Poetry Essay Assignment

ENG4U | Lauren Pearson, 2022

Poetry Essay: The Importance of Nature in the Romantic Era

An escape into nature offers a complementary therapeutic session, as one reflects and further appreciates all that nature has to offer. Nonetheless, as time progresses our society becomes more and more westernized. As a result, the fundamental characteristics of nature seem to be inferior in comparison to the instant gratification that technology provides. The somewhat simplistic ideas regarding nature tend to offer a unique sense of relaxation, which is crucial in our preoccupied world today. During the Romantic era, nature held the same responsibilities surrounding the concept of rejuvenation. Subsequently, in the 1800s the developments of political, social and intellectual inquiries aroused the complex ideas present in society at the time. Romanticism discovered these topics in further depth to satisfy the natural means of human curiosity. Interestingly enough, this concept had already been discovered universally by members of various indigenous groups. A particular member named Emily Pauline Johnson of the “Haudenosaunee” tribe in Ontario, Canada took a drastic interest in displaying her thoughts on nature in a literary sense. The importance of nature is vital in writing from the Romantic Era by William Wordsworth. In turn, Emily Pauline Johnson demonstrates the comparison of the varying quantities of power in nature. Emily often used inspiration from her external forces, such as the physical elements found amongst the forests. Whereas William Wordsworth sought out inspiration from internal areas such as his psychological view on nature.

In William Wordsworth’s poem “Ode: Intimations of Immorality from recollections of Early Childhood”, the reader is presented with the ideology associated with quantifying the amount of power that nature overcomes in this piece of literature. The poem demonstrates the importance of finding internal mental clarity through utilizing the calming elements of nature. Wordsworth experiences the correlation between nature and power through his usage of poetry as a sense of escapism from his mundane routine. He also explores the ideology of mourning the loss of his youth and the deeper connection that he had with the natural earth. In stanza one, Wordsworth states “The glory and the freshness of a dream.” (Wordsworth, 1807, line 5) to describe his past personal spiritual relation delivered by the landscapes. He then goes on to mention that “The things which I have seen I now can see no more.” (Wordsworth, 1807, line 10) which implies his inability to seek the experiences of the same emotion that he once underwent as a young child. This provides further evidence to support the claim that he would previously subside in nature as a mental escape from the chaos of the modern world. Woodsworth continues to display a sense of confusion in the ideology of losing his psychological “crutch”. He intrigues the reader by relating specific elements of nature to certain periods in human life; “The Sunshine is a glorious birth;” (Wordsworth, 1807, line 16). In this metaphor, he compares the presence of sunlight to the spiritual essence of childbirth. Subsequently, later in the third stanza, Wordsworth uses a rhyme scheme of ABBCCA. He uses this to emphasize the extent of beauty the natural world provides him, although he interrupts his ideas to adhere to his “thought of grief:” (Wordsworth, 1807, line 22). However, he does not have a single rhyme scheme that is consistent throughout the entire poem. The abnormality in his rhyme schemes provides an adequate basis for his discussion of melancholic thoughts which can include “the Man perceives it die away.” (Wordsworth, 1807, line 76). The poem reflects on the overall values of manhood, childhood and nature as he reflects his infinite love of the natural world. Enjambments are used to create a sense of urgency concerning Wordsworth's ongoing thoughts discussed in this poem. He works to denote the powerful effects of the 18th century so-called “Religion” represented through the usage of a philosophic pantheism when explaining the ambiance of nature. This topic has been studied by Berry Cerf of the Cambridge University Press, as seen in the text “Wordsworth’s Gospel of Nature”.

The last hundred years have destroyed the social, political, artistic, philosophical and religious beliefs of the past and substituted new ones. While no one of these new ones have proven satisfactory, it is particularly in the domain of religion experiments of a century that have borne little fruit. The spiritual indecision of to-day unquestionably had its origin in the peculiar variety of religion which the romantic era gave to the world. (Cerf, 1992, page 615)

Wordsworth’s poems fostered an inclusive environment, allowing people to take authority over their lives and perceive nature within their personalities. The ideology of using spiritual representation within nature only furthered the inquiry that the romantic era delivered to society. He assumed that through living among nature, one could reach a unique sense of enlightenment unlike no other.

Emily Pauline Johnson’s connection with nature seemingly derives from her social and cultural environment, unlike Wordsworth who uses his internal psychological feelings in his poetry. Emily’s correlation between nature and power is represented through the quantity of power allocated to the natural world in her indigenous culture. Being born into a mixed-race family, Emily often felt conflicted between her identities. However, she often sought out mental clarity within the natural world similar to Wordsworth. In Emily’s case, she created an emphasis on destroying the harmful stereotypes inflicted upon indigenous people like herself. She focused on writing from a feministic approach as her upbringing influenced his literary works. Johnson’s writing also consisted of English Canadian nationalism mainly due to the formation period that accompanied Canada’s Confederation. She was recognized as a trailblazer due to her being one of the first handful of Canadian writers to discuss topics like camping or life in the wilderness. Johnson faced a tremendous amount of prejudice as community members discredited her authenticity when describing her personal experiences as she spent the majority of her adult life away from the Mohawk culture. Although, despite these claims, she continued to cater her literature to a caucasian audience to allow her to discuss and combat disruptive stereotypes. In Emily Pauline Johnson’s “The Song my Paddle Sings” the reader is presented with her interpretation of nature and the ideology of quantifying the pre-existing power that it holds. This exemplifies the determination required to handle every journey that one may come into contact in their lifetime. In a literal sense, the poem describes a man who is going sailing but struggles due to the lack of wind. Due to this, he is faced with the task of removing the sail and embarking on his journey through canoeing. The poem utilizes a lyrical form which is often used to display powerful feelings toward the reader, this also adds to the tone which seems to be frustrated and exasperated. In stanza one, she states “The sail is idle, the sailor too:” (Johnson, 2014, line 3) to represent the context of being in a subconscious state demonstrated through the usage of “idle”. Both the sail and the sailor are “idle” meaning that they spend time doing nothing that contributes to furthering their journey at sea. This adds to the concept of challenging one’s comfort zone when facing obstacles in life. By incorporating the methodology of the ocean, the reader can make a direct connection between feelings and nature. As the poem progresses, the context seems to appreciate the beauty within the nature around them which attributes to the mental clarity that seeking peace in nature offers. Towards the end of the poem, the tone shifts into a positive light as she states “But never fear my craft will feel.” (Johnson, 2014, line 43) which describes the mental capacity that doubt overcomes any physical barriers. Emily Pauline Johnson’s legacy lives on beyond her time here on earth as Canadians of ages cherish her unique approach to literature.

Pauline’s education in school lore was meagre, –a nursery governess for two years attendance at an Indian day school, near her home, for three years, and two finishing years at the Brantford Central School–but her education in the school nature was extensive, and that with her voracious reading (of poetry particularly) and retentive memory, richly stored her naturally keen brain. (Canadian Public Health Association, 1914, page 328).

Emily’s poems represented her past experiences with attending Indian day school, which was an external factor of her environment. This was something out of her control, but regardless she was still greatly impacted by these events.

William Wordsworth and Emily Pauline Johnson both demonstrate the usage of quantifying powers within nature. Wordsworth focuses on the qualities of internal influences in nature whereas Johnson focuses solely on the ideology of external influences in her social and cultural environment. In William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immorality from recollections of Early Childhood”, he states “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:” (Wordsworth, 1807, line 1). From this stanza extract, the text is proposing that the human soul pre-exists before birth. This also correlates to the concept that nature is an external influence on the human soul, as opposed to it being indoctrinated in us at conception. Humans have the ability to dictate their relationship with nature in Wordsworth’s poetry, unlike Johnson’s perspective where the connections occur through religious and cultural teachings. In Emily Pauline Johnson’s “The Song my Paddle Sings”, she states “Swelling the song that my paddle sings.” (Johnson 2010, line 53). Through this line, she has the paddle representing the members of society and the metaphorical song symbolizing the cultural teachings passed on from generations. The external factors such as the song in this case can be associated with the untouchable cultural imprints delivered by various members of indigenous groups. Wordsworth tends to use repetition throughout the poem to make the idea of his intellectual connection with nature prevalent in the entire poem. Towards the end of the poem the phrase “Thanks to” repeats twice to reiterate the concept of appreciation regarding nature. The poem also utilizes enjambment, seen in the poem, “Ode: Intimations of Immorality from recollections of Early Childhood”: “The sail is idle, the sailor too;/O! wind of the west, we wait for you.” (Wordsworth, lines 3-4). In Emily Pauline Johnson’s, “The Song my Paddle Sings” she also uses various enjambment too which helps add to the continuation of a sentence or phrase. She uses personification to give personality to the setting, this is seen when she says “August is laughing across the sku” (Johnson 2014, line 19). Nature coincides with poetry in both authors, regardless of their different backgrounds. As seen in “The New Nature Poetry” written by Robert Langbaum, as an excerpt from the the American Scholar.

What is ecopoetry? What must an ecopoem be to do justice to its name? My answer is twofold: an ecopoem needs to be environmental and it needs to be enviromentalist. By enviromental, I mean first that an ecopeom needs to be about the nonhuman natural world –wholloy or partly, in some way or other, but really and not just figuratively. In other words, an ecopeom is a kind of nature poem. But an ecopoem needs more than the vocabulary of nature. (Shoptaw, 2016, page 395).

In both the poems’ the authors utlize the connection between humanity and the nonhuman natural world. Through this secondary source, the readers are introduced to the ideology of ecopoetry which focuses on the tactics consisting of environmentalism and human connection. In Johnson’s poem she utilzies nature terms such as “Wind”, “Water”, “River” etc to represent the literal ecopoetry sense. However, in Wordsworth he tends to refer to the psychological interpretation of natural in an more figurative sense as mentioned previously in the secondary source.

The usage of nature and power seems to distract the reader from the deeper context of the text, in addition to contributing the ideology of ecopoetry as expressed in the previous paragraph. In William Wordsworth’s works, he connects the influx of western society views when interpreting the sense of a psychological relationship between humans and nature. Subsequently, Emily Pauline Johnson’s poetry represents an external influences of nature represented though cultural traditions of said indigenous groups. Lastly, the comparison between the poems oppose the ideas of quantifying powers in nature occur to both works. Whether, its Wordsworth’s or Johnson the concept of embracing power attributing to nature remains unanimous even within variating spiritual beliefs.

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Works Cited

Cerf, Barry. “Wordsworth's Gospel of Nature.” PMLA, vol. 37, no. 4, 1922, pp. 615-638. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/457163. Accessed 26 June 2022.

“Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake).” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 14 April 2008, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pauline-johnson. Accessed 27 June 2022.

“PAULINE JOHNSON (Tekahionwake).” The Public Health Journal, vol. 5, no. 5, 1914, pp. 328-331. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41996603. Accessed 26 June 2022.

Shoptaw, John. “Why Ecopoetry?” Poetry, vol. 207, no. 4, 2016, pp. 395-408. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/44015972. Accessed 27 June 2022.

“The Song My Paddle Sings by E. Pauline Johnson.” Your Daily Poem, 16 August 2014, https://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=88. Accessed 27 June 2022.

Wordsworth, William, and Lily Gurton. “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from….” Poetry Foundation, 1807, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45536/ode-intimations-of-immortality-from-recollections-of-early-childhood. Accessed 27 June 2022.