Nature and it's duality

NATURE 

AND IT’S 

DUALITY

Welcome Readers!

I am back after a brief span of time with a fresh theme of Nature and it’s duality. The task is assigned by Vaidehi ma'am to reflect my thoughts on this particular subject. It feels great pleasure to share my views about Nature in brief as well as to touch upon the views of three great romantic poets and their ways of looking at Nature in different ways.

Well, a glance at this image can perfectly depict what I mean by Nature. Of course! It’s a symbol – Yin yang which had attracted me towards the philosophy since my childhood.  If you ask me to describe Nature in one single and simple statement it may be,

“A dichotomous picture of the world is what I call Nature!”

The picture represents the duality ‘each half of a full circle’. Nature can be perceived with various pairings such as constructive and destructive, strong and weak, healer and wounder.

Composed of five elements, Nature carries a perfect harmony which if broken, possesses a capability to vehemently disturb the equilibrium of human nature and everything that is circled by it. Nature holds a phenomenal power of creating and nurturing yet it holds the equal efficiency to destroy, it can heal yet it occupies the potency to disturb and ruin.

Nature feeds all the elements and beings with innumerable things yet it can deprive of all such things when it is harmed. It is also sincere and faithful to its lovers as it is deceitful and treacherous to its haters and foes. It is impossible to live without Nature as its five elements – water, air, food, fire, and earth- have a mystic power that sustains life.

If Nature can console us, it can be as well painful to us.

But so many literary writers beautify the Nature as it is the source of optimistic energy like the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes,

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

We are so adaptable in Nature that sometimes we run for it, we crave to be a part of the everlasting joy that Nature offers especially during autumn and winter in India and summer in western countries. The soothing rays of the sun in winter, the greenery after the monsoon and the falling shades of autumn gives a feeling that can rarely be described in words. That’s why it becomes must to quote Gary Snyder who believes,

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is at home.”

Well, not to forget about the views of eminent poets, I shall begin with Wordsworth. It can be said that the zest of the beauty of Nature rules the Romantic Poetry and Wordsworth’s poetries are as worthy as his last name- ‘Worthy in words’.

I hope you must have sensed some of the worshiping qualities of Wordsworth in his writings about Nature. William Wordsworth was an ardent devotee to Nature.

Wordsworth believed Nature as a truer spirit all that a human needs. It is always faithful and sincere to its lovers.

“Nature never did betray

The heart that loved her”.

Wordsworth considered Nature as divine power and the only company that gives human heart joy in a truer sense. He also considers Nature as a teacher, his views can be reflected in his poem ‘The Tables Turned’

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!

He, too, is no mean preacher:

Come forth into the light of things,

Let Nature be your teacher.

Wordsworth made Nature a teacher of man. Many critics note that “Wordsworth is deeply mystical and nobly poetical, in his presentation of Nature”. He believed,

“There is a spirit in the woods”

Wordsworth carried a philosophical message in his description of Nature. He believed that there is a divine spirit pervading all objects of Nature.

“Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;

Or surely you'll grow double:

Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;

Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun above the mountain's head,

A freshening lustre mellow

Through all the long green fields has spread,

His first sweet evening yellow.

….

he has a world of ready wealth,

Our minds and hearts to bless—

Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,

Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;

Our meddling intellect

Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—

We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;

Close up those barren leaves;

Come forth, and bring with you a heart

That watches and receives.”

His views can be called as a mystical pantheism which can be reflected in his work called Tintern Abbey.

In short, it can be securely said that,

“Wordsworth has spiritualized the Nature”

Jumping to the views of Samuel Taylor Coleridge gives a sense of Imagination is his description of Nature. If Wordsworth is noted as ‘a high priest of Nature’, Coleridge can be called ‘a high priest of Romanticism’. 

Coleridge used imaginative power to paint his poems. He used natural images and presented his views with abstract ideas. As with Wordsworth, it was said to describe him and his creed as ‘Wordsworth and Nature’ but with Coleridge, we can say ‘Coleridge and supernaturalism’.

By the power of his Imagination, Coleridge perceived the unseen forces at work behind the visible world, and through his poetry, he tried to convey his perception of the mystery of the things to others. His poetries are usually more mysterious than any other poets. It is his power of imagination that makes him a distinguished poet.

As for instance, ‘The Rime of the Ancient’ has some supernatural elements centering on the symbol of good fortune – an important figure called albatross.

“Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,

The glorious Sun uprist:

Then all averred, I had killed the bird

That brought the fog and mist.

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,

That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.”

…..

“And some in dreams assurèd were

Of the Spirit that plagued us so;

Nine fathom deep he had followed us

From the land of mist and snow.”

This masterpiece introduces the reader to a supernatural realm, with a phantom the albatross, the polar spirit, and the magic breeze, it nevertheless manages to create a sense of absolute reality concerning these manifest absurdities.

In short, it can be said that,

“Coleridge has supernaturilized Nature”

After Wordsworth and Coleridge, the poet who seeks pleasure in Nature is Keats.

Keats's treatment of Nature is much simpler, direct and natural as compared to Wordsworth and Coleridge. It is said that “Keats looked with a childlike delight at the objects of Nature and his whole being was thrilled by what he saw and heard”. 

Unlike Wordsworth, he has an appealing quality in his words rather than the moral lessons. Keats loved Nature for her own sake and not for the sake of any idea that the human mind can read into her with its own workings and aspirations.

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever”

-Endymion

The writings and style of Keats were full of beauteous things. His poetries were much mysterious and enchanting which may be the result of his deep enjoyment of beauty that he finds in nature and life. For example, if we take “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” –an enchanting tale of a knight, suggests his passionate admiration for natural objects. He loves the beauty of Nature but he also enjoys her seeming repose and calm.

“Beauty is truth. Truth beauty- that is all

Ye know on earth, all ye need to know”

Keats saw Nature as a thing of beauty. In his ‘Ode to Nightingale’s a bird becomes a pure song and inherits the eternity of beauty. This can be observed in the following verses,

“Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird,

No hungry generations treat the edown”

The sound of the bird is the voice of eternity.

Keats’s ‘Ode to Autumn’ depicts his rich mood of serenity. His poem does not contain any tension or conflicts. The poem describes the ripeness and fulfillment. It celebrates the beauty of decay. So Keats glorifies the negative aspects of Nature in an original manner.

This was the philosophy of John Keats who seems to be always content to express Nature through the senses and all colors of Nature gives a charm in reading his works. 

 

Thank you.