Introduction:
To Wordsworth, Nature appears as a formative influence superior to any other, the educator of senses and mind alike, the sower in our hearts of the deep laden seeds of our feelings and beliefs. It speaks to the child in the fleeting emotions of early years and stirs the young poet to an ecstasy, the glow of which illuminates all is work and the rest of his life.
Nature is a safe guide to wisdom and goodness. Like others, Wordsworth's Nature also includes hills and mountains, rivers and springs, lakes and seas, earth and sky, winds, woods, trees, plants and flowers, the sun, the moon and stars but his outlook is certainly different from the outlook of others. Wordsworth's view of Nature is coloured by his “hyber - individualism".
Nature, A Living Entity:
What distinguishes Wordsworth from other poets is his belief that Nature is not merely a physical phenomenon, but living entity. To him, Nature has not only life but feeling also. It is a living sentient being. Wordsworth goes even beyond that, “Nature is endowed not only with life and feeling but also with will and purpose. He ascribes to it all the attributes of humanity - life, feeling, thinking, and willing.”
Wordsworth's Feeling A Sense of Pain towards Nature:
Like an Indian sage, Wordsworth considered it a cruel act on his part to tread on green grass for it had life and would be wounded by such a profane act. One incident may be noted in this context. When he was still a boy, in the wantonness of his boyish heart, he indulged in merciless ravage, in a grove. With his nutting crook, he brought down with a crash a branch and exulted in his act of wanton cruelty. But this wanton sport did not last long and soon he felt a sense of pain, “When he beheld the silent trees and the intruding sky, which seemed to reprove him for this act.”
Nature Endowed with Feeling:
In fact, Wordsworth believed Nature to be endowed with feeling and purpose and informed with an Active Principle. This thought is well expressed in the following lines of Tintern Abbey where Nature is described as a Being:
“Whose dwelling is the light of setting sun,
And the round ocean and living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.”
Nature, A Religion to the Poet:
Tintern Abbey is the sincerest record of Wordsworth's attitude towards Nature. Nature is the poet's religion. He was an admirer of Nature in the earlier years when he was an immature boy. He is still a lover and worshipper of Nature when he has attained maturity. Even in hours of weariness amid the din of towns and cities, he experienced sensation sweet; Nature brought to him:
"That blessed mood
In which the burthen of the mystery.
In which the heavy and weary weight to
of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened.”
Nature, A Soothing Balm for the tortured Mind and Heart:
Wordsworth always looked towards Nature for pence and comfort. He found Nature a healing power, a compassionate mother. The following lines express this faith of the poet:
“How oft,
In darkness and amid the many shapes
Of joyless day light: when the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
Have hung upon the beatings of my heart—
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro’ the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!”
Nature, A Guide, Teacher and Nurse:
Thus Nature served as a healing influence on the poet's sorrow - stricken heart. But the culmination of his love of Nature reaches when he considers Nature as his sole guardian, teacher and nurse. In Tintern Abbey, he calls Nature,
“The anchor of purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.”
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