The term “sacred” can be interpreted in a variety of different ways. It can be used to describe a feeling/experience or an object/place. For some people, their definitions of sacred can vary across these areas of interest. One area that comes to mind when the sacred is mentioned is nature. Nature is a special domain that all species on earth are able to experience. One person’s experience with nature can differ greatly from another person’s experience with nature. You can take wonderful hikes along daring mountainsides, surf in beautiful blue oceans, or meditate in quaint forests. At some point in our lives, we have experienced nature in some way. We may even have fond memories that stem from being in nature. For some people, nature is …show more content…
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Unfortunately, this special relationship that we feel with nature is threatened as our world becomes more modernized. Wordsworth wrote about this concern in his poem “The World Is Too Much.” He realizes that our actions, conscious and unconscious, are hurting the environment around us. Today, as our society becomes more technologically advanced, we find ourselves spending more time inside rather than outside. There are some instances where we find ourselves in nature but we are not fully aware of our surroundings. We can miss the natural beauty of a sunset because we are nose-deep into our cellphones. We take photos of sunsets for Instagram but we do not appreciate the full aesthetic experience of that sunset. Although Wordsworth’s time period did not have cellphones or Instagram, he may agree that these mindless actions are contributing to the destruction of nature.
In “The Garden of Love” by William Blake, he writes about all the joy that he has experienced in nature. The narrator visits various sites that allowed him to experience this happiness. We are unaware of whether these experiences were recent or during the narrator’s childhood, but we can deduce that these experiences impacted him greatly in life. As the narrator returns to these sites, he can see how these sites have changed. The once-thriving green field where the narrator used to play has a chapel built in its place. Instead of being free to play and live
Henry Beston in Night on the Great Beach explains how we have destroyed some of the best parts of nature. We really don't appreciate the little things of nature. He goes in to great detail on how we have ruined night and continues to describe the little aspects of nature that we miss. Beston see nature as something that we don't respect anymore, but he has great love for it. It says to me that I don't appreciate nature. I never sit back and just enjoy it.
Today in our society, people are inventing new technology every day to make us more comfortable, such as T.Vs, vehicle, cell phones and even robots. But the other side of the problem is people are getting separated with nature. Richard Louv, the author of “Last Child in the Woods”, wrote this passage to show us that these new technologies and entertainments are separating humans and nature by using anecdotes, imagery, and allusions.
Through removal and technology, humans have started to become isolated from the wilderness and the nature around them. This view distinctly contrasts with Thoreau’s perspective. “Though he [Thoreau] never put humans on the same moral level as animals or trees, for example, he does see them all linked as the expression of Spirit, which may only be described in terms of natural laws and unified fluid processes. The self is both humbled and empowered in its cosmic perspective,” states Ann Woodlief. The technologies that distract and consume us, and separate us from the natural world are apparent. Many people and children ins cities have seen little to no natural-grown things such as grass and trees. Even these things are often domesticated and tamed. Many people who have never been to a National Park or gone hiking through the wilderness do not understand its unruly, unforgiving, wild nature. These aspects, thought terrifying to many, are much of why the wilderness is so beautiful and striking to the human heart. “Thoreau builds a critique of American culture upon his conviction that ‘the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality,’” pronounces Rick Furtak, quoting Thoreau’s Life
Albert Einstein spoke of nature and its value when he said, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” As Einstein pointed out, by looking into nature you could discover something new about yourself and the world around you. John Muir and William Wordsworth both discovered joy when they looked deep into nature. This joy gave them a new perspective on nature and life and they each expressed this joy through different works of writing. Both authors have a unique outlook on nature and its impact as well as different thoughts on how to share their relationships; Muir used diction and connotation to show his relationship in his essay “The Calypso Borealis” where Wordsworth used tone and syntax in his poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”.
I confess, I all too well know that living in the digital age, I have hindered my opportunities to immerse myself in nature like Henry David Thoreau. There is rarely a day that passes by that I do not use my cell phone or computer. Too often I forget that the outside world is more enigmatic and dynamic than anything that can be found on the computer or in the concrete jungle I enter when I go back home. I crave the mesmerizing and reflective space that nature has always provided since the dawn of time. Nature allows me to feel alone, but also become a part of something at the very same time. Thoreau beautifully claims, “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all
“Have no fear of perfection - you 'll never reach it,” said famous Spanish painter, Salvador Dali. Dali seems to be implying that no matter the effort, perfection is unattainable and something that should not be feared by anyone. Famous Puritan authors Jonathan Edwards and Nathaniel Hawthorne in their works give the same impression as Dali, they both believe that the strive for perfection is both unrealistic and unattainable. In regard to the unattainably of perfection Hawthorne and Edwards’ opinions differ greatly, Edwards believes that even though perfection is unrealistic, one can and should still strive for it, while Hawthorne on the other hand believes that because perfection will never be reached, it would be unnecessary for one to strive for it.
The use of technology in society today has drastically increased and has became difficult to comprehend. To the point where it started to consume people’s lives no matter how hard they strived to be individuals, and it drew a wedge between society and nature. In Richard Louv’s passage, “Last Child In The Woods,” he emphasizes how over time the relationship between people and nature has declined by using rhetorical strategies such as imagery, anecdotes, and hypothetical examples.
Over time technology has become a big part of society, it has been woven into our everyday lives. It has become such a need it’s hard to go on with the day without it, the youth of today might of as well been born with a phone in their hand. Richard Louv argues the separation between nature and people using literary devices of anecdote, pathos, and imagery. He seems to depict present and future time to be one of solely technology and “synthetic nature” where nature is not appreciated anymore. Louv’s tone is objective and personal when talking about the separation of people and nature.
Wordsworth questions the amount of recognition that nature gets from people in today society. He almost uses a guilt trip method to make his reader ask themselves if they have given nature the tribute it deserves. When I was assigned to read this text, I found myself so wound up in school and activities and busy work. So much so that I hadn’t had time to enjoy things around me and the things out the window or under my feet. “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (page 790, line2) This text approached me at a perfect time to help me to step back and appreciate the small things that surround me each day. Senior year can be overwhelming more than once and it is always a refreshing breath to stop and smell the roses, metaphorically and literally. Therefore, I am thankful for the impact that this text had on me and the timing of its
William Wordsworth's poem The world is too much with us is a statement about conflict between nature and humanity. The symbolism in his poem illustrates a sense of the conviction and deep feelings Wordsworth had toward nature. He longs for a much simpler time when the progress of humanity was tempered by the restriction nature imposed. Wordsworth is saying in this poem that man is wasting his time on earth by not appreciating nature around him. He is looking but not beholding. "We have given our hearts away" (4) means that we have sold the part of us that is from the earth (man which is from dust) in order to make other things more important than appreciating life; such as, money or
Human nature is something that never seems to change. While humans all seem to be different from one another through physical and emotional attributes, their psychological behaviors are all mostly very similar. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, many authors successfully could explain the characteristics of human nature and the effects that it has on everyone and everything surrounding human beings. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe all convey the behavior of human nature in separate ways. These three authors show the curiosity, drive for perfection, and fear of human nature throughout their texts in detail. With these characteristics being prominent in human nature itself, it
During the Romantic period, which began in the late 18th Century, and ended in the early 20th century, there were many political changes, such as the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, repression and reform, pre-industrial economic changes. There were also many changes throughout literature and culture during this time. Poetry during this time often had strong themes of nature, internalization, subjectivity, and imagination. Three highly influential poets who were also often characterized as poets of the Imagination are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Blake. Imagination is important to romantic poets because it was used as a healing tool for the writers’ troubles, using reason and emotion to relate to and participate in the world around them.
It can be said that all fiction is autobiographical in that no matter how different from the author’s life experience it may be, marks of their life can be found in any of their works and characters. One such example is Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, which is largely based on Hemingway’s own personal life experiences. Frederick Henry, the main character in the story, experiences many of the same situations that Hemingway lived out in his own life. Some of events and situations are exact, while others are less similar, and some have a completely different outcome all together.
“The World Is Too Much with Us” represents societies absent connection with nature. Right off the bat, Wordsworth repeats the title of this poem to emphasize a Romantic element. The first couple of lines begin with Wordsworth stating that the modern world is losing the battle to materialism. "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; /Little we see in Nature that is ours; /We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon" (Wordsworth 2-4)! In an
To understand what is being said in such poems as "THE GARDEN OF LOVE" and "The Little Vagabond" one must consider the poet's religious, or shall I say spiritual, position. William Blake considered himself to be a monistic Gnostic. That is, he believed what saved a person's soul was not faith but knowledge. Faith, he felt, was a term that was abused by those who thought spending every Sunday in a church would grant them eternal salvation regardless of what actions they exhibited outside the walls of the church. Church ceremonies were also dry, emotionless and meaningless, according to Blake. Church was evil, as Blake would have put it.