Nature Poetry: Canadian Content, Wordsworth and The Religious Perspective
I can't help but do a Canadian Content post this week, it is just too easy. Canadian literature has always been about nature, after all, Canada is a large, beautiful country with plenty of natural phenomenon to be seen. The earliest Canadian authors were very aware of this, as they were of course immigrants from Britain and were in most cases awe-struck by what they saw upon their arrival in our great land. Catherine Parr Traill is a pioneer writer, her work is described as settlement literature, which was meant to be read by those persons interested in immigrating to Canada. Thus, Traill's work could be described as a cautionary tale of what immigrants should expect to find in Canada, mostly hard work made better by the beautiful surroundings. I should add though, that Traill was a botanist, so she was very interested in nature. Conversely, her sister, Susanna Moodie, likely the more popular of the two authors, was not so fond of the nature she encountered in Canada, but still wrote of it in a romanticized way. If you care to read some examples of this, try this website and follow the many links: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/moodie-traill/t1-5001-e.html
After these idealized accounts of nature, came the confederate poets who viewed nature much like Wordsworth, as a saving force in opposition to the 'unnaturalness' (I am sure this is grammatically incorrect, but please just indulge me this once) of the industrial revolution. Examples of the confederate poets work can be easily found by 'googling' and I have posted several examples in my past entries, but I will recommend Isabella Valancy Crawford, I particularly enjoyed her work. Try reading some of her poems on this website, especially "The Lily Bed": http://www.poemhunter.com/isabella-valancy-crawford/poet-3050/. The erotic view of nature Crawford writes of is fascinating and a result of her belief in nature as a renewing force and hence the saving grace against the dehumanizing consequences of the industrial revolution. I am sure you can make the connection between sex and nature, but I will outline it here, the act of sexual intercourse is capable of creating life, much like turning one's focus to nature will renew one's sense of being alive.
Canadian post-modern literature is still very committed to natural imagery, as evidenced by Timothy Findley's, The Wars or the poetry of Margaret Atwood. I recommend the work of both authors.
I really like the idea of nature as savior, but I am curious about the role of religion in all this and on that note, I end this part of the post and move on to this week's William Wordsworth poem, in which the connection is made between nature and religion. "Lines" was written in 1798 about Wordsworth experience of walking through the Wye valley in Monmouthshire, near the medieval Tintern Abbey with his sister, Dorothy. In the poem, Wordsworth recollects his first experience in the Wye valley and the residual feelings invoked by the scenery. Of these feeligs, Wordworth says:
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity
Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused
(Lines 89-96, N767)
These lines seem to me to express the saving grace nature is so capable of for Wordsworth. Lines 93-94 appear to comment on the contrast between the noise of the industrialized city and the serenity of nature that saves one from the noise. Furthermore, lines 95-96 speak of the sublime, defined by dictionary.com as, "1.Characterized by nobility; majestic. 2.Of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual worth. a)Not to be excelled; supreme. b)Inspiring awe; impressive." Reading these lines from a religious perspective, I have made a connection between nature and God. The connection is the giving of Grace. Typically, Grace is something associated with God, that which He gives which may be undeserved. This is a very popular belief in Christianity. For salvation one must have faith, complete the sacrements and receive grace, which one can only hope for. Essentially in the Christian tradition, Grace cannot be earned. Sikhism also shares a similar perspective on Grace. In this poem, it seems Wordsworth is equating this idea of salvation and the giving of Grace as coming from nature as much as from God. It is a sort of appropriation of religious ideology, which is the good over all evil to a current sceanario of 'evil' or Industrialization in need of a 'good', being nature. I cannot say for sure whether Wordsworth was writing from the Christian perspective and after all, maybe I am just stretching what is there to fit with my perspective. Coincidently this was an issue Wordsworth was also exploring, how much of nature is real and how much is the observer's perspective. Either way, perspective is an entitlement of the observer and so, I make no apologies.
Janice
After these idealized accounts of nature, came the confederate poets who viewed nature much like Wordsworth, as a saving force in opposition to the 'unnaturalness' (I am sure this is grammatically incorrect, but please just indulge me this once) of the industrial revolution. Examples of the confederate poets work can be easily found by 'googling' and I have posted several examples in my past entries, but I will recommend Isabella Valancy Crawford, I particularly enjoyed her work. Try reading some of her poems on this website, especially "The Lily Bed": http://www.poemhunter.com/isabella-valancy-crawford/poet-3050/. The erotic view of nature Crawford writes of is fascinating and a result of her belief in nature as a renewing force and hence the saving grace against the dehumanizing consequences of the industrial revolution. I am sure you can make the connection between sex and nature, but I will outline it here, the act of sexual intercourse is capable of creating life, much like turning one's focus to nature will renew one's sense of being alive.
Canadian post-modern literature is still very committed to natural imagery, as evidenced by Timothy Findley's, The Wars or the poetry of Margaret Atwood. I recommend the work of both authors.
I really like the idea of nature as savior, but I am curious about the role of religion in all this and on that note, I end this part of the post and move on to this week's William Wordsworth poem, in which the connection is made between nature and religion. "Lines" was written in 1798 about Wordsworth experience of walking through the Wye valley in Monmouthshire, near the medieval Tintern Abbey with his sister, Dorothy. In the poem, Wordsworth recollects his first experience in the Wye valley and the residual feelings invoked by the scenery. Of these feeligs, Wordworth says:
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity
Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused
(Lines 89-96, N767)
These lines seem to me to express the saving grace nature is so capable of for Wordsworth. Lines 93-94 appear to comment on the contrast between the noise of the industrialized city and the serenity of nature that saves one from the noise. Furthermore, lines 95-96 speak of the sublime, defined by dictionary.com as, "1.Characterized by nobility; majestic. 2.Of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual worth. a)Not to be excelled; supreme. b)Inspiring awe; impressive." Reading these lines from a religious perspective, I have made a connection between nature and God. The connection is the giving of Grace. Typically, Grace is something associated with God, that which He gives which may be undeserved. This is a very popular belief in Christianity. For salvation one must have faith, complete the sacrements and receive grace, which one can only hope for. Essentially in the Christian tradition, Grace cannot be earned. Sikhism also shares a similar perspective on Grace. In this poem, it seems Wordsworth is equating this idea of salvation and the giving of Grace as coming from nature as much as from God. It is a sort of appropriation of religious ideology, which is the good over all evil to a current sceanario of 'evil' or Industrialization in need of a 'good', being nature. I cannot say for sure whether Wordsworth was writing from the Christian perspective and after all, maybe I am just stretching what is there to fit with my perspective. Coincidently this was an issue Wordsworth was also exploring, how much of nature is real and how much is the observer's perspective. Either way, perspective is an entitlement of the observer and so, I make no apologies.
Janice