The Power of Nature (读书笔记)

William Wordsworth’s“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” is a poem about humans enjoying and admiring the natural world, including the mountains, rivers, and open landscapes. In Wordsworth’s mind, people can connect with nature even when they’re not surrounded by it.Another poem about nature is “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold, which describes how the beauty of the seashore and human love mix together. Like Arnold’s poem, Wordsworth’s also expresses the beauty of nature including the mountains,the seas, the rivers, and the moon. He shows how nature has the power to heal human life and inspire love. The difference between the two poems is the time period in which they were written. 

Wordsworth’s poem is set in The Romantic Period (1785-1832). The writing during this time emphasized nature, the mind, memory, joys and melancholy, development of thoughts and feelings,sympathy, loneliness and companionship, and separation from society. Compared to Wordsworth’s poem, Arnold wrote his poem during The Victorian Age (1830-1901). In this period time, new industrial practices changed people’s lives, which created many problems. Arnold, however, uses nature, beauty and human love to comfort these people’s sufferings. 

William Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” is about the human relationship with nature, and he tells readers that the human spirit can heal by the power of nature. He gives us a full image of the nature in the poem, the mountains, rivers, and a lot of old memories of when he was young. This poem opens with how he revisited this beautiful landscape. The water and river are familiar to the man who visited the place five years ago. Since he visited five years ago, this place makes him think deeply about nature with his mind. As we know most of the Wordsworth’s poem is talking about nature, God, and the human mind. This poem is the same as Matthew Arnold’s“Dover Beach”, because they give both men strong emotions about nature which refers to real life. The only difference is that Wordsworth’s poem is set in the place he revisits. However, Arnold’s poem opens in the sea shore of the beach. During Wordsworth’s tour, he sees the place and all the sweet memories of the experiences of the place wake up his memory, for example:

As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye:

But ofe, in lonely rooms, and mid the din

Of towns and cities, I have own to them

 In ours of weariness, sensations sweet,

Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;

And passing even into my purer mind. (Wordsworth129)

From this quotation we can see how the landscape looks from his eyes into his mind and admire the view.When he revisited this place, a myriad of thoughts crowded into Wordsworth’s mind, the sweet memories and reality mix together in his mind and it gives him an idea to finish this poem. 

As a reader I can feel surrounded by this quiet scenery, this nature in the writer’s mind brings us to a beautiful place. We feel like we are actually there;the power of the nature is the idea in his mind. This poem combined with the grand imagery and natural world tells the readers of the author’s return. All the places he was when he wrote the poem was with his sister. Wordsworth’s poem narrative of an area of outstanding natural beauty floats over with his past memory, and he tells a story about a young man with his sister revisiting this place. He says this beauty of the nature and the memory can heal them to see this place in his past. His poem gives us details of the place and makes him think about life, “Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, / My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch/ my dear, dear Sister!” (Wordsworth 131). He tells reader his sister is his friend, and he’s enjoying being with his sister “And this prayer I make, / From joy to joy; for she can so in form/ The mind that is within us, so impress” (Wordsworth 131). From this quotation, the reader can feel the writer’s emotions, the visits with his sister to the mountains and rivers. When he goes,it makes him look back on his childhood and all the happy moments come back in his mind. Wordsworth appreciates his sister in his life, childhood images about a young boy and his happy time with his sister. He knows many years later this visit will provide him future memories. For me, this poem is a story of Wordsworth’s travels with his sister, the natural world’s beauty makes him think about his childhood. Also, the natural beauty opens his mind to think of the future.

Arnold’s “Dover Beach”begins with a beautiful sea shore. This place makes reader think about a perfect place for lovers. The real story of this beach is a sad story about death. the true story is the writer tries to tell the reader that love is not what one might think about. Sadness is part of love. The pictures of the beautiful sea shore, moonlight, and water present human’s love and sufferings to the readers. The beach is peaceful and beautiful. He says, “The tide is full, the moon lies fair.” (Arnold 764). He also writes, “Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!” (Arnold 764). There is the love between two people, but not in the world. It means people should love together. Like he says, “Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!” compared to love, the world is full of the sadness. Arnold writes, “for the world … / Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;” (Arnold 765). People struggle with the world about human love and love lost, in the history this world holds much sadness. The human love, nature,religion, and happiness are power to makes people’s life much better.

 Works Cited

Matthew,Arnold. “Dover beach.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University, 2013, pp.764-765.

Wordsworth,William. “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.”The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University, 2013, pp.129-132.