Man and (His) Nature: Nature in William Wordsworth's Poetry

The purpose of this work is to examine some of William Wordsworth's major lyrics associated with nature. I will show examples to illustrate that his poems describing nature or natural phenomena correspond to his understanding of the human nature outlined in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads' (1802). My principal aim is to prove that nature is a key to many of his central themes. My hypothesis is that Wordsworth's descriptions, though they look clear and simple, are rarely simple, the motive or `purpose' as he says 2for each poem, for each description is always a description of human relations, emotions, or thoughts, a keen investigation into the ways in which he relates himself to the world and how he responds to it. I will prove that nature in his poetry shows multidimensional characteristics. At one level, the elements of nature are used in picturesque similes to describe its own features: colours, shapes, or natural phenomena. At a higher, a more metaphoric and symbolic level, they describe the different aspects of `humble' human life, and finally at the highest level, on a grand scale he shows that it is nature itself that has an essential impact on people's emotional, spiritual and intellectual lives. I will analyse his figurative language (similes, metaphors, personifications, symbols and synesthesia), his standard elements, to see how they work in his explorations of human characteristics. In the `flows of emotions', and among his `elevated thoughts', and `lofty speculations', I hope to find some of his spiritual and religious beliefs.