Nature in The Prelude

A visitant that while he fans my cheek

Doth seem half-conscious of the joy he brings (I.2-3).

throughout, aspects of nature are personified in this fashion, for Wordsworth sees nature as a living thing with which the individual has a relationship. That relationship is also a soothing one for the human side, and Wordsworth returns again and again to nature seeking succor, strength, and a relationship with the god he believes infuses nature and connects with human beings through nature.

Elements of nature also recur throughout the poet's life and do so in ways that add to his experience, teach him more about life, and connect him with the spiritual. He talks of the river that "loved/ To blend his murmurs with my nurse's song" (I.270-271), for instance, and the voice of the river remains with the poet and is found ever after in his dreams. The sounds of nature are described as music, and it is always a music that brings calm and peace. The poet's appreciation of nature and its effects is evident, and he personifies nature and speaks to it directly to express his feelings:

And on the earth! Ye visions of the hills!

And Souls of lonely places! (I.464-466).

The importance of nature in the development of the poet is apparent in the

. . .
In that enormous City's turbulent world Of men and things, what benefit I owed To thee and those domains of rural peace Where to the sense of beauty first my heart Was opened. . . (IV.70-75). Nature is the touchstone to which the poet returns again and again in The Prelude in order to test his own experiences, understand his emotions, and shape his thoughts. Nature in this poem is the real source of all knowledge because nature is shaped by God for just that purpose. The poet partakes of the classroom that is nature and the church that is also nature, and from nature he learns the meaning of beauty and then expresses that meaning in his poetry. The relationship between youth and old age is indicated by Wordsworth in his poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" in the opening line when he states, "The Child is father of the Man" (1), meaning that the man has developed from the experiences of childhood. How one grows up decides what sort of adult one will be. The character of the adult is a consequence of the process of growing up, and the adult is a consequence of childhood learning and childhood experiences. However, one aspect of this development of the adult from the child is a
. . .

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Approximate Word count = 1202
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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