man and nature, ‘By Nature’s kind and ever-present aid’.
At last, to conclude
this dissertation, there is no better way than quoting his lines that muse the
Nature:
“The spot was made by
Nature for herself;
The travellers know it
not, and 't will remain
Unknown to them; but it
is beautiful;
And if a man should
plant his cottage near,
Should sleep beneath
the shelter of its trees.
And blend its waters
with his daily meal,
He would so love it,
that in his death-hour
Its image would survive
among his thoughts:” 3
REFERENCES
1.
Stephen Gill, The Cambridge Companion to
Wordsworth. p. 193.
2.
William Wordsworth, The Complete
Poetical Works of Wordsworth (New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919), p.
213.
3.
Ibid. p. 310.
Further Reading
Primary Sources:
1.
Wordsworth, William. The Complete
Poetical Works of Wordsworth. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919.
2.
Wordsworth, William. The Collected
Poems of William Wordsworth. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions
Limited, 2006.
3.
Wordsworth, William. The Prelude.
Agra: Narain, 2007.
4.
Wordsworth, William. Selected
Poems. New Delhi: Vimal Prakashan, 2006.
Secondary Sources:
1.
Herford, Charles H. The Age of
Wordsworth. Kolkata: Books Way, 2008.
2.
Gill, Stephen. The Cambridge
Companion to Wordsworth.
3.
Hopkins, Kenneth. English Poetry: A
Short History. New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1962.
4.
Legouis, Emily and Louis Cazamian. History
of English Literature. Gurgaon: Macmillan, 2012.
5.
EVANS, Ifor. A Short History of
English Literature. Noida: Penguin, 1990.
