Human comprehension of the surrounding world if to speak about nature is varied and depends on personal upbringing and views and believes one has. It should be stated that speaking of the nature as one of the main component of human life it is to be referred to as an essential part of nature. From the very birth p to death people are connected to nature. There are different visions on human death. Some people believe that a person never dies, he/she just changes its form and becomes a part of nature. These people are sure that human beings are immortal and they again become the part of nature, the issue they have come from. William Wordsworth tried to present a different vision, he wanted to have a look at human being from the point of view of its belonging to nature from birth up to the end of his life without touching the issue of death. From the first sight it seems that William Wordsworth tries to show the dependence between human mood and nature, making a parallel between human mood (grief) and natural phenomena. However, a close reading of the ode helps conclude that the author wants to show that from the very infancy and through childhood people are connected to nature, they are able to see its beauty, but becoming older this connection is lost, adults are unable to see nature as it is, they fail to recognize the value of nature and only some of people are able to remember that connection and return to childhood having conserved that feeling of virginity and immortality.
The central idea the author want to deliver to the reader is the connection between people and nature and his struggle to understand humanity’s failure to recognize the value of the nature. What is the beauty of nature? Why this connection is important? What exactly William Wordsworth does in order to make him different from others? The first lines of the poem show author’s dreamlike vision of nature, he says that nature for him “apparelled in celestial light” (Wordsworth 3). Moreover, remembering how nature was observed by the author when he was a child, he says that “the things I have seen I can see no more” (Wordsworth 3). The author understands that being a child, he saw more in nature. Even though he agrees that he still is able to see most of the nature, it is different,
The Rainbow come and goes,
And lovely is the Rose,
The Moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare,
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where’er I go (Wordsworth 3).
These lines show that growing older people are unable to see the magic of the surrounding nature, they perceive it as something obvious and simple. A person still sees these objects, but they are not considered as something special. Being children, people can get the meaning of nature, can understand that unique beauty of a rainbow, the moon and the sun, the sunsets and sunrises. However, sleeping (as the author says) people become older and forget about it. The main idea of the ode the author wants to deliver is that being children people perceive this world differently, they are able to see that magic of nature unseen by elder people. Growing older people become bothered about other more important things in their opinion and they forget about the beauty of nature, about this miracle.
One day something happens with the author and he remembers his childhood, he tries to remember how he looked into the world. The situation changes and he is able to see what he has forgotten,
And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Forebode not any severing of our loves!
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquished one delight
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I love the Brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they;
The Innocent brightness of a new-born Day
Is lovely yet;
The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won (Wordsworth 7).
This is the final stanza in the ode which shows the changes which have occurred in human mind. Wordsworth has understood that the world has not changed, that it is he who has changed. Returning to childhood, Wordsworth has managed to remember how he looked into nature and how nature deserves to be considered. Speaking of childhood and the perception of nature, the author assures that it is people who change, but nature remains as beautiful as it was.
During their life people admire nature, they understand that it is something magnificent, but they still change their vision growing older. Reading the poem, it becomes obvious that adults look at nature as at something which reflects human thoughts. When a person grieves the nature becomes upsetting as well. Having remembered the perception of nature when being a child, Wordsworth has understood that nature inspires, the sounds of nature do all possible to encourage people and make them joy, like in childhood. The connection between nature and people remains of one and the same level, people just forget about it when they grow up. Being interested in other problems, searching for specific reasons and aims of life people usually forget about that the main source of inspiration is nature. Only remembering it a person may be happy. The main message of the poem is to deliver this information to people, to make them remember about their inner connection with nature.
Therefore, it may be concluded that the main idea of Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood is to show that humankind and nature are closely interconnected. It should be stated that looking for inner peace and inspiration, people have to remember their childhood, they are to recollect in their memories the way how they perceived nature. The true connection between people and nature never disappears. It is people who forget about it searching for other means of joy and inspiration. Only having remembered their childhood they are able to remember that people like nature are immortal. Grief and other negative feeling come to people when they forget their connection to nature and having remembered it, each person will hear nature, each person is going to remember what connected them to it when they were children. This is one of the main priorities in life,
Works Cited
Wordsworth, William. “Ode: Intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood.” 1807. PDF.