The Importance of Nature to Spirituality - Essay Example

The Importance of Nature to Spirituality Both William Blake and William Wordsworth wrote poetry in thestyle of the Romantics. The Romantic Movement was a literary movement that took place starting in the mid- to late-18th century and ended in the 19th century in which the natural world took on new importance in the face of increasingly industrialized atmospheres. Writers following this tradition sought to find meaning within the natural world that seemed lost within the created world of the humans. However, the way they did this changed depending on their position in time and space. Blake lived from 1757 to 1827 and saw the beginning of the industrial revolution and the growth of the factories. He was aware of the dangers of this growth and saw some of the destruction it brought about, but he lived in England where some of the cities had already had long histories and the erosion of nature didn't seem so dramatic as places such as America where much of the land was still relatively untamed and all of the architecture was new. Wordsworth was an American poet who lived from 1770-1850. The changes that were taking place in America were similar to those happening in Europe, but seemed more dramatic. Both of these poets worked within the same literary movement to emphasize the importance of nature in poems such as "Tyger" and "The World is Too Much With Us" respectively. In poems such as "Tyger," Blake focuses on his own individual way of seeing the world and on the emotions these investigations brought out. This is in keeping with the then emerging Romantic movement which placed a great deal of emphasis on emotional feeling, particularly as it was inspired by nature. This emphasis on emotional feeling is seen in "Tyger" as Blake starts the poem with two exclamatory statements: "Tyger! Tyger!" (1) and infuses them with a strong image in the darkness of the reader's mind: "burning bright / In the forests of the night" (1-2). Most of the poem is written with the intention of creating a sense of awe around the creature that is the focal point of the poem and continues to force the reader's attention on this concept. The tiger's features are described in deadly but beautiful detail, "In what distant deeps or skies / Burnt the fire of thine eyes?" (5-6), in such a way as to constantly focus the attention on its emotional impact. At the same time, these statements are phrased in the form of rhetorical questions that naturally cause the mind to start trying to answer them and thus considering the images more carefully. This same emphasis on the emotions is found in Wordsworth's poem as he opens his poem with a sense, a feeling, that there is something missing in the new modern life of the cities. "The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers" (1-2). Before the reader is even certain what it is that Wordsworth is talking about, it is clear that he is feeling a sense of emptiness in daily life and a sense of having little energy or interest in this life. This is also in keeping with his personal times. Although Blake was writing at a time when the industrial revolution was having the same effect on his homeland as Wordsworth, Wordsworth wrote in a place where it seemed the factories and cities were taking over all of the natural beauty of the world, burying it under concrete. It seemed inevitable to most writers of his time and he rightly mourns the loss. He says "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! / ... / For this, for everything, we are out of tune" (4, 8). Although Blake's creation is filled with the profound emotion of awe, Wordsworth's demonstrates a profound sense of loss. However, both poets discover a sense of natural feeling inherent in the images they produce for their readers and both keep this emotion at the forefront of their poems. Within his poem, Blake focuses on an element of the ‘supernatural’ as something that existed outside the realm of everyday experience, another key characteristic of the Romantic movement. The supernatural was often linked to evidence of God and spirituality, but this wasn't always discussed in terms of sanctified religions. Many times, it was brought about simply by introducing something that was beyond the ordinary, such as in the introduction of a tiger. Zoos did not exist during Blake’s time period so the only tigers people knew about were what they saw in picture books, heard about from people returning from safari or saw in the rare traveling circus that had one of these animals on display. Without ever actually describing the natural form of the tiger, Blake is able to infuse it with a sense of something otherworldly because of the way he continues to look for a divine hand in the molding of its parts: "And what shoulder, and what art / Could twist the sinews of thy heart?" (9-10). By breaking from the ‘normal’ world of description and image, Blake is able to focus the reader's attention on higher, more supernatural elements of his subject. Wordsworth also draws from the supernatural to try to make his point that humans have become lost to their true and higher natures. However, where Blake's is strongly suggested in the many questions he asks about the natural formation of the tiger, Wordsworth makes his references blatant as he longs for a simpler time when nature played a much stronger role in the religious beliefs of the people. He mourns this idea when he says "I'd rather be / a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; / So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, / Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; / Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea" (9-13). Rather than clinging to the god of commerce and industrial growth, Wordsworth makes a plea to return to simpler religions that focus so exclusively on the forces of nature that the gods themselves were made manifest before them. What he is suggesting in using this kind of terminology is that the only way mankind will be able to overcome the general despair such as what he feels when he realizes his disconnection from nature is to look to much more supernatural forces to help guide them where they should be. In both poems, the poets emphasize, over and over again, the importance of a connection to nature in order to retain the necessary sense of inner peace or appropriate wonder that is otherwise lacking in modern life. Blake keeps the language in his poem deliberately simple and straightforward even though his meaning lies a bit deeper and causes the reader to remain bothered by its images. In creating the poem, Blake eliminated the use of metaphors, similes and other conventions in favor of a forthright approach of rhetorical questioning. He moves seamlessly from questioning who had the ability and the artistry to frame the fearsome shape of the tiger to suggesting it must have been the same brilliance that created the lamb – a peaceful, innocent creature. He finally ends with the awe-struck realization that it required something more fearsome than the tiger itself to create something so beautiful and simultaneously so deadly. Wordsworth also suggests within the body of his poem that it is the absence of a proper appreciation of nature that has caused the sense of loss and despair that characterizes his poem. It isn't that nature has stopped to exist, but rather that people have become incapable suddenly of appreciating what nature truly has to offer. "This sea that bares her bosom to the moon; / The winds that will be howling at all hours / And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers / For this, for everything, we are out of tune; / It moves us not" (5-9). Because the modern age has separated itself so much from nature, Wordsworth is saying that we are no longer able to appreciate the forces of nature. Only by returning to a proper appreciation of nature, which doesn't seem likely without the ability to draw on supernatural forces, can a man feel fully alive and begin to experience again the thrills of the ancients in their knowledge of the wonders of the earth. Within both of these poems, the poets continue to point to nature as the focal point of all meaning which was an idea at the heart of the Romantic Movement. It is the point from which all our emotions spring and it is the force that provides us with our necessary connection to a higher, supernatural power. However, with the growth of the industrial revolution, it was something we were losing more and more of all the time. Both poets express mankind's decreasing ability to see the awesome in nature, to appreciate the artistry that went into the creation of an animal as gorgeous as a tiger that is, at the same time, so fiercely deadly, to respond like the tides to the gentle pull of the moon or to take joy rather than comfort from the vagaries of the winds. Nature is our connection to our innermost selves, these poets argue, and yet it is something we were throwing out and disregarding to our own peril. Works Cited Blake, William. "Tyger." Songs of Experience. Wordsworth, William. "The World is Too Much With Us." Leaves of Grass. Read More