Final Blog on the Beauty of Nature

In Nicole Noelliste’s blog, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…,” I found it to be very interesting how she was able to compare nature. Noelliste compares “From observations on the River Wye” to that of a national geographic magazine. What caught my attention in writing about this particular blog was the focus of the picture she included on her blog located here .

In the picture, it describes emotion, culture, as well as life.

Likewise, in the blog she states, “I am very grateful for the National Geographic’s mission of bringing awareness to its readers about the world's land features, water bodies, human populations, animal species, mineral ore and many other aspects of our world, which intrigue us.” I have to agree with this statement because many times we tend to focus on material aspects. It is what human kind has made in life that we tend to neglect what has always been here, the beginning of who we are today. As we have discussed in class, bonding with nature is essential to understanding the way life works. It is from these interactions since we are younger that we begin to understand and develop the sounds and landscapes we see and hear every day.

Nicole has truly understood where Gilpin was going in his excerpt when she says that he “Gives a detailed description of the environment, his love for the ruins, his experience with the beggars, the various scenic views and vantage points among many other accounts.”

I believe this picture describes the beauty of nature, the opportunity to be open-minded as well as enjoy what we see. Even if nature may not seem like something that attracts each of us, we can all relate to the beauty in what nature can provide. Most importantly remember that nature is what gives of life. We as humans are a complex form of nature.

The Idiot Boy

William Wordsworth's use of the poem "The Idiot Boy" takes the reader through life. When putting this poem in a wordle, the words Betty, Johnny, and Susan were the largest followed by that of Boy, Pony, and Idiot.

This is a story of a boy who is retarded and the challenges he faces yet seems to accept life for what it is. Susan is the neighbor and is very ill. She needs medical help but the only one who can go find the doctor is the Betty’s son. Yet, he is retarded and has never been away on his own. Betty confides in her son and puts him on a pony to go find the doctor. However, hours pass and Betty is worried. Her son has not come home. She seems to forget about the neighbor and rather looks for her son. She arrives at the doctor’s house and asks if he has seen Johnny, but the doctor says no. She leaves and looks some more. Finally, she has found Johnny with nature, interacting with life.

The names of those mentioned above are a symbol of love and life. Throughout the poem, the reason for letting Johnny go was to find the doctor, yet when Betty was out looking for her son, the bond between them was of greater importance. The faith in Johnny demonstrated the love of a mother for her child as expressed in these lines.

And now she sits her down and weeps;
Such tears she never shed before;
“Oh dear, dear pony! My sweet joy!
“Oh carry back my idiot boy!
“And we will ne’er o’erload thee more.”



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To the Nightingale

In TO THE NIGHTINGALE, Coleridge takes a different approach in creating a flowing and expressive poem. The expression is that of the mind which is creating a fantasy based on imagination. From the beginning of the poem, the reader can see that he is identifying himself with the Nightingale in saying “Sister of love-lorn Poets, Philomel!” The Nightingale seems to be singing a song, which puts the author in a new state of mind, one in which dreaming and imagination occurs. The song is waking the author into a dream, where fantasies can take place.
Coleridge also takes a different approach when he put a name Sara in the poem. When I looked up the name, the meaning was that of a princess. I came to associate the name with the lines
How many wretched Bards address thy name,
And Hers, the full-orb’d Queen, that shines above.

The Queen is representing a Goddess, which is a woman, a supernatural woman. There seems to be a connection between a female figure and the mind. A female is seen as more emotional and expressive which is what is seen throughout the poem. It is a woman's love and tenderness that allows for the mind to imagine in such a way where there are beautiful feelings taken in. The image above is that of the Goddess of Love, this universal emotion is felt throughout the poem which takes the reader to another level, one in which dreaming and fantasy happen.

Lines Left Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree

“-Nay, Traveler! Rest. This lonely yew-tree stands
Far from all human dwelling: what if here
No sparking rivulet spread the verdant herb; …” are the words opening Wordsworth’s piece. Wordsworth has taken a different approach that gives a glimpse of what the reader should expect. It is a journey that the speaker is taking the reader through, one shaped by humanity.

The story of the beautiful landscape others are painting is the journey the traveler is visiting. It conveys various emotions in remembrance of the lonely man who in the end left his mark by the yew-tree. The man seems to isolate himself from humanity by expressing his feelings in saying that others will feel what he has not, yet he is not allowing himself to open up with nature. This aesthetic experience is what may misguide us in life. We tend to see what we want and that causes the eye to paint a new picture as we experience. The true values in life are being left out which is causing the lonely man to fear love and happiness.

“Would he forget those beings, to whose minds,
Warm the labours of benevolence,
The world, and man himself, appeared a scene
Of kindred loveliness: then he would sigh
With mournful joy, to think that others felt
What he must never feel: and so, lost man!”

The moral of the story is to connect with society and nature and develop a love for what life brings. When Wordsworth adds the paradox between mournful and joy I believe he is trying to teach us that we are one and should come together with our surroundings. The Yew tree is a symbolism of overcoming sadness and rejoicing.

The Haunted Beach

Mary Robinson, The Haunted Beach, the use of the word green is repeated many times. When I think of green, I think of grass and nature. I think of life and photosynthesis, oxygen and living. On the contrary, the title of this poem is dealing with the beach, which is describing two different atmospheres. However, the two are tied in the one sentence that ends each stanza,
"Where the green billows play'd"
A billow is defined as a surging mass. While reading this poem, it was evident that a place we seem as daunting and strange was the home to a mariner. Life for him was what an outsider would consider different. Death in this poem is seen differently as to what we see now. Usually when a death occurs, it happens in an environment that we are comfortable. Meaning that this lonely and misleading atmosphere of the beach is not somewhere anyone would just go.
Overall, nature within itself can be destructive and as humans, there is a sense of fear that lies within each of us. There is a fear of water because we know there are many natural occurrences that can happen. Yet, depending on where we live in the world, we become accustomed to our natural environment. In society, we have been able to see the destruction caused all over the world by earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. The mass of the tide in this context, is seen to the outsiders as a fear for the mariner. It is the soul, describing who he is. This is his interaction between him and nature.

Sonnet I

In Charlotte Smith’s Sonnet I, the main conflicts are between her and herself as well as between her and society. Throughout the beginning of the sonnet, there is a connection between beauty and inspiration within nature as seen in lines 4 and 5. However, Smith then comes to state that

“But far, far happier is the lot of those
Who never learn’d her dear delusive art,
Which, while it decks the head with many a rose.
Reserves the thorn- to fester in the heart.”

Here she is connecting suffering even when happy. Even though there are crowns of flowers, which show happiness, there are also thorns involved that is causing all the pain she is enduring. The main conflicts are between her and herself and between her and society.

ROMANTICISM: 1 often capitalized (1) : a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms

This sonnet helps demonstrate Romanticism in that her emotion is expressed in many forms throughout the sonnet with use of vivid imagery that seems to capture the heart and lead to suffering. Suffering is needed in life to appreciate who we are as individuals.

In Sonnet on seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress, by William Wordsworth, the vivid imagery of the heart and its functions are send oxygen throughout the body. The oxygenated blood travels through the body allowing for proper function.

When Wordsworth says, “Life’s purple tide began to flow,” it seems like there is a new beginning. When created, we each develop our own perceptions on life around us, which cause us to have a reaction. This is like what the function of blood does in the body. It is supplying us with just enough; it is up to us to keep it going. In life, we encounter many obstacles and at times, we stop to think and reflect on how our choices will affect us. Miss Helen is at a point in her life where she is full of uncertainty and heartache. She experiences pleasure in the orgasms yet is still weeping. Yet a heart symbolizes love and happiness? Wordsworth is creating metaphorical imagery based on what one believes to be true in regards to symbolism. He twists the meanings to show that as humans we also hurt yet we keep going.

This imagery can also be compared to religious aspects when Jesus was on the cross. He was suffering from the pain and “Life’s purple tide began to flow.” Jesus did not want to see others suffering. He showed others that even in pain, what he wanted others to see was the love he wanted to share. Miss Helen is showing times of desolation in her life due to what she has been experiencing. Yet I think what Wordsworth is really trying to convey is the heart has many faces, with many emotions, which in turn have us react by our stance on a given situation. The aspect of being able to feel is what allows us to see that the heart is a stimulus and is there to react and allow us to act upon it. Love is acted upon and with Wordsworth; the pain Helen is encountering is rather a gratifying enactment of life.