Wordsworth is a poet of nature; he is
believed to be a poetic revolution himself. He is known far and wide as the
pioneer of a movement in poetic art known as romantic poetry. The movement
began in 1798 with the publication of collaborative work called “The Lyrical
Ballads” which was an anthology of poetry by S. T. Coleridge and Wordsworth
himself. The poetry that the collection contained was of a novel kind, it shook
the conventions and gave a new perspective of poetry altogether. When we come
to Wordsworth he is infamous for being the poet of nature. He derives his
subjects and content of his work from the rawest forms of nature and many
critiques have argued that he believes that the best form of poetry comes from
the raw life of the country. He himself has stated that the interaction of
human being with nature creates the purest form of emotions which are necessary
for good poetry. And a poet writes for people and that too for all kinds of
people which also include the people from raw country life as a poet is a “man
speaking to men”.
A reader of Wordsworth would be fascinated
by his interest in country life as opposed to sophistication of the
conventional poetry of 18th century Wordsworth invests his time and
energy contemplating upon the life of people close to nature. He himself has
faced both the phases in his life, he was raised up in countryside and then he
moved to London and he reflects his city life experiences to be illusionary and
mere pretense. In his poem “Tintern Abbey” he illustrates his auto biographical
experience of enjoying nature and he proclaims nature to be the source of joy
and claims himself to be a “worshipper” of nature. His other poems like
“London”, “Solitary Reaper”, “Brook” etc are excellent examples for the clichéd
Wordsworthian poetry reading.
The best known work of Wordsworth known as
“The Prelude” which is also the longest poem that he wrote is an autobiography
in verse, where he documents his journey of life from boyhood till he is
mature. The plot of the poem is a buildings-roman in nature. The poem
illustrates the progress of his love for nature and his dislike for city life. Reading
the poetry of Wordsworth will for sure pose nostalgia of going back to rural
life and rethinking our relationship with nature.
Assef Ali
StoryMirror
