Discussion Topic
The relationship and contrast between man and nature in Wordsworth's "Lines Written in Early Spring"
Summary:
In "Lines Written in Early Spring," Wordsworth contrasts the harmony of nature with the discord in human society. He reflects on the beauty and tranquility of the natural world, which brings him joy, but laments how humanity has strayed from this peaceful coexistence, resulting in a sense of loss and sadness.
What connection does the poet establish between nature and himself in "Lines Written in Early Spring"?
The speaker sees himself as an intrinsic part of nature, no less than the birds and the periwinkles and the "budding twigs" that give him such enormous pleasure. By identifying himself so closely with the natural world he's consciously setting himself apart from humanity, with which he's become so thoroughly disillusioned.
Everything the speaker sees around him is part of what he calls "Nature's holy plan." This shows us that he doesn't regard the natural world as just something pretty to look at but also as a powerful, almost quasi-divine force with its own internal dynamic. That being so, it causes the speaker sadness to see how man has made such an almighty mess of his relations with his fellow men.
Nature is characterized by the close bonds between every living thing, and the speaker for one feels those bonds more keenly than anyone. But man has chosen not to...
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follow the example of nature, and instead, his relations with his fellow men are so often marked by mutual antagonism.
References
As an arch-Romantic, Wordsworth feels a powerful connection with the natural world. It isn't just a place full of pretty flowers and awesome mountains; it's a living force in its own right. And Wordsworth feels himself a part of that force. Far from standing over against nature and treating it as an object, he feels united to it as part of a vast single creation.
This attitude is beautifully expressed in "Lines Written in Early Spring." Here, the speaker, assumed to be Wordsworth himself, demonstrates his affinity with nature by highlighting the strength of the connection he feels toward it:
To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran.
Nature has connected the speaker's soul to all the beautiful things he sees around him: the birds, the primrose tufts, and periwinkles. The speaker reinforces this connection to nature by contrasting the joy it brings to the immense sadness he experiences when he thinks of “What man has made of man,” or what humanity has done to itself.
So long as the speaker feels this intense connection to nature, he is perfectly happy. But happiness soon turns to sadness, as happy moods invariably lead to sad ones. Try as he might, the speaker cannot escape his humanity. He may deplore what humanity has done to itself, but he is a man all the same, and so cannot help but feel sad at what man has made of man.
References
How does man oppose nature's plan in "Lines Written in Early Spring"?
Wordsworth never directly states how man works against nature in this poem, relying on the reader to understand what he is alluding to. In it, the speaker sits in a grove in spring, hearing the birds sing and watching the periwinkle and the new buds on the trees coming into bloom. It seems to him that the birds and the plants experience a deep pleasure in this natural setting. However, the beauty, peace, and harmony of his surroundings lead the poet to sad thoughts about how most of humankind does not live in such blissful harmony with nature. The speaker states that
it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
How does the speaker contrast man with nature in Wordsworth's "Lines Written in Early Spring"?
The contrast created in this poem is through the presentation of nature as coexisting in glorious unity and beauty. Various sights that the speaker looks at seems ample testament to this fact. However, what makes the speaker sad when looking at such beauty is the way in which he compares "What man has made of man" to the sight before him. Whenever he sees yet another example of the beauty in nature, it only seems to remind him of the terrible way in which we are so obviously unable to coexist or function in our lives with pleasure and peaceful unity. Consider how this contrast is presented in the following stanza:
The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.
If Nature did indeed "link the human soul" to her creation, it is a terrible thing to compare nature and ourselves as a species and to think of Nature's "holy plan" as a result. We seem to have fallen so short of our potential in our relationship with nature, and this causes the speaker to "lament" as he sees the beauty of nature and all the potential that his species has missed out on.