Nature and Life: How Changing Nature Reflects Human Activities - Essay Sample

Introduction

Man lives in a natural world that needs to be tamed and taken care of. Nature is a beautiful thing, and everyone loves staying in an environment that has a welcome climate. However, life sometimes changes its course depending on natural calamity or human activities. The result of the change of nature is the reflection of human activities. Many poets use a specific language to explain more about life and its impact when things change. Sometimes poems send the same message, and yet they are not narrated by one. The essay will elaborate more on how nature parallels life by using three poems to show how the authors display both nature and life.

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The ‘Big Wind’ is a poem by Theodore Roethke that talks about how human activities have interfered with the natural way of life (Roethke n.p). The author paints an image of the greenhouses and how they have lunged into the lashing, thus driving the waters down the river with drained manure and water from rusty boilers to end the life of creatures and plans (Roethke n.p). The author talks about the winds and how it was blowing the houses because there were no trees to block the strength. An ugly storm is what the author called it because it cleared anything on its way.

The second poem, ‘Loss’ narrated by Ammons, also talks about the wind, especially when the sun falls behind the sumac thicket (Ammons n.p). The image here used in this poem is how the wind goes wild when the sunsets. The plants are seen as weak as they are unable to hold their petals up due to strong winds. The language of making plants to have life is to show the audience how essential plants are and how they are destroyed in the absence of the sun.

‘Afterglow’ is a poem narrated by Jorge Borges that also talks about how things change when the sun goes down and lives the weather muted and disturbing as the horizon is left blank (Times n.p). Borges also explains how everything cannot hold on to the dark when the sun sets and lives in the dark, tautly different and drawn humans to fear the space left (Times n.p). It is at this time that humans realize they are dreaming when the sun rises again, which in the real sense, is not a dream.

Similarity, Qualities, and Themes

The three poems all talk about nature and the difference between day and night. One common theme they portray is that of the wind. In the ‘Big Wind’ Roethke shows how life is spoiled due to human activities of embracing greenhouses (Roethke n.p). The image painted here is that because of man’s selfishness, nature and life has been affected, which is why life in rivers ends. In ‘Loss,’ Ammon narrates the importance of the sun and the change that takes place when it sets in the evening (Ammons n.p). He also shows how plants are unable to fight for themselves because the wind has taken over. Lastly, the ‘Afterglow’ points out why the sun is vital to life, even humans (Times n.p).

Conclusion

The three pomes portray the same similarity of explaining about the theme of the wind. It is clear that when the sun is not there, the wind is in charge. This change is shown in the ‘Big Wind’ due to human activities such as greenhouses. The similarity in the poems is to send a message to people that they should take care of nature; otherwise, it will not favor them when it comes to natural calamities.

Works Cited

Ammons, Archie Randolph. “Collected Poems, 1951-1971.” Amazon, W.W. Norton, 2001, www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-1951-1971-R-Ammons/dp/0393321924

Roethke, Theodore. “Big Wind.” PoemHunter.com, 30 Mar. 2010, www.poemhunter.com/poem/big-wind/.

Times, The PasseNger. “Jorge Luis Borges. Afterglow – English Version.” Thepassengertimes.com, 25 Aug. 2013, https://thepassengertimes.com/2012/01/31/jorge-luis-borges-afterglow-english-version/