Throughout the 19th century, as Great
Britain transitioned through several different literary movements, two basic
themes were consistently prevalent in the literature of the time period. Though
they were constantly, and sometimes radically, changing and evolving with the
times throughout the 1800s, the themes of nature and death seemed to be
perpetually intertwined in British literature, made evident through analysis of
works by literary giants like William Wordsworth, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, and Thomas Hardy. These writers, whether influenced by their own
historical contexts or simply by the literary movements they found themselves
writing in, all seemed to blend death and nature together in their own unique
ways and, through close reading and careful analysis of the texts, the reader
can clearly see the evolution of two common literary themes.
First, however, we have to go back to the beginning, back to what started it all and identify exactly who or what brought nature into the limelight. The man’s name was Edmund Burke, and as we learned during the class presentation on the sublime, he was the author of A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. The sublime was described in several different ways: lofty and elevated style, noble, beautiful, awesome, etc. Burke himself explained it as “pleasurable terror.” The concept of the sublime was responsible for sparking this obsession with nature at the peak of the Romantic era, especially prevalent in rural areas, as the sublime’s influence was immediately recognizable when presented with such astounding landscapes.
John Martin created this engraving, Pandæmonium, in 1825 as part of a set for John Milton’s Paradise Lost. As the capital city of Hell within Milton’s epic poem, this image certainly achieves the quality of sublime, by both dictionary definition standards and Burke’s standards of being an exemplar of “pleasurable terror.”
So that’s where Wordsworth comes in, “…the only man who incorporated poetry with his life, and spent each hour as a priest at the altars of nature and humanity…” While Burke popularized the sublime, it was Wordsworth, with a little help from his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who popularized the theme of nature in literature with his publication of Lyrical Ballads, setting the bar for all who would follow him and starting the precedent “…of Nature as the measure by which to judge whether a poem’s expression of feeling was genuine or not” (Black, Conolly, and et al 110). Not only did Wordsworth completely capture the sublime in his portrayal of the natural world, he curiously entwined the theme of death with that of nature – no stranger to death himself, considering his parents were both dead by the time he was thirteen – and this is shown through his poem “We Are Seven,” in which the narrator unsuccessfully attempts to convince a little girl that her dead siblings no longer exist. Wordsworth portrays the little girl as a nymph, an emblem of nature, “wildly clad” and possessing “a rustic, woodland air” (Wordsworth, Lines 9, 10). When asked by the narrator, “‘Sisters and brothers, little maid, / How many may you be?’” she replies, “‘Seven are we,’” explaining that four have moved away and “‘Two of us in the church-yard lie’” (Wordsworth, Lines 13-14, 18, 21). Although the narrator tries to correct her logic and explain that if two are dead, she’s left with five, not seven, Porphyria astutely points out in her blog post, “Natural Communion,” that the little girl counters by showing that the graves of her siblings are not frightening or ominous, but “green” and just “‘Twelve steps or more from [her] mother’s door,’” likely emphasizing the idea that those who maintain a connection with nature (the “green graves” being signifiers of nature) are never far from their departed loved ones (Wordsworth, Line 39). Also worth mentioning, as Daydreamer helpfully notes in a blog post entitled, “Peace That Transcends Understanding,” is the fact that the little girl’s descriptions of her siblings’ deaths, especially Jane’s, are very natural and very calm, explaining that “‘…God released [her sister] of her pain, / And then she went away’” (Wordsworth, Lines 51-52). This quick and easy description of death with no negative emotions tainting the image allow Wordsworth to drive home his point that death is as natural a thing as nature itself, and that to be at peace with one is ultimately to be at peace with the other, as this little girl reveals.
This picture, Eldena Ruin, was painted by Casper David Friedrich in 1825 and is indicative of the sublime qualities that Burke showed to the world. The ruins, with greenery growing all around them, are reminiscent of the “green graves” from “We Are Seven” and hint at the naturalness of ruin, decay, and ultimately death. While the theme of death often conveys feelings of sorrow or anger, this painting, much like Wordsworth’s poetry, is not at all depressing or hateful but instead seems to be at peace, instilling a similar emotion in the observer.
Although born 25 years after Wordsworth, John Keats died 29 years before him, and ironically enough, was a poet obsessed with death, as ShyGuy informs us in his blog post, “Keats, opening lines andfear of mortality.” Much like Wordsworth’s, Keats’s life was a difficult one from the start, as both of his parents died by the time he was fourteen, but he didn’t make it any easier for himself by “aligning himself with Wordsworth’s naturalism,” possibly hoping Wordsworth would one day pass him the torch, so to speak, not knowing he would die almost three decades before Wordsworth (Black, Conolly, and et al 421). Even after being ridiculed by Wordsworth himself, Keats’s poetry remained “devoted to nature and the human heart” (Black, Conolly, and et al 421). Then, suddenly face to face with “fears of his own early death,” brought on by the appearance of throat ulcers (symptoms of tuberculosis), Keats released an outpouring of now-famous odes and several Shakespearean sonnets, including his poem “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” (Black, Conolly, and et al 422). In this sonnet, one of his most famous poems, Keats used imagery associated with nature to emphasize his unfulfilled potential, lamenting the lack of “…high piled books, in charact’ry,” that “Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain,” and the “Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, / …that [he] may never live to trace” (Keats, Lines 3-4, 6-7). Some consider “When I Have Fears…” to be a romantic poem and assume that the “fair creature of an hour” is his lover, but in a comment I posted on ShyGuy’s previously mentioned post, I assert that Keats isn’t referring to a woman in that line but to himself, alluding to the chronic throat ulcers that he discovered the year this poem was written since his days were numbered at that point (Keats, Line 9). And to wrap up this analysis of Keats’s sonnet, wanderlust made an excellent observation in his post, “Keatsand Negative Capability,” informing us of Keats’s display of negative compatibility, or his acceptance of the cruelties of the world and his submission to his own fate, an early death. Where Wordsworth blended nature and death into a harmonious and natural coexistence that emphasized the sublime, Keats instead chooses to represent nature as sublime yet unattainable – possibly placing the blame on Wordsworth – a symbol of his potential success, while he paints death as the unbeatable obstacle that blocks his way.
Unlike Wordsworth and Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning had an easy childhood and upbringing, relatively speaking, and was admired by both her contemporaries (Wordsworth included) and the general public. She is well known for essays, long narrative poetry, short political poetry, and even love poems. Despite the decent fortunes of her family, Barrett Browning lived much of her life in seclusion, possibly because of the numerous illnesses she suffered as a child or the deep depression she fell into at the death of her brother Edward. These events, compounded with her father’s overprotection, were the reasons that her experiences with nature were not as thorough as her experiences with death. In 1844, however, secluded, ill, depressed, sheltered or not, she published her most politically charged poem, “The Cry of the Children,” attacking the system of child labor that was rampant during the Industrial Revolution. In this poem, Barrett Browning’s representations of nature and death are given an unusual twist. As I stated in my blog post, “The Tone of theTimes,” this poem is very similar to other political pieces of this time period, such as Charles Dickens’s “A Walk in the Workhouse,” the key similarity being that the children in both pieces of literature crave death, telling Barrett Browning’s narrator that “‘It is good when it happens,’ say the children, / ‘That we die before our time’” (Barrett Browning, Lines 51-52). I agree with Cassiopeia’s argument in her post, “Cry of the Children,” that Barrett Browning is not only commenting on the horrors of child labor, but also contrasting the themes of nature and death within the context of the Industrial Revolution. However, I disagree with her assumption that nature represents life and the machines represent death, as well as Alpa Chino’s insistence in his blog post, “Social Awareness In The Cry Of The Children,” that everything could be solved by embracing nature, which symbolizes universal freedom and happiness for all people. The reason I disagree with these assertions is because I believe Barrett Browning has attributed a double meaning into each theme, nature and death. At the time of this poem’s publication, Barrett Browning was still living a life of seclusion under her father’s overprotective thumb, and so she attributes freedom and escape for the narrator (herself) with nature and writes longingly of “…young lambs…bleating in the meadows,” and “…young fawns…playing with the shadows” (Barrett Browning, Lines 5, 7). For her, this eternal stillness and seclusion in her father’s house are a form of death that she longs to escape, but for the children it’s the exact opposite! The children instead look at death and the choice to be still with longing, jealously recalling the death of Alice because “…the outside earth is cold; / And we young ones stand without,” while “…the smile has time for growing in her eyes: / And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled…” (Barrett Browning, Lines 34-35, 48-49). In this way, Barrett Browning reveals the sickness of the world, for there was a time when Wordsworth brought nature and death together in sublime harmony. Keats chased nature and feared death, and thus was destroyed. And now Barrett Browning, mirroring the low point in English society brought on by the Industrial Revolution, is unsure of both themes, putting them into a sort of stalemate with each other.
And finally, half a century after Barrett Browning’s thematic stalemate, we come to Thomas Hardy, who exclusively wrote novels until the mid-1890s when he switched to poetry. While some critics insist, “apart from the distinct individuality of Hardy’s poetry, we are struck by another outstanding feature – his ruthless pessimism,” his poem “The Darkling Thrush” is a beacon of optimism and redemption, as I said in my comment on JHam’s blog post, “A Revolution ofThe Industrial Kind,” a second chance for humanity. At first, the imagery is depressing; Hardy relates how “The land’s sharp features seemed to be / The Century’s corpse outleant,” presenting us with a historical period literally conquered by death, the “land’s sharp features,” JHam points out, likely representing factories and reminding us of the world in which Barrett Browning must have lived (Hardy, Lines 9-10). However, in the third stanza, Hardy breaks the pessimistic mold that critics have cast him in and delivers to readers an agent of nature and optimism in the form of “An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, / In blast-beruffled plume,” to sing “His happy good-night air” (Hardy, Lines 21-22, 30). Hardy’s narrator is taken aback by “such ecstatic sound” as nature’s emissary informs him of “Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware” (Hardy, Lines 26, 31-32). This last minute arrival of nature at the dawn of the new year (the poem being written December 31) symbolizes mankind’s chance for a fresh start and presents the reader with an image that is truly sublime.
The 19th century was a time of rapid change in Great Britain, with numerous literary movements coming and going and the Industrial Revolution completely altering everyday life. However, the seemingly intertwined themes of nature and death within English literature, though applied in different ways over the years, have stood the test of time.
Further reading:
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist8.html
First, however, we have to go back to the beginning, back to what started it all and identify exactly who or what brought nature into the limelight. The man’s name was Edmund Burke, and as we learned during the class presentation on the sublime, he was the author of A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. The sublime was described in several different ways: lofty and elevated style, noble, beautiful, awesome, etc. Burke himself explained it as “pleasurable terror.” The concept of the sublime was responsible for sparking this obsession with nature at the peak of the Romantic era, especially prevalent in rural areas, as the sublime’s influence was immediately recognizable when presented with such astounding landscapes.
John Martin created this engraving, Pandæmonium, in 1825 as part of a set for John Milton’s Paradise Lost. As the capital city of Hell within Milton’s epic poem, this image certainly achieves the quality of sublime, by both dictionary definition standards and Burke’s standards of being an exemplar of “pleasurable terror.”
So that’s where Wordsworth comes in, “…the only man who incorporated poetry with his life, and spent each hour as a priest at the altars of nature and humanity…” While Burke popularized the sublime, it was Wordsworth, with a little help from his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who popularized the theme of nature in literature with his publication of Lyrical Ballads, setting the bar for all who would follow him and starting the precedent “…of Nature as the measure by which to judge whether a poem’s expression of feeling was genuine or not” (Black, Conolly, and et al 110). Not only did Wordsworth completely capture the sublime in his portrayal of the natural world, he curiously entwined the theme of death with that of nature – no stranger to death himself, considering his parents were both dead by the time he was thirteen – and this is shown through his poem “We Are Seven,” in which the narrator unsuccessfully attempts to convince a little girl that her dead siblings no longer exist. Wordsworth portrays the little girl as a nymph, an emblem of nature, “wildly clad” and possessing “a rustic, woodland air” (Wordsworth, Lines 9, 10). When asked by the narrator, “‘Sisters and brothers, little maid, / How many may you be?’” she replies, “‘Seven are we,’” explaining that four have moved away and “‘Two of us in the church-yard lie’” (Wordsworth, Lines 13-14, 18, 21). Although the narrator tries to correct her logic and explain that if two are dead, she’s left with five, not seven, Porphyria astutely points out in her blog post, “Natural Communion,” that the little girl counters by showing that the graves of her siblings are not frightening or ominous, but “green” and just “‘Twelve steps or more from [her] mother’s door,’” likely emphasizing the idea that those who maintain a connection with nature (the “green graves” being signifiers of nature) are never far from their departed loved ones (Wordsworth, Line 39). Also worth mentioning, as Daydreamer helpfully notes in a blog post entitled, “Peace That Transcends Understanding,” is the fact that the little girl’s descriptions of her siblings’ deaths, especially Jane’s, are very natural and very calm, explaining that “‘…God released [her sister] of her pain, / And then she went away’” (Wordsworth, Lines 51-52). This quick and easy description of death with no negative emotions tainting the image allow Wordsworth to drive home his point that death is as natural a thing as nature itself, and that to be at peace with one is ultimately to be at peace with the other, as this little girl reveals.
This picture, Eldena Ruin, was painted by Casper David Friedrich in 1825 and is indicative of the sublime qualities that Burke showed to the world. The ruins, with greenery growing all around them, are reminiscent of the “green graves” from “We Are Seven” and hint at the naturalness of ruin, decay, and ultimately death. While the theme of death often conveys feelings of sorrow or anger, this painting, much like Wordsworth’s poetry, is not at all depressing or hateful but instead seems to be at peace, instilling a similar emotion in the observer.
Although born 25 years after Wordsworth, John Keats died 29 years before him, and ironically enough, was a poet obsessed with death, as ShyGuy informs us in his blog post, “Keats, opening lines andfear of mortality.” Much like Wordsworth’s, Keats’s life was a difficult one from the start, as both of his parents died by the time he was fourteen, but he didn’t make it any easier for himself by “aligning himself with Wordsworth’s naturalism,” possibly hoping Wordsworth would one day pass him the torch, so to speak, not knowing he would die almost three decades before Wordsworth (Black, Conolly, and et al 421). Even after being ridiculed by Wordsworth himself, Keats’s poetry remained “devoted to nature and the human heart” (Black, Conolly, and et al 421). Then, suddenly face to face with “fears of his own early death,” brought on by the appearance of throat ulcers (symptoms of tuberculosis), Keats released an outpouring of now-famous odes and several Shakespearean sonnets, including his poem “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be” (Black, Conolly, and et al 422). In this sonnet, one of his most famous poems, Keats used imagery associated with nature to emphasize his unfulfilled potential, lamenting the lack of “…high piled books, in charact’ry,” that “Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain,” and the “Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, / …that [he] may never live to trace” (Keats, Lines 3-4, 6-7). Some consider “When I Have Fears…” to be a romantic poem and assume that the “fair creature of an hour” is his lover, but in a comment I posted on ShyGuy’s previously mentioned post, I assert that Keats isn’t referring to a woman in that line but to himself, alluding to the chronic throat ulcers that he discovered the year this poem was written since his days were numbered at that point (Keats, Line 9). And to wrap up this analysis of Keats’s sonnet, wanderlust made an excellent observation in his post, “Keatsand Negative Capability,” informing us of Keats’s display of negative compatibility, or his acceptance of the cruelties of the world and his submission to his own fate, an early death. Where Wordsworth blended nature and death into a harmonious and natural coexistence that emphasized the sublime, Keats instead chooses to represent nature as sublime yet unattainable – possibly placing the blame on Wordsworth – a symbol of his potential success, while he paints death as the unbeatable obstacle that blocks his way.
Unlike Wordsworth and Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning had an easy childhood and upbringing, relatively speaking, and was admired by both her contemporaries (Wordsworth included) and the general public. She is well known for essays, long narrative poetry, short political poetry, and even love poems. Despite the decent fortunes of her family, Barrett Browning lived much of her life in seclusion, possibly because of the numerous illnesses she suffered as a child or the deep depression she fell into at the death of her brother Edward. These events, compounded with her father’s overprotection, were the reasons that her experiences with nature were not as thorough as her experiences with death. In 1844, however, secluded, ill, depressed, sheltered or not, she published her most politically charged poem, “The Cry of the Children,” attacking the system of child labor that was rampant during the Industrial Revolution. In this poem, Barrett Browning’s representations of nature and death are given an unusual twist. As I stated in my blog post, “The Tone of theTimes,” this poem is very similar to other political pieces of this time period, such as Charles Dickens’s “A Walk in the Workhouse,” the key similarity being that the children in both pieces of literature crave death, telling Barrett Browning’s narrator that “‘It is good when it happens,’ say the children, / ‘That we die before our time’” (Barrett Browning, Lines 51-52). I agree with Cassiopeia’s argument in her post, “Cry of the Children,” that Barrett Browning is not only commenting on the horrors of child labor, but also contrasting the themes of nature and death within the context of the Industrial Revolution. However, I disagree with her assumption that nature represents life and the machines represent death, as well as Alpa Chino’s insistence in his blog post, “Social Awareness In The Cry Of The Children,” that everything could be solved by embracing nature, which symbolizes universal freedom and happiness for all people. The reason I disagree with these assertions is because I believe Barrett Browning has attributed a double meaning into each theme, nature and death. At the time of this poem’s publication, Barrett Browning was still living a life of seclusion under her father’s overprotective thumb, and so she attributes freedom and escape for the narrator (herself) with nature and writes longingly of “…young lambs…bleating in the meadows,” and “…young fawns…playing with the shadows” (Barrett Browning, Lines 5, 7). For her, this eternal stillness and seclusion in her father’s house are a form of death that she longs to escape, but for the children it’s the exact opposite! The children instead look at death and the choice to be still with longing, jealously recalling the death of Alice because “…the outside earth is cold; / And we young ones stand without,” while “…the smile has time for growing in her eyes: / And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled…” (Barrett Browning, Lines 34-35, 48-49). In this way, Barrett Browning reveals the sickness of the world, for there was a time when Wordsworth brought nature and death together in sublime harmony. Keats chased nature and feared death, and thus was destroyed. And now Barrett Browning, mirroring the low point in English society brought on by the Industrial Revolution, is unsure of both themes, putting them into a sort of stalemate with each other.
And finally, half a century after Barrett Browning’s thematic stalemate, we come to Thomas Hardy, who exclusively wrote novels until the mid-1890s when he switched to poetry. While some critics insist, “apart from the distinct individuality of Hardy’s poetry, we are struck by another outstanding feature – his ruthless pessimism,” his poem “The Darkling Thrush” is a beacon of optimism and redemption, as I said in my comment on JHam’s blog post, “A Revolution ofThe Industrial Kind,” a second chance for humanity. At first, the imagery is depressing; Hardy relates how “The land’s sharp features seemed to be / The Century’s corpse outleant,” presenting us with a historical period literally conquered by death, the “land’s sharp features,” JHam points out, likely representing factories and reminding us of the world in which Barrett Browning must have lived (Hardy, Lines 9-10). However, in the third stanza, Hardy breaks the pessimistic mold that critics have cast him in and delivers to readers an agent of nature and optimism in the form of “An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, / In blast-beruffled plume,” to sing “His happy good-night air” (Hardy, Lines 21-22, 30). Hardy’s narrator is taken aback by “such ecstatic sound” as nature’s emissary informs him of “Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware” (Hardy, Lines 26, 31-32). This last minute arrival of nature at the dawn of the new year (the poem being written December 31) symbolizes mankind’s chance for a fresh start and presents the reader with an image that is truly sublime.
The 19th century was a time of rapid change in Great Britain, with numerous literary movements coming and going and the Industrial Revolution completely altering everyday life. However, the seemingly intertwined themes of nature and death within English literature, though applied in different ways over the years, have stood the test of time.
Works Cited
Black,
Joseph, Leonard Conolly, et al. The Broadview
Anthology of British Literature Volume B.
Concise ed. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2007.
110-112, 421-422, 621-622, 851-852. Print.
"The Poetry of Thomas Hardy." The
Academy and
literature, 1910-1914.2029
(1911): 350-1.
ProQuest. Web. 8 May
2013.
"Wordsworth." The Palladium : a
monthly journal of
literature, politics, science,
and art (1850): 214-23.
ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2013.
Further reading:
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist8.html
