William_Wordsworth

The universal relevance of Romantic poetry to contemporary society is embodied through the life and works of William Wordsworth, who was born in 1770. The way in which Wordsworth achieves this enduring relevance to contemporary society, is through the range of themes addressed within his poems, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and “The Solitary Reaper”. These relevant concerns that Wordsworth explores in these poems include that of coexistence between nature and humanity and the effects of this coexistence, and encountering a transcendental element in nature, consequently altering the ways in which humans approach and perceive the natural world. One of the prominent ideas that Wordsworth addresses in his poetry that is of immense relevance to contemporary civilization, is humanity having the ability to encounter a transcendental element within nature, resulting in nature developing a spiritual dimension for the individual. The poem “The Solitary Reaper” explores this idea of the power of nature to have influence over an individual’s imagination, which therefore allows them to transform regular, daily events into depictions of a superior reality. Therefore, The Solitary Reaper is an example of the somewhat ordinary, directing the persona of the poem toward an ideal of completeness of being that they experience due to observing this scene in nature. Despite the reaper, being of complete flesh-and-blood, Wordsworth employs a recurring motif of the ‘lone figure’ to convey the idea that by the conclusion of the poem this female reaper acts as spiritual gateway from the confines of reality for the persona. Wordsworth also employs descriptive language when recounting the reaper’s singing, through “a voice so thrilling ne’er was heard”, which therefore represents the person’s captivation with the figure’s voice. Despite not being able to comprehend the song, which frustrates him conveyed through the use of rhetorical questions, in “Will no one tell me what she sings'”, the persona still envisions it to be an enunciation of the eternal and ultimate reality. Consequently, this discerning consciousness of the infinite conveyed through the reapers song, affects the persona as they are a different individual than when they first encountered the figure, and this can be perceived from the constant repetition of “I” conveying the personal effects gained from the scene, which permeates his consciousness and loiters in his heart for a long time after the song can no longer be heard. Wordsworth’s belief that the infinite can be encountered in the finite that is highlighted in the Solitary Reaper through the reaper, her song, and the natural environment surrounding her materializes from his own personal experience. As he constantly took time out of his day to immerse himself within nature by taking walks in the Lakes District of England, which he practiced well into his seventies. Often whilst in nature he detected a permeating presence which enabled him to see past the curtain of normality, and provided him with greater revelations. The typical modern responder might potentially be dismissive of Wordworth’s of this idea because they feel that the setting depicted in the poem does not reflect their own lifestyles. Our lifestyles are constantly overflowing with activity; when do we really have the time or opportunity to take a walk in the forest' Despite this, although the circumstances of Wordsworth’s period were different to ours today, this idea still bears relevance to contemporary society because the yearning of the human spirit to feel a connection to something larger than itself remains as passionate today as it was during the nineteenth century. Modern individuals, desire for a quiet place to contemplate their lives, a place where they can recollect themselves away from the pressures of the external world. Therefore William Wordsworth is relevant to contemporary society as the idea of the transcendence in nature he addresses in The Solitary Reaper, because it caters to the needs of the human spirit. Wordsworth work epitomizes the role nature encompasses within civilization, and investigates the idea that in order for this respect for nature and its benefits to exist, humans must have a coexistence with natural world. Therefore Wordsworth provokes a consciousness within the responder, into the ways in which observing natural beauty can deepen human pleasures and incite passionate emotions. This portrayal relates to the context of the period, as during the Romantic period in history, the Romantic poets had a yearning to escape the Industrial Revolution of the time, and saw nature as an escape from the complexity of daily life. Wordsworth expresses this importance of harmonious relationship between nature and humanity, in A Few Lines of Composed above Tintern Abbey, through describing the personal effects nature has upon him and how he coincides with it. Therefore providing a prime example of how contemporary society can experience nature in the same way as Wordsworth once did when visiting this site on a tour he went on with his sister Dorothy. Wordsworth expresses the emotions that nature can provide to an individual through the alliteration he employs in “sensations sweet, felt in the blood, and felt along the heart”, which emphasises the senses and feelings accentuated by observing nature. Additionally, Wordsworth also highlights the control and authority nature has over him, through employing the extended metaphor “The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul, of all my moral being.”, which conveys that nature not only provides emotional sustenance in offering him peace, it also offers protection from the concerns of the external world. This concern Wordsworth expresses is of prominent relevance to contemporary society, as although we are becoming more aware of how to live in conjunction with nature in regards to having an increased awareness of how human activity is resulting in negative impacts upon the environment, society is still able to learn from Wordsworth’s exploration of this idea. Wordsworth stressed the importance of coexistence between humanity and nature, however this is still not entirely achieved as a lack of coexistence between nature and past generations of our has lead to global warming resulting in annihilation of the world’s natural environments. William Wordsworth still has relevance to contemporary society, through a range of universal themes addressed in his poems “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and “The Solitary Reaper”. These relevant concerns include that of the importance of the relationship between humans and the environment, the coexistence between nature and humanity and encountering a transcendental element in nature. Each of these ideas addressed by Wordsworth are still relevant as they have the influence to provide moral lessons, cater to the needs of the human spirit, and alter humanity’s existing detrimental attitudes and behaviours. As E.M. Foster stated “What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.”