Wordsworth as a poet of Nature

As a poet of Nature, Wordsworth stands supreme. He is a worshiper of Nature. His love of Nature is probably truer, and tenderer, than that of any other English poet, before or since. Nature occupies in his poem a separate or independent status and is not treated in a casual or passing manner as by poets before him.

Wordsworth has a full–fledged philosophy, a new and original view of Nature. At least, three things can be noted in his treatment of Nature:

(i)  That it has a living personality,

(ii) That it exercises a healing influence on the aggrieved souls,

(iii) That it is a great moral teacher.

Wordsworth believes that we can learn more about man and morals, evil and good from Nature than all the philosophies. In his eyes, “Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn, and without which any human life is vain and incomplete”.  He conceives of Nature as a living personality. He believes that there is a divine spirit pervading all the objects of Nature. This belief in Nature may be termed mystical Pantheism and is fully expressed in Tintern Abbey. He believes that the company of Nature gives joy to the human heart and he looks upon Nature as exercising a healing influence on sorrow-stricken hearts.

In the poem, ‘Daffodils’ William Wordsworth reveals his relationship with Nature. His choices of words throughout the poem make it clear that his relationship with Nature is a good one. The whole poem is about Nature. It talks about clouds, valleys, hills, trees, the breeze, stars, the Milky Way, a bay, waves, and most of all daffodils. Nature brings a state of imagination. It brings people into a different state of mind, an ambience to encompass the world and make it a better place.  In this poem, a host of daffodils stops the speaker while travelling through Nature. The word “host” makes it transform into a vision, which is imagination.

In the poem ‘Ode on Intimations of Immorality,’ Wordsworth uses nature to explain his perception of the beauty of nature. He uses meadows, groves, streams, the earth, rainbows, roses, birds, lambs, seasons, mountains, seas, valleys, the sun, flowers, and stars.

Nature has played an important role in ‘Solitary Reaper’. This poem is about a harvester girl. She is alone in the field, she cuts and binds, she bends over a sickle and she sings a melancholic song. The song that the poet has heard is sung by ‘solitary Highland Lass’. Her voice overflows the vale with her music, a melancholy strain’ that she sings while working in the field. So, we can say that the lonely girl is very nearly merged with nature. The girl is singing the song in dialect. The poet is trying to guess the theme of the song because he cannot understand the dialect. That is why, 

William Wordsworth discovers in nature an uncommon power which can transform this earth into a homeland for fairies and other supernatural agents. It is proved in his other poem, ‘To the Cuckoo’. The title itself is about a bird and it is also a part of nature. The bird is wandering in the valley. The poet heard the sweet voice of the Cuckoo. He felt delighted. The valley was full of beautiful flowers. Clear sunshine made the atmosphere in the valley enjoyable. So, it is a part of Nature. The poet in his extreme gladness addresses the Cuckoo as a ‘Blithe New-Comer’.

Wordsworth’s attitude to Nature can be clearly differentiated from that of the other great poets of Nature. He does not prefer the wild and stormy aspects of Nature like Byron, or the shifting and changeful aspects of Nature and the scenery of the sea and sky like Shelley, or the purely sensuous in Nature like Keats, or takes interest mainly in human nature rather than its pure form like Shakespeare. It is his special characteristic to concern himself, not with the strange and remote aspects of the earth, and sky, but with Nature in her ordinary, familiar, everyday moods. He does not recognize the ugly side of Nature ‘red in tooth and claw’ as Tennyson does. Wordsworth stresses the moral influence of Nature and the need for man’s spiritual discourse with her.