Anna Johnson's class summary

Class Summary April 12th

Class began today with one of Dr. Foss’s famous reward quizzes giving us a chance to refresh our minds of the works we had read for today, and perhaps earn some valuable reward points in the process. The work that had been assigned for today had come from Anna Barbauld, William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, and John Clare. It was clear that many of these works were connected by a similar conflict, the argument between technological advancement and nature. In large and small groups we discussed the various attitudes that the different authors had when it came to this eternal romantic struggle. We explored poet’s positions ranging from reverence towards nature and outright condemnation of human advancement, to uncertainty, and finally acceptance of human advancement.

In large group we recognized that in Percy Shelley’s "Ode to the West Wind" Shelley expresses his wish to have more of the qualities of nature. Through his writing Shelley wishes to gain the immortality that nature has. He expresses this in the fourth section by saying things such as “Oh! Lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!”(line 53). In the poem Shelley begrudgingly realizes the mortality of humans, yet he still seeks his own immortality through the power of the wind. It seems as though Shelley wished for his thoughts to be cast throughout society, as if the wind had carried his works to others, for affirmation rather than dejection and therefore living on as nature does.

In our small group we also realized that John Clare’s poetry praises nature a great deal. He also preaches to people in his poetry about how humans must respect nature. In his poem “The Peasant Poet” Clare shows the reader how through a person with a simple life everything is heightened by nature and because of this the feeling of joy is expressed throughout the poem. Clare also connects God and nature heavily throughout the poem. In lines five and six Clare writes “To him the dismal storm appeared The very voice of God” showing that God is in nature and therefore nature is divine and should be treated as such. Our group thought that he made this connection so much that he was telling people not to question nature because one should never question God. Therefore making nature something unattainable for man but something they should revere and respect. In the Wordsworth poem “On the Projected Kendal and Windermere Railway” we also see him lifting up nature, but what’s more, he makes nature a fragile thing that man must protect from technological advancement. In our small group we felt like Wordsworth was outright condemning this railway project, and you can see this from the words he used like “rash assault” and “schemes”(line 2). By doing this he shows how dead set he was against the improvement of man when it would encroach upon nature. Wordsworth pleads for humans to realize they need to protect nature and must do so before irreparable harm has been done.

While Wordsworth seemed to be completely on the side of nature in “On the Projected Kendal and Windermere Railway” he seems to be more conflicted in his poem “Elegiac Stanzas”. This poem is in constant conflict over nature and the man-made castle. Wordsworth talks about how if he were painting the castle he can see he would have liked to paint it in a calm setting, “On tranquil land, beneath a sky of bliss”(line 21). However, he could not paint it that way for he has now been disillusioned; he realizes that nature is not only peaceful and pretty but destructive and cruel. Therefore our group felt as though Wordsworth was now torn between nature and the world of men, not knowing which to put his faith in.

Dr. Foss surprised the class by adding another Wordsworth poem for us to include yet another unique point of view on nature and man’s technological advancement. In our small group we discussed how we thought the poem "Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways" was an interesting point of view to read about because it didn’t seem to be against technology. In fact, the poem even praised it at points calling it “Man's art”. Wordsworth explored the possibilities of man’s advancement in a way where it is harmonious with nature instead of destroying it, a concept in direct opposition to other Romantic poets and even to his own previously expressed opinion in his poem “On the Projected Kendal and Windermere Railway”. However, in spite of his earlier opinion "Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways" shows that he has come to believe that advancement can take place in society without harming nature and even may come to improve it, as illustrated by line 10 “In your harsh features, Nature doth embrace”.

Throughout our class discussions we explored many different authors’ opinions on the argument between man’s technological advancement and nature. We discovered that, although a lot of Romantic poets opposed this advancement of man on the grounds that it would destroy or ruin nature, not all did. Many were conflicted about which side to be on, like Wordsworth was, and some even embraced man’s advancement in harmony with nature. The discussion today illustrated the wide range of opinions held by British Romantic poets on an issue that was at the foundation of the Romantic movement, nature vs. technology, and showed that the British Romantic poets were far from uniform in their beliefs on the subject.