Reflective Essay On The Sublime

After reading and analyzing Wordsworth’s poem and Muir’s essay, I can see that both men use writing as a creative way to express their love for nature all around them.

As a child, I unraveled nature’s beauty and existence. Each new experience brought me feelings of excitement and joy, sparkling my imagination and igniting my curiosity. It all seemed so large back then. Oceans appeared endless as they reached towards the horizon. Treetops seemed to make friends with the puffy-looking clouds as they soared to the sky. Over the years however, as I have grown older and life has become more complex, I am beginning to think less and less about the natural world around me. I glimpse sunset stuck in rush-hour traffic trying to return school after debate practices and only listen to the pitter-patter of the rain when there’s a storm outside. Forests and oceans seemed less appealing as they became intertwined with the urban development. In a way, I was becoming more and more distanced from the so-called nature. So, with an overwhelming desire for adventure and to escape the masses, my family and I drove to Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas last summer.

Muir creatively informs the reader just how much the main character truly loves nature. The same marvel and beauty is shared in the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” After a long climb over a high hill he finds his reward a valley shining with a huge field of daffodils. “Besides the lakes, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” As Wordsworth explains the scene. As each scene pops out of the poem, a new addition to the painting in your mind appears each time. The painting may vary from person to person, but I believe the same sense of awe is present with every mind. The portions cited are just the beginning of these two works; enough to splash your mind with colors and emotions, but later parts are what truly makes them worth reading.

Most people in his place would have turned and given up, but it was his passion for nature that kept him going. In William Wordsworth's story, he wrote about how his sad, depressed mood disappeared when in the presence of the beautiful daffodils. He was so grateful and overjoyed to see them dancing in the wind that he kept that memory close, then thinks back to that day when he feels depressed. Both Wordsworth and Muir have unique relationships towards nature, but it's their shared love for all the beauty that nature has to offer that makes them one in the same with each

Thousands of flowers swaying in the wind, lined up like stars in the night sky. Just the thought of nature brings a smile to my face. The two authors, John Muir and William Wordsworth have two different styles of writing, but they share their love of nature to help us appreciate nature. We have two beautiful writings, written by two naturalistic authors, Williams Wordsworth and John Muir. Both authors have different ways of explaining what nature means to them, but at the end of the day both pieces of work are beautifully and creatively written. Wordsworth and Muir express their meaningful relationship with nature using descriptive words and witty writing.

Physicist Albert Einstein showed that fulfillment and understanding come from studying nature when he said, “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better” Both William Wordsworth and John Meir show how their relationships with nature have led them to a deeper understanding of their lives and the world around them. In The Calypso Borealis, John Meir discovers a sense of freedom when he discovers the simple but beautiful Calypso Borealis. Whereas Wordsworth finds happiness by holding on to the memory of a beautiful field of daisies in I Wandered Lonely as a cloud. William Wordsworth and John Muir used imagery and diction to express their relationships with nature. Muir uses these literary devices to bring the reader on a journey filled with ups and downs. Wordsworth, on the other hand, uses these literary devices to paint a picture of a scene that lifts his spirit. Both authors use of imagery and diction explain their love of nature and how it has impacted their lives.

Attending college, beginning a career, starting a family, and ultimately getting trapped in a daily routine are components in life that many see no means of escape. The lure of living off the grid with no responsibilities or connections to adult life are attractive but unattainable to most people. The experiences of Chris McCandless chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, mystify the nation, along with many of the people he meets during his journey. From stories of those who meet McCandless along the way, people were able to put the pieces together and make a few assumptions for the reason he chooses to go into the wild. Individualism, living a minimalistic life, nonconformity, going into nature, and trusting oneself are fundamental Transcendentalist principles that McCandless also exemplifies. Two well-known proponents of the Transcendental movement, writers Henry Thoreau and Ralph Emerson, also have a strong connection to nature, that are also shown in Chris McCandless’s journey. This connection with nature requires someone to go into nature to clear the mind of meaningless things, and to open up their consciousness to what nature has to offer them. In doing so, a bond with their surroundings that has a direct impact on their well being and mental wellness. Chris McCandless, as described by Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, demonstrates becoming one with nature through nature’s impact on his well being and mental health.

“How ironic --- he waged war against the English for ten long years and then died in his bed like anyone else” (Dumas 2). Dantes was speaking to Monsieur Morrel about Captain Leclere’s death. I took a particular liking to this quote because no matter who we are or what we do in life, we all end up in the same place. “Joy sometimes has a strange effect: it can oppress us almost as much as sorrow” (Dumas 18). Dantes said this to Danglars and Caderousse.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “It 's not what you look at that matters, it 's what you see.” William Wordsworth, the author of the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, and John Muir, author of the essay The Calypso Borealis, have proved this in their works by looking at nature and portraying it differently but beautifully in each piece. They have been able to express their relationships with nature differently through choices about format, such as if a rhyme scheme will be used; their word choice, like choosing to give something a specific name; as well as through literary devices used, including tone, mood, and irony, but, even though they made many different choices, their works are both able to make nature seem beautiful and mysterious.

“It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace. (- Chuck Palahniuk) There are times in which people feel ecstatic or overjoyed for some reason. We may ask them why but their answer would probably be “because I’m happy”. People might not think about it but we might ask ourselves, what does it mean to be happy. In Macbeth his happiness was to have the throne of his cousin while in Federigo’s Falcon it was to have the woman he loved by his side. In the video, The Science of Happiness, gratitude is what makes us as humans truly happy.

Actually… he was not making a remark about the waterfall, but a remark about his own feelings” (Lewis 2). The authors out right say this man was expressing a feeling he was having, but Lewis disagrees. The first objection Lewis poses is that an object cannot be described with a feeling a person is having. Lewis says, “the man who says This is sublime cannot mean I have sublime feelings. Even if it were granted that such qualities as sublimity were simply and solely projected into things from our own emotions which prompt the projection are the correlatives” (Lewis 3).

By definition, the sublime is the wordless inability to desire or reason with a beautiful

Phrases such as “botanising in glorious freedom [...] wandering through innumerable tamarac and arbor-vitae swamps, and forests [...], rejoicing in their bound wealth and strength and beauty, climbing the trees, revelling in their flowers and fruit [...], glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog [...] displayed in boundless profusion”, “rarest and most beautiful”, and “I was able to wander many a long wild fertile mile in the forests and bogs, free as the winds, gathering plants, and glorying in God's abounding inexhaustible spiritual beauty bread”, all show how Muir felt about nature and what nature meant to him. A key phrase that shows Muir’s attitude towards nature states, “Storms, thunderclouds, winds in the woods—were welcomed as friends”. These phrases, as well as the words mentioned above, are extremely positive and show the utmost joy Muir found in his surroundings. The long and detailed descriptions of Muir’s surroundings helps to reinforce his joy in nature. The words that Muir uses to describe nature shows that he is close to nature and feels a connection with it. These positive words also show how absolutely stunning Muir finds nature and how he finds peace and joy in the wild. All of this is also supported by one of Muir’s

Immanuel Kant describes how beauty and sublimity counteract each other and the difference between the two. He notes that while beauty, and its experience, gives a passive emotion sublimity emits an emotion of gander. This emotion makes one realize how marginal they are in comparison to the object they are viewing, thus giving them perspective into the world. This creates an active experience. Into this idea he creates two subsections of sublime: mathematically and dynamically.

While Edmund Burke posits the sublime as a passive feeling elicited in the viewer in the presence of the superior powers of nature, William Wordsworth challenges this passivity by demonstrating the role of viewer participation and active imagination in the creation of the sublime experience, thereby reversing the power dynamic between man and nature, of which man is now in control.