Thursday, March 1, 2012
Nature as Loyal in "Lime Tree Bower" and "Tintern Abbey"
In both Coleridge's "This Lime Tree Bower My Prison" and Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," the poets describe nature as an omnipotent, merciful, and loyal force that supplies humans with an avenue that leads us "from joy to joy." As Wordsworth puts it, "Nature never did betray/ The heart that loved her," just as Coleridge mentions that "Nature ne'er deserts the wise and pure." At these similar instances, both poets suggest that humans can enjoy a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship with nature who will never let us down. For Wordsworth, this relationship involves nature essentially guiding humans against "lofty thoughts...rash judgments...greetings where no kindness is" because everything around us is "full of blessings." Thus, nature is quite maternal and will teach and guide us if we let her. Somewhat differently, Coleridge's didactic form of nature involves employing "each faculty of sense," so that we may "contemplate/ With lively joy the joys we cannot share." His description, then, is explicitly sensory, a detail that makes this poem unmistakably romantic. In this poem, nature makes us reflect with gladness on every blessing it offers, even if, as in Coleridge's present case, we are unable to enjoy them. In his time of struggle, he turns to nature for solace like a true romantic and in it, like Wordsworth, finds peace and a guide.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I appreciate Ivy's connection between these two romantic poems as tributes to the loyalty and benevolent consistency of nature. What I find most interesting about Coleridge's gratitude toward nature in "Lime Tree Bower", however, is the delay before he chooses to reveal it. Although he gives beautiful and elaborate descriptions of the dell and trees around him, the angst that he is simultaneously expressing over his own losses and the losses of Charles render it difficult to tell whether these descriptions are spiteful or not. Does he resent the beautiful images around him for his not being able to fully experience them? It is not until the final stanza that Coleridge directly addresses his undying affection to nature's reliability, soothing the unrest he has created by speaking so much of his and Charles' inabilities. The reader learns that the speaker appreciates every ounce of nature that he is able to take in against his limitations, because "no sound is dissonant which tells of Life."
ReplyDelete