Wordsworth as a poet of nature

By Nayma Nishat - November 02, 2014

The greatest contribution of William Wordsworth to the poetry of Nature is his unqualified pantheism. Wordsworth, as a poet of nature, stands supreme. He is a worshiper of nature and he has a complete philosophy of nature. In his eyes, “Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn if we will and without which any human life is vain and incomplete.” In his poems, nature occupies a separate or independent status. In order to evaluate Wordsworth as a poet of nature, here, we will take mainly two of his poems under discussion. One is ‘The Solitary Reaper’ and another one is ‘To the Cuckoo’- the role of nature in Wordsworth is noticeable in these two poems.

In ‘The Solitary Reaper’, we see that a lonely girl was harvesting in the field and she was singing a melancholic song, in a natural environment. The poet sets this poem in a natural background. In another poem ‘To the Cuckoo’, the poet is telling about the song of cuckoo bird. This poem is often concerned with the theme of nature.

Wordsworth is a poet of nature, that’s why he prefers his poem in a natural place. Nature has played an important role in the Solitary Reaper. This poem is about a harvester girl. She is alone in the field, she cuts and binds, she bends over 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 the 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’s why, the whole nature become mysterious to him. The poet says, in the first stanza of this poem,

“O listen! for the vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound.”

Though the poet does not know the words of her song, he can understand the harmony of the song is slow and steady. So, he can realize, it is a melancholy song. The poet is hearing the sound which is overflowing in natural surroundings. So, it becomes a part of nature. In the second stanza of his poem, he says,

“No Nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travelers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:”

Here, the poet is comparing the song of the solitary Reaper with the song of a Nightingale, which sings to the tired travelers to welcome them to a shady resting place in the Arabian Sands. All the associations of nightingale, shady haunts of Arabian deserts are the important part of nature. In this stanza the poet also says,

“In spring-time from ne’er was heard

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides.”

Here, the poet says that the voice of cuckoo bird is not as thrilling as the voice of the solitary reaper. The cuckoo bird sings in the place named ‘Hebrides’ and breaks the silence of the sea. Silent seas, far-off Hebrides are also the part of nature. We can clearly find nature in this whole stanza. In stanza three, the subject of the song is considered as possibly ‘some natural sorrow’. The last stanza contains the poet's response to the song and the spell binding song is already settled in his heart because of the nature that surrounded him. The poet explains in his whole poem the beauty of nature.

William Wordsworth discovers in nature an uncommon power which can transform this earth into a homeland for fairies and other super natural agents. It is proved in his another 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 ‘Blithe New-Comer’. The Cuckoo appears first when spring comes to the earth. So, it is spring season. Spring is the most beautiful season of nature. The poet is lying on the grassy field when he heard the song of the Cuckoo. The song seemed to him a composition of ‘twofold voice as cuckoo. Further he heard the song being echoed by hills around him.

“While I am lying on the grass

Thy twofold shout I hear”

Here the poet explains the beauty of nature. He addresses the cuckoo bird as the ‘darling of the spring’. The bird is invisible to the poet. He could not find the bird. He hears its voice only. That’s why, the whole nature become mysterious to him. For this he says in his poem,

“No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;…..”

So, it made him curious to see the bird in bush, tree and sky. He wandered in woods and field to discover the bird. It is an important part of nature.

He is recollecting his memory of childhood; he is brought up in natural surrounding. From his very childhood he has been looking for this same bird and he tried to find it out. For this, he says,

“The same whom in my schoolboy days

I listened to;”

For him, his boyhood is the golden time. Although the said time is already passed, he experiences the similar feeling at present through the cuckoo’s voice. Finally, the poet says that the cuckoo bird has turned the world into a fairly place both for the cuckoo bird and human being.

In the light of total discussion we can say that, both of the poems have a complex meaning in the poet’s relationship with nature. ‘The Solitary Reaper’ and ‘To the Cuckoo’ in these poems memories of this lovely scene of nature refreshed his mind and brought him pleasure and peace of mind.