Name: Hariyani Vaidehi C.
Roll no- 18
Year - 2015-17
M.A Semester - 3
Paper no.(10) The American Literature
Email Id: - vaidehi09hariyani@gmail.com
UNIT : - 1
Assignment topic:
Representation of Nature in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Robert Frost
Submitted to:
Smt.S.B.Gardi
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,
MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY,
Representation of Nature in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Robert Frost
Nature is
one of the favourite and very recurrently used themes in different arts like
poetry, painting and movies. Artist or Writers are always fascinated with
nature. All the writers are normally fascinated with nature. Some of them are
also habituated to go for a walk in the company of nature and solitude. Nature
has always been a part and parcel of literature.
Nature
stands as source of inspiration for all the poets, but the poets have
represented it differently. The poets of different Era have their own unique
way of presenting art.
Here we are
going to discuss how the romantic poet William
Wordsworth and the American poet Robert
Frost differ in
representation of Nature in their poetry.
First let us
see what is Romanticism?
Romanticism
(also known as the romantic era or the romantic period) was an artistic,
literary and intellectual movement. It originated in Europe towards the end of
18th century. (Wikipedia)
One of the
characteristic of the romantic era was “a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature”.
The Romantic Movement in English Literature is generally described as “Return to Nature”. Nature was idealised and
there was an artistic freedom.
As it is
mentioned in History of English Literature by W.J.Long,
“Find tongue in trees, books in the running
brooks,
Sermons in
stones and good in everything.”
Nature was
looked upon as mother. Nature is used by the poets to appreciate the beautiful
powerful force in human world. Poets like Wordsworth, Shelley, Scout, Keats and
many other poets beautify nature in one or the other way.
On one hand
there is a romantic poet, William Wordsworth for whom “Poems begins in delight and ends in delight”.
On the contrary there is Robert Frost who looks at the nature with different
insight.
According to
Robert Frost,
“The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and
ends in wisdom.”
Representation of Nature in the
poetry of William Wordsworth:-
Romantic
poets were always fascinated by nature’s power and wonder.
William
Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet
who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English
literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).
Nature was
one of the great sources of inspiration for William Wordsworth. He was the high
priest of Nature .He shows nature to be gentle nurturing force that teaches and
soothes humanity.
In his he
mentions in “LINES WRITTEN A FEW MILES
ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY” from “Lyrical Ballads”,
“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”
Throughout
Wordsworth’s work, nature provides the ultimate good influence on the human
mind. He lived amidst the lap of nature in the Lake District. Thus, nature had
been a part of his everyday life. Wordsworth touches the development of his
love for nature in “Tintern Abbey”. In his childhood, Nature was simply a
playground for him. Then he began to love nature and gradually he realised
Nature’s role as a teacher and educator.
I cannot paint
What then I was. The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colors and their forms, ere then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
Un-borrowed from the eye [II. 75-83]
Wordsworth
glorifies nature and also reveals inner soul of nature in his work.
“One impulse from the vernal wood
May teach you
more of man
Of moral evil
and of good
I hand all the
sages can.” – “The
Tables Turned”
In
Wordsworth’s poetry we see a natural setting of green pastoral countryside, the
simple lifestyle and the beautiful moments with nature “recollected in tranquillity”.
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. – “The Daffodils”
He achieved
morality from nature. Here he meant morality as positivity.
“The anchor of my purest thoughts
The nurse, the
guide, the guardians of my
heart and
soul
And of all my
moral beings.”
-“Lines
Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.”
Wordsworth
believed that nature has object of soul and living spirit. His poetry has a
touch of spirituality.
“In all things, in all natures, in the stars
This active
principle abides, from link to link
It circulates
the soul of all the worlds.”
Wordsworth
loved nature but he did not fear nature. Thus, Wordsworth was a worshipper of
nature. He did not recognize the ugly side of nature like Robert Frost.
Representation of Nature in Frost’s
poetry:-
Robert Lee
Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was
initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly
regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life.
Robert Frost
has many themes in his poetry. One of the main themes is nature.
Frost is a
great love of nature, and his love too, like that of Wordsworth is regional. He
lived near north of Boston which forms background to his poetry. The poetry of Robert Frost contains two
major themes of nature: the exploration of beauty and nature, and the
interaction between man and nature.
Frost’s love
for nature is more comprehensive, many-sided and all-inclusive than that of
Wordsworth. Wordsworth loved to paint the beauty of nature, but Frost has a
keen eye for the beauty of nature as well as the harsher and unpleasant side of
nature.
“Spring
Pools” for example, begins with a innocent description of the pools and flowers
which one sees in the woodlands in the early spring. Then suddenly the tone
becomes grave:-
“The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods -
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.”
Spring
generally is the season of birth but ushers in darkness.
Frost paints
nature as dangerous and sinister.
“Design” is a small example which asks who is the
murderer???
Of course “Nature”.
“I found a dimpled
spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all,
holding up a moth
Like a white piece of
rigid satin cloth --
Assorted characters of
death and blight
Mixed ready to begin
the morning right,
Like the ingredients
of a witches' broth --
A snow-drop spider, a
flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried
like a paper kite.
What had that flower
to do with being white,
The wayside blue and
innocent heal-all?
What brought the
kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white
moth thither in the night?
What but design of
darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a
thing so small.”
The flower
hold the moth but nothing can stop the dark vigour of nature; the spider. Frost
implies that darkness lurks everywhere. The nature is as dangerous as the
spider.
May be that
is what is law of nature and it has its own design.
Nature has an
eco-cycle which works in its pattern. The law of nature operates and no
idealism works in it.
We can see
an example of eco-cycle:
One animal
is a food of the other. That is how the cycle of nature works.
He speaks
about the reality of nature, while Wordsworth idealises nature.
Here we can
compare both the poets with the characters from the film “Life
of Pie”. Wordsworth can be compared with Pie Patel and Frost can
be compared with Pie’s father.
Pie believed
that all the soul in the nature is beautiful and loveable. He goes near the
cage of lion and thinks that lion will behave like a friend. His father shows
him the reality in a quite dangerous way. He keeps a goat in the cage and the
lion eats it away.
“Stopping by woods on a snowy evening”
is another great example where we can see how Frost describes Nature:-
“Woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have
promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep”
The “Woods”
are “Lovely”. We all like to spend some time in lovely woods, but soon we find
paradox here. Woods are lovely but they are dark and deep.
Frost’s poem
also has deep philosophical and moral meaning hidden. At this point we can say
he is similar to Wordsworth.
The last
lines of the poem suggest that whatever might happen but we have to move on.
One can
argue that Frost represents nature in a negative style. If we observe minutely,
he is more practical than Wordsworth. Wordsworth was blindly in love with
nature. Frost keeps a balance and highlights the positive and negatives both
the aspects of nature.
William Wordsworth
|
Robert Frost
|
1.) Idealistic
|
1.) Realistic
|
2.)
Positive aspect
of Nature
|
2.)Negative as well as positive aspect of Nature
|
3.)
Worshipper
|
3.)Observer
|
In the poems
of William Wordsworth and Robert Frost there are lots of natural elements in
their poems. It is right to say that the theme of these two poets is Nature.
They have written all their poems based on nature where nature plays a great
role in their works. But William Wordsworth and Robert Frost are different in
their representation of nature. Binaries of nature can be observed in their
poems.
"Same theme, different insights"
References
· English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the
English Speaking World:- William J. Long
