Introduction
Romantism has less attachment to romance. It is normally associated to love as an art. Nature when applied to the word romantic, it has various meanings. Nature is basically a word of art. As much as different issues concerning nature vary in a bigger way, its healing capability remains constant; healing in the sense that, it is able to affect everyone both positively and negatively. Romance brings in the attention of describing the natural phenomena. Romance sounds to be very true when compared with the Romantic painting landscape of a natural; poetry (Sunstein, 1991).
Romantic View of Nature
Most artists and poets were forced to respond to the industrialization and urbanization that kept on growing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The role of nature normally contains various ideas of nature. Romantic poets tend to share a lot of ideas and most of this is the way they view nature. Most of the poets tend to appeal to nature as if they were addressing a human being. Wordsworth views nature in a romantic perspective. He is of the opinion that, when people are suffering, nature should come suffer with them and when they are rejoicing, nature should also be able to rejoice with them. Wordsworth views nature like a youth .The cultural trend aped a romantic nature in the long run.
There was fear of people being evolved to machine era and this made it easy for people to return to humanity roots. For the case of romantic poets, nature developed various meanings. In today’s era, nature is normally used primarily and is opposed to a man (Zabus, 2007). The concept of nature that tends to underlie Romanism takes a different meaning. Nature takes the divine creature and the functions of living things as its concept. The most prominent poets who have been known of their good job are; William Wordsworth and Percy Shelly.
To clearly understand the romantic view of nature, it is vital to analyze some of their poems. Picking one poem from each poet, it wills assist to bring out clearly the illustrative of their work. In the book written by Joseph beach, the concept of Nature in Nineteenth- Century English Poetry, Wordsworth is seen to have taken for granted harmony, and purposive. According to Wordsworth, he associates nature with innocence and unworldliness. He believes that, if men were given more time, they can learn more about nature as opposed to the normal life. In his poem, he brings out clearly a serene picture that shows an evening just next to the sea. He clearly compliments the two words in his common, ‘calm’, and ‘free’.
When one is humble or calm, it does not prevent him from being on the contrary. This is just a sign of wisdom and harmony that is inherited in nature. The philosophy of Pantheism was common in Romanticism. In his poem, William Wordsworth tends to support revolution. He inserts in the first phrase that, one man is free, for he is a natural child. In this line, he is trying to bring out clearly the fact that a man is naturally free and very liberal. This is proved when a person does not require any help to reason. A human being reasoning capacity is so much independent (Zabus, 2007). A human being is seen to be a superior creature and does not need any assistance to reason what is wrong and what is right.
An English poet Shelly holds a political type of reasoning. In his work, he keeps on asking who will make all the human beings to live as brothers. In the poem, he inserts, apart from awe, the only one to be worshipped is the king. The king in this case is the Supreme Being. Shell unlike Wordsworth, takes things a little bit further. Shelly somehow does not recognize the authority in God. He believes that a person is the one who chooses what is right for him. Shelly has also rejected nationalism. This brings the logic of liberation. According to Shelly, the fact that all individuals are sovereign is what matters most. The poet insists that people should not be ranked together in terms of tribe or culture or nation. In the long run, liberal concept dominated the Western politics. This later became orthodoxy such that traditional nationalism was seen to have a negative impact thus affecting equality negatively.
Wordsworth adopts an outlook that is more conservative and very liberal. In his prelude poem, there is no quibbling in this particular poem. He tends to buy Shelly ideas when he says that individual reasoning and action is sufficient for the society. Shelly is proved to be the only Romantic author and she is seen to have tackled the idea of nature in a much creative manner. Her concept specifically addresses how romanticism can be handled. She embraces the romantic movements. According to Shelly, she sees nature as a very powerful sublime. She sees this sublime as an entity that is very different from the humankind. She describes the beauty in the world as the rainbow (Esterhammer, 2002).
She also recognizes nature to be merciless. According to Shelly, she views nature to be deadly and at the same time splendorous. Shelly is fast to warn people not to equalize beauty with tranquility as much as they are appreciating the nature of aesthetic. She insists that people need to view nature from both sides. As much as nature may have several advantages, it also has several disadvantages. Wordsworth on the other hand, insists that nature plays an important role in the life of a human being. According to Wordsworth, the roles of nature are more comfortable and can be aplied by any individual who is interested. Just like Shelly, Wordsworth sees views nature as a sublime entity that is more internal. He seems to be with much comfort when he writes that,’ I have felt a presence of joy and there is a blue sky in the minds of a human being.’ This proves how much he is settled in his mind.
This is not so according to Shelly when she inserts that, ‘while I stared at the stars, they seemed to be scaring’. There have been several critics on this issue of romance and according to the poets; most people do not really know the definition of the word romance. The critic of this word is most cases hidden but in some cases, it is open (Sunstein, 1991). There is no sign of scientific approach to this issue analysis. This sounds vague in that, nature is seen to be romantic. According to the poets, romance was seen to be evolving day by day and becoming live.
Conclusion
As much as Wordsworth and Shelly are romantic poets, they tend to be viewing nature on two different angles. Shelly brings forth the tragic and the aspects of nature vividly while Wordsworth uses everyday’s anecdotes underlying the serene of the nature. To bring the connection between human and nature, Wordsworth uses anecdotes. He underlines clearly the serene aspects of nature. Wordsworth uses the comparison and identification technique. They both however admire the romance of nature. He gives the importance of a child experience and later gives how a human mind is very important to undergo experiences.
Shelly is seen as an atheist, which is basically an indifferent entity. Wordsworth describes a human mind as a region hunt (Esterhammer, 2002). She is not any much different. In his poem, he describes vividly a child as a father and as a man. He believes that, when a child is born, his memory is like a blank sheet. Experience and other things under the universe will make the child to grow and know things that are happening around him. He believes that, if a child is born and exposed to good education and discipline, that is what the child will grow to become. If a child is introduced to indiscipline behaviors, he will also grow to be undisciplined. The poet does not believe on the issue that some behaviors are inborn and are inherited.
Wordsworth does not give up due to the critics and different human despair. He in fact grows strong socially while writing the poem. Shelly on the other hand, as much as he does not widely differ with Wordsworth, she is of the opinion that, sometimes a child can be born with certain skills and these skills are inborn. If a child was to be born with a blank brain, then it could not be possible for the child to know immediately how to cry immediately he is born. A child reacts to the immediate nature that he meets outside and using his little inborn knowledge, he reacts to it by crying. Shelley openly uses nature as a restorative agent (Esterhammer, 2002). There is a continuous association of human feelings and nature in the poems. Metaphor has been used so much to emphasize important issues. Shelly also uses nature to bring out the recognition of the peoples’ rejection and their despair. Shelly seems to be more attracted to the fish scenes. This brings out the nature aspects in the poem.
References:
Esterhammer, A. (2002). Romantic poetry. Chicago: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Sunstein, E. (1991). Mary Shelley: romance and reality. New York, NY: JHU Press.
Zabus, C. (2007). The African palimpsest: indigenization of language in the West Africa
europhone. Oxford: Rodopi.
