William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge both recognize the transcendental qualities inherent in Nature. Throughout their poems we find their emphasis on common experiences of Nature such as storms, springtime, and celestial phenomenon. These facets of Nature can transcend traditional realities such as pain, loneliness, and despair, when filtered through our "inner forms," or inherent spirits. Even more important than the actual experiencing of Nature is the memory of the experience; Nature itself is hollow and without value if the individual does not incorporate his own meaning to it."Feeling" is given value over "thought;" interaction with elements of Nature being more important than the pursuit of a formal, temporal knowledge of "outward form." Wordsworth and Coleridge feel the power of Nature, and relate it to the reader as metaphor for the human spirit. As Wordsworth asserts, their poetry is itself "the image of man and nature (p.165)."
In Coleridge's "Dejection: An Ode," we see that Nature can transcend earthly "afflictions" such as separation and loneliness by existing as a metaphor for the human spirit. The narrator of "Dejection" personifies elements of Nature in accordance with his state of mind. The wind is referred to as "...the dull sobbing draft that moans and rakes/ Upon the strings of this Aeolian lute(l. 6-7)." The wind is seen as a barometer for the spirit. Likewise, the moon becomes a symbol of the way he feels as he notices the shell of the Old Moon occupied by a mere sliver of the New Moon. His disenchantment with present isolation is heightened by the memory of a former love.
At first the wind and moon only remind him of his loneliness, but the narrator of the poem begins to realize the importance of his inner spirit and his ability to define his own inner nature:
I may not hope from outward forms to win
the passion and the life whose fountains are within.
O lady, we receive but what we give,
And in our life alone does Nature live (l.45-48)
Beginning in the fourth stanza, the narrator expresses his feelings, telling us that Nature is a way to happiness: "Joy, Lady! is the spirit and the power,/ Which wedding nature to us gives in dower(l. 67-68)." Realizing this, the wind becomes violent and he reaches spiritual catharsis. He recognizes the "viper thoughts" which have been separating him from pure feeling, which he searches for in "reality's dark dream.(l.94,95)" In turning from the "reality of dream," he turns to the reality of an inner nature which is interconnected with the Nature of Earth and the Universe.
Wordsworth has similar views of the possible roles Nature can play in defining our existence. In"The Tables Turned," and "I wandered Lonely as a Cloud," he points out the importance of individual experience of Nature.
Following Coleridge's assertion that "we receive but what we give," Wordsworth tells us to "bring with you a heart/ That watches and receives(l. 31)" In "The Tables Turned," Wordsworth enforces on us a feeling of immediacy; he tells his friend to "quit his books" and "let nature be your teacher(l. 16)." The emphasis in this poem is on personal experience; the reader feels the anxious energy of the narrator and can relate his own disposition to Nature. In this poem, formal knowledge takes second place to immediate experience. The emphasis is on "feeling" rather than stale thought, which plagued the narrator of "Dejection." The most biting passage in "The Tables Turned" involves the formal, systematic process of logical thought, a notion at which Romanticists shuddered to think:
Our meddling instinct
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:-----
We murder to dissect (l. 26-28)
For Wordsworth, Nature has a wealth of wisdom to offer.Immediate interaction and spontaneity results in limitless knowledge; limitless as far as the individual's mind will allow. A single "impulse from a vernal wood/ May teach you of man/ ....Than all the sages can (l.21-24)." The idea of receiving an "impulse" from a tree implies a oneness with Nature, a state of interaction in which human thought is synonymous with feeling.
"Dejection's" narrator laments that "I see, not feel, how beautiful they are(l.38)." In "The Tables Turned" the emphasis is on the memory of the feeling; the personal experience has greater meaning when felt and retained.
The speaker in "I Wandered" relates to us an experience he had in the past. The title hints at his loneliness which is lessened as he feels himself in "the company" of Nature. Being a wanderer, he identifies with the Romantic tradition of isolation with humanity and oneness with Nature. He sees "a crowd" of daffodils "fluttering and dancing in the breeze." This vision transforms his mood and he tells us that "a poet could not but be gay/ In such a a jocund company(l. 3,5, 15-16)." He experiences the scene and notices that he really did not "think" about "what wealth the show to me had brought (l.18)."
The speaker's experience in the field was one outside of formal, systematic thought; he felt aesthetic joy through a sensual osmosis. It is the memory of his experience which has value to him:
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 (l.19-23)
The wealth of this experience is in the silent reflection; the "inward eye" is the inner form of the individual, and this eye feels rather than sees.
It is an escape from earthly afflictions which plague all humanity that Coleridge and Wordsworth offer in their poetry. Personal experience has revealed to them that immersion in Nature can provide a cathartic release. In their respective "Odes," these poets both mention the Platonian thought that we lose a bond with Nature at birth and try to regain it throughout our lives. Coleridge tells us in "Dejection" that "....each visitation/Suspends what nature gave me at birth,/ My shaping spirit of imagination./ For not to think of what I needs must feel....{I} steal/ From my own nature all the natural man( l. 85-87, 90)." In imposing an isolation from fellow humans, the Romantics often turned to Nature to provide them with "company."
Nature is seen as a transcendental tool of the individual which mirrors the silent form within. Wordsworth and Coleridge were pioneers in Western consciousness and their influences upon American poets such as Emerson and Thoreau are evident.
F.Bloodgood
BRIT Lit 2
paper 1
Univ of Kansas
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