Wordsworth's Relationship With Nature example essay topic

In both William Wordsworth's poems and David Malouf's novel, An Imaginary Life, it is evident how different times and cultures affect the quality and importance of the relationship humanity can have with the natural world. Themes that are explored in both texts include interaction with nature, the role of nature in childhood and adulthood, religion and the role of language. These all show the quality and importance of humanity's relationship with nature and how times and culture influence the relationship. Although they are influenced by very different cultural and social values, both writers have the same goal, which is to understand nature and become a part of it.

Wordsworth learns through his interaction with nature in "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798", and "It's a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free", that there is a spiritual presence in the landscape. Ovid's interaction with nature helps him break down the divisions between people and their environment to become at one with it. Both writers demonstrate how interaction with nature is necessary to appreciate it. The importance of humanity's relationship with the natural world is shown through the main characters interaction with the environment. The different contexts of the authors make Wordsworth's relationship with nature not nearly as physical as Ovid's.

He is a gentleman from the early nineteenth century, and he would not "bush bash" to get places. To him nature is just a source of pleasure and a way to get closer to God. This is a reflection of his context and culture as this is what he is accustomed too. His world is much more civilised, "Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke". This demonstrates the domestic elements of his world. There is a contrast in environments in Tintern Abbey and the landscape around Tomis in An Imaginary Life.

Wordsworth's environment appears to be fertile and suited to agriculture because it is domesticated but Ovid's hasn't even been explored. Wordsworth never loses himself in nature because the line between God and earth always remains. A contrast to Wordsworth's idea of interaction with nature is the child in An Imaginary Life. The child is at one with nature because he is part of it. At the beginning of the book Ovid's surroundings are just a harsh reality that he has to cope with in his new world. By the end of the book he realizes that he will always be part of the earth.

"Then we shall begin to take back into ourselves the lakes, the rivers, the oceans of the earth, its plains, its forested crags with their leaps of snow. Then little by little, the firmament. The spirit of things will migrate back into us". The repetition shows that it takes time to become part of nature. Malouf gets rid of the line between people and nature so the characters can lose themselves in their environment.

Ovid and Wordsworth interact with nature differently because Wordsworth is comfortable with his environment where as Ovid was sent into exile. He knows nothing of his new world and is constantly confronted with things he can't interpret. It is evident in both texts that there is a lot that the environment can teach the characters. This teaching highlights the importance and quality of humanity's relationship with the natural world. However the different contexts of the characters determine what they can learn. Wordsworth and Malouf know that adult and childhood experiences are linked but they want to know how.

In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth shows the progression from child to adulthood. "When these wild ecstasies shall be matured, Into a sober pleasure". He remembers his childhood with passion but instead of wanting to relive it he chooses to take the wisdom from it. Once Ovid learns that he needs to reflect on his past, he finds himself, "more and more often slipping back to my childhood".

What he thought happened in his past seems different now. He feels as if he is looking back at someone else's. "Slowly I begin the metamorphosis. I must drive out my old self and let the universe in". Ovid knows when he to returns to his childhood, he needs to understand what happened before he can move on from this stage of his life and become part of nature. It isn't till this happens that he can be, "immeasurably, unbearably happy".

While trying to teach the child he realizes that the child has more to teach him then he has to teach the child. The child helps Ovid move towards unity with the natural world. The quality and importance of humanity's relationship with the natural world is shown through the presence of God. Both the characters feel his presence differently because of their different backgrounds. The main thing Wordsworth sees when he looks at the landscape is the presence of God. He sees God as a figure who protects the earth.

In Tintern Abbey he personifies God, when he says God "rolls through all things", because he gives everything life. The spiritual presence in the landscape makes it possible for him to interact with nature. He says, "And I have felt / A presence which disturbs me with the joy / Of elevated thoughts... / Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns/, And the round ocean and the living air, / And the blue sky, and in the mind of man". In a Beauteous Evening he uses religious imagery to enhance the peacefulness. The evening is "holy" and "quiet as a nun".

Ovid has very different views on God. In Tomis the Gods need to be given offerings to be appeased. They believe that Gods can do bad things like make people have violent fits and fevers but they can also do good things like help with the harvest. Another thing they believe is that the Gods can take on different animal forms.

Sometimes Ovid wonders if the child is an actual person or something with more of a spiritual meaning. A big difference between the texts is the way their own Gods relate to their landscapes. Ovid does not think God rolls through everything like Wordsworth. Instead he thinks humans dream up a world with a spiritual meaning, and then that imaginary world has been added to the landscape so it has meaning and purpose. "If the gods are with you there, glowing out of a tree in some pasture or shaking their spirit over the pebbles of a brook in clear sunlight, in wells, in springs... if the gods are there, it is because you have discovered them there, drawn them up out of your soul's need for them and dreamed them into the landscape to make them shine". Their different beliefs depend very much on the context that they are written in.

Malouf is a primitive pre Christian from Rome so his religious beliefs are very different from Wordsworth who has an English view with ideas of God that don't reflect Ovid's. The quality of humanity's relationship and interaction with the natural world depends very much on the character being able to relate with nature. Being able to appreciate nature and relating to it for Wordsworth is just about being able to interpret what it is trying to tell him. He doesn't need to learn anything to be able to do this. In Tintern Abbey he is speaking to his sister trying to teach her about nature and the messages you can obtain from nature. He wants her to remember his words because of the trouble he has gone to, to tell her of his discoveries.

"With what healing thoughts / Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, / And these exhortations!" Wordsworth can describe his landscapes because he is familiar with it and there are words available for him to describe it. The context of An Imaginary Life is very different but language plays a very important role for Ovid. Language is everything for him because he is a poet. When he is exiled into this unknown world he can't relate to anything and he can't communicate with anyone.

It is like he is a child again because he has to relearn everything. When he starts to teach the child he knows that speech is essential. "I have come to a decision. The language I shall teach the Child is the language of these people I have come among, and not after all my own. And in making that decision I know I have made another.

I shall never go back to Rome". Although he has being starting to like where he is now more, the short sentences suggest that the decision he made was made quickly. When he is learning the Getic language he finds that it suits the environment. He becomes closer to the earth as he learns more of the language. The Getic language and the earth end up reflecting one another. "The true language, I know now, is that speech in which we first communicated, the child and I...

Latin is a language for distinctions, every ending defines and divides. The language I am speaking of now... is a language whose every syllable is a gesture of reconciliation. William Wordsworth's poems and David Malouf's, through the character of Ovid, explore the relationship between people and nature. By interacting with nature the characters in both texts learn from the land, to create a relationship with the natural world. This interaction is very important for the characters to have a comprehensive understanding of the wild.

Their worlds differ as a result of their historical contexts which they are written. The culture of the writers is reflected in their writing. Wordsworth feels a spiritual presence and gains happiness from it. Ovid spends his time searching for answers to find out how he can become a part of the natural world. Wordsworth and Malouf's main characters recognise the importance of becoming a part of the natural world so they can understand themselves and their relationship with the rest of the world..