Essay on Nature as a Guide for Morality and Solution to Humankind's Problems

Introduction

Wordsworth was a popular poet and pantheist who strongly believed in the existence of God in Nature and that everything in people's lives was a manifestation of Nature. While on a tour to the famous civilized world, Wordsworth realized that mankind had become inconsiderate of his environment. The world had become materialistic such that everything was readily exchanged for money including the spiritual values that were monetized. Mankind had completely become oblivious of the existence of his spiritual being in pursuit of wealth. The erosion of morality largely bothered Wordsworth, especially upon the realization that the modern man had vast potential to cause immense destruction but that potentially did not match nor correspond to the moral values and standards to act as a check for that destruction. He opined that living in an immoral society was almost impossible since survival is constantly under threat and human values are ridiculed. Wordsworth wrote many poems that centered on love, environment, and human values. However, for all those poems that he wrote, it is clear that Wordsworth perceived nature as a source of moral values (morality) and a remedy to the problems and weaknesses of humankind.

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An in-depth analysis of scholars that dedicated vast amounts of time to study Wordsworth's work such as Rehder shows that leads to the conclusion that Wordsworth was a poet of nature (30-52). In other words, the poet viewed nature as an inspiration and a ladder to a plateau of understanding life and the power of human life. The solutions he devised to resolve life problems were nature-inspired. That is evident in "The Prelude" where he says:

"Here might I pause, and bend in reverence

To Nature, and the power of human minds,

To men as they are men within themselves...

And miserable love that is not pain

To hear of, for the glory that redounds

Therefore to humankind and what we are" (Book III, 224-250).

While expounding promoting "The Lyrical Ballads," Wordsworth points out that the reader can find the themes of his poems in every subject that appears interesting to the human mind. Here, the poet is seen to urge the readers to go beyond the standards of poetry and examine whether the theme contains human characters, separated from manly passions, and interest (Owen 65). This demonstrates that Wordsworth concentrated on the common and simple feelings of the heart. The inclusion of the aspects of nature in his poetry was purposefully to illustrate the problems facing mankind as well to present nature as an infinite source of pleasure and spirituality.

Wordsworth grew up and practiced poetry during an era marked with rampant revolutions. Some of the common revolutions include the declaration of independence by Americans from British in 1776 and the fall of Bastille in France in the late 17th century which resulted in the emergence of bloody struggles for equality and freedom. Wordsworth interpreted the revolution as the start of the golden age. However, the revolution failed and the conflicts ushered in the Reign of Terror which made the poet change his philosophy of changing the world politically to a new desire to improve the life of a person and internalize the revolution. The new ideology was based on the belief that a paradise could be created here on earth, not through social and political efforts, but through the combining and harmonization of human being and nature.

In response to the entrenched corruption in the European Society, Wordsworth argued that he viewed a rustic man as the perfect example of an ideal man. In particular, he opted to use the lives of rustics and cottagers who closely interacted with nature as the highlight or main philosophy of his poetry instead of the statesmen and politicians who were drunk with power and wealth. From Wordsworth perspective, nature suggests the strengthening of the interaction and relationship between the human mind and the entire world of nature together with the spirit that roams in all elements of nature. Here, the poet appears to secularize God by arguing that He resides in all elements of Nature. As such, Nature is presented as not just a landscape, but the meaning of life. When an individual is deeply immersed in it, the spirit helps to awaken the power of imagination and to not only escape the world but also to seek the truth. Human beings are components of this spirit of Nature.

In the poem "The World is too Much with Us," Wordsworth argues that man has surrendered his heart to pursue material wealth. The materialistic nature of mankind has affected the man and cannot think rationally. Wordsworth posits that for the sake of his well-being and happiness, mankind must reinstall the good relationship with nature because it is only Nature that can lead the right path toward peace and contentment. The poet underscores that the greatness of a man is not gauged by worldly achievements but by delineating himself from the bodily pleasures and adhering to the tenets of nature which define humanity. When a man is faced with hardships, he goes at great lengths to eradicate the sufferings and satisfy his needs. In the same way, a person should strive to overcome guilty pleasures and temptations that could affect the purity of his soul. As such, man must enrich himself with all the factors that facilitate his growth and development of nobility. Wordsworth believed that deviation from nature jeopardizes one's ability to achieve the peaks of humanity. That position was reinforced by the experiences during the Reign of Terror where the poet observed that failure to exercise restraint in life could cause one to become a bloodthirsty maniac with the potential to cause significant destruction and suffering to humanity. In Wordsworth story, the heroes were not the elites but rather the rustic men who led a simple life. Their heroism was seen in their simplicity courage, hope, and how they handled life problems with patience. The poet points out that virtue is among the key factors essential for nation building and calls upon the rejection of the materialistic standards through the spread of humanness which forms the fundamental core (soul) of the society in which a man lives.

Wordsworth poems were a form of rejection and protest against the superficial standards and wealth that define urban life. As such, Wordsworth did not just view the mountains as objects of nature but rather a framework for use to maintain social order. He noted in many of works that people living in societies surrounded by mountains have closer affections. In "The Song at the Feast Brougham Castle," the poet says:

"Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;

His daily teachers had been woods and hills,

The silence that is in the starry skies,

The sleep that is among the lonely hills

....... purifying thus

The element of feeling and of thought,

And sanctifying, by such discipline,

Both pain and fear, until we recognize

A grandeur in the beating of the heart" (410-114).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Wordsworth believed that the true character of a man is conceived and developed by the existence of balance and harmony in nature. The poet opined that men are often at their best behavior when they are in proximity to nature. Apart from providing the moral compass and solution to problems, nature consoles, brightens, imparts positivity in people's lives.

Works Cited

Owen, Warwick Jack Burgoyne. Wordsworth's Literary Criticism. Routledge, 2016.

Rehder, Robert. Wordsworth and Beginnings of Modern Poetry. Routledge, 2016. 30-53.

Wordsworth, William, and Ernest De Selincourt. Wordsworth: poetical works. Vol. III London: Oxford University Press, 2018. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12383/12383-h/12383-h.htm