life was spent in the presence of Nature of Nature clothed with beauty as with a garment. Hills, mountains, valley, river, lake, and sea were his companions. From childhood he was conscious of Nature's influence, and owned her fashioning power. Nature is at work with his soul at Cockermouth, Penrith, Hawkshead, Racedown, Alfoxden, Sockburne, Grasmere, and other places of abode. When he is traveling among the Alps, or in the mountains of Scotland and Wales, or wandering over the hills or through the valleys, and around the lakes of his own country, Nature's presence is felt as the presence of a teacher, friend, and guide. Sometimes, indeed, her influence is so overpowering that the bodily sense falls asleep and he sees with a spiritual eye. Normal consciousness is lost in spiritual vision, and that which he beholds appears to be within himself, — " a dream, a prospect in the mind." - It is interesting to note Wordsworth's own conception of the influence of Nature upon his mental life during the first years spent in the place of his birth. Cockermouth is located on the western edge of the Lake country, and although not remarkable for its beauty, there was something in his natural environment here that led the Poet in later years to say: Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up As a man he looks back and reflects upon his relation to his physical surroundings and sees in it a molding force. Especially does he call attention to the fact in "The Prelude." Reproaching himself, when in London, shortly after his graduation from Cambridge, for not having written a work really worthy of his powers, and feeling that he was a false and unprofitable steward, he turns to his infancy and childhood, and beholds what Nature has done for him in those early surroundings. There flowed the Derwent, "the fairest of all rivers," which, as the Poet says, loved 1 The Prelude, I, 301-303. To blend his murmurs with my nurse's song, And from his fords and shallows, sent a voice That flowed along my dreams.1 Again, noting the ministry of Nature through this river, he continues to reproach himself further: For this, didst thou, O Derwent! winding among grassy holms A foretaste, a dim earnest, of the calm That Nature breathes among the hills and groves.2 Later he speaks of the sense of obligation to Nature experienced by him when living in London, as he reverted to the home of his childhood: With deep devotion, Nature, did I feel Exaggerated as may appear the belief of the Poet in regard to the extent of her influence thus early exerted, the general truth, at least, may be accepted,—that his natural surroundings were a molding force in the life of the child; and it is not improbable that here in Cockermouth we have the beginnings of that charm which Nature later exercised over him, and that profound regard and religious love with which in after years he worshiped her. It was a "seed-time" for his soul, and he grew up "fostered alike by beauty and by fear." Studying, then, the mind of Wordsworth, as a poet of Nature and as a poet of Man, in the light of his birth and childhood, we 1 The Prelude, I, 271-274. 2 Ibid., 274-281. 8 Ibid., VIII, 70-75. find, in the first place, that, so far as his regard for Nature is concerned, he possessed a native keenness of sense perception which was closely associated with an imagination predisposed to spiritual interpretation and insight; also a native moral sensitiveness which soon led him to invest Nature with a moral life, and to apprehend her as a moral fashioner, teacher, and guide. Furthermore, he was possessed of an original mystical tendency of mind that powerfully affected his life of imagination. All of this may have been an obligation, of a more or less general character, to a remote ancestry. At any rate, these seem to have been original mental traits. In the second place, in regard to social environment, we recognize primarily an indebtedness to his mother's training, in which she delegated much of the teacher's task to Nature, a more skillful pedagogue than herself. And finally, much is due to his physical environment for fostering his childish spirit by beauty and fear, for sowing, in this early springtime of his life, seed which later blossomed and bore fruit, yielding a rich harvest of reverence and love for a so-called physical world that, for him at least, lived and moved and had its being in an all-animating Spirit, and which long proved to be the soul of his religion and the inspiration of his art. CHAPTER II YOUTH. DEVELOPMENT OF POETIC IMAGINATION. NATURE AND MAN The years spent at school at Hawkshead, in Lancashire, are a much more important period in the history of Wordsworth's development as a poet, and especially as a poet of Nature and of Man, than the years of his childhood. Wordsworth, with his brother Richard, left home to attend this school in 1778, shortly after his mother's death. He was then nine years of age. We find nothing in the instruction here that seems to have had much bearing on Wordsworth's future as a poet. The few poems composed during this period are not remarkable in any respect, and do not point toward "a career." But in the life that he led, amid his natural surroundings, we find the significance of this part of his personal history. At this time he came in close touch with Nature. His keen sense of sight and sound, and the unusual power of imagery associated with it, were called into activity in an environment such as the Lake district afforded in the neighborhood of Hawkshead, and by the freedom of his school life, which permitted many excursions into Nature's domains; so that contact with Nature became the most significant feature of this period. The Poet often refers to these early years spent in Esthwaite Vale as most important in their relation to his mental and spiritual unfolding. Here, as at Cockermouth, Nature is at work with him, and Wordsworth as poet, and especially as poet of Nature, is really born. It is in the midst of these beautiful surroundings that a poetic vision dawns and an insight into the life of things is gradually gained. His experience during these years must be carefully examined, for his ultimate conception of Nature had its roots in it. Indeed, we can hardly exaggerate the importance of this period in our efforts to understand the future poet of Nature. In his autobiographical poem Wordsworth has recorded the powerful influence of his physical surroundings upon his mind at this time. He recites a number of experiences which evidence it and furnish interesting material for the student of the psychology of the Poet. There is an account of how, when snaring woodcock on the mountain slopes, he yielded to the temptation to take a bird trapped by another, and then, influenced undoubtedly by his boyish conscience, heard, amid the solitary hills, "low breathings" following him, and sounds Of undistinguishable motion, steps Almost as silent as the turf they trod.1 That is, there is a crude recognition of Nature either as haunted by or possessed of Spirit. Influenced by his moral sense, as well as by his physical environment, he conjures up a retributive spirit of Nature which avenges wrongdoing. Again, when hunting the raven's eggs on a mountain crag, he has another unique experience, which leads him to conceive of Nature as invested with a kind of spirit life. Conscience seems to have been active here also. We have something more than a boy's ordinary conception of Nature. There is a vague consciousness of a spiritual being in things, that sustains a moral relation to man. The wind utters a strange speech in his ears; the sky wears an unearthly aspect, and the clouds have a peculiar motion. Nature speaks to him through an awakened ethical sense. The Poet records still another incident in the life of this period which reveals how susceptible his sensibility, imagination, and conscience were to Nature's influence, and the tendency on the part of his mind to invest things with life. Once, on a moonlight 2 Ibid., 329-339. 1 The Prelude, I, 323-325. |