The Romantics:
Romantic poets view of nature range from spiritual to love. In many poems the description of God is expressed through animals that, such as the lamb, which would represent man as His flock. In some cases the role of nature is a meaningful way to express the human condition. It was also a way to relay a belief or express their thoughts, to carry them to the reader. Nature can be used to express all things to all men. William Blake used the lamb as well as the Tyger to express his views of God, good and evil. He also used it as a way to show his displeasure of the things that were happening in his time. “Little Lamb I’ll tell thee! He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb; He is meek & he is mild; He became a little child; I a child & thou a lamb, we are called by his name.” (Greenblatt, S., 2012, page 120). This expressed that Jesus was the lamb and that we are also so in his name. He was also expressing the treatment of children during this time. He was using nature as symbols and to show that we are all lambs of God and should be treated well. Wordsworth also spoke of nature he as well as Blake used images and patterns to express their emotions, imagination, and identity. In Lines Written in Early Spring, he speaks of the beauty yet still feels saddened and melancholy. He uses the beauty to express his sadness and the dark thoughts of what is happening in the world. This provides an amazing contrast. “The budding twigs spread out their fan, To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can, That there was pleasure there. If this belief from heaven be sent, If such be Nature’s holy plan, Have I not reason to lament What man has made of man?” (Greenblatt, S., 2012, page 280). And regarding love, Lord Byron uses the night sky to express the beauty of the person he loves. “ She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies, And all that’s best of dark and bright Meets in her aspect and her eyes…One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair’d the nameless grace Which waves in every raven trees.” (Greenblatt, S., 2012, page 617). The Romantic poets loved and worshipped Nature. The Romantic poets loved Nature and it was shown through their poems adoring and blessing Nature as if it were God.
The Victorians:
The Victorian era was much different than the previous era. The changes during that time changed the lives and thoughts of the people, including poets. The industrial revolution as well and child labor were hot buttons throughout society. Then of course there were the changes in science that affected the core beliefs of many in society. Like her Romantic predecessors Elizabeth Barrett Browning explored the issues of her times. Child Labor and the poor were still issues and with the industrial age, the lives of children were much more severe. More families were sending their children to work. In The Cry of The Children, she uses nature to explain the issue and references the lamb, but in a different way than Blake. Blake used it to describe the innocence of the children and man’s relationship to God. Barrett-Browning uses it to explain their innocence, but also how their innocence is lost. “ The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, The young birds are chirping in the nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows, The young flowers are blowing toward the west; But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly! They are weeping in the playtime of others, In the country of the free.” (Greenblatt, S., 2012, page 1124). Alfred Lord Tennyson used nature in a different way in his poem In Memoriam, He used speaks of a woman and uses her to represent nature. “From scarped a cliff and quarried stone She cries, A thousand types are gone; I care for nothing, all shall go. Thou makest thine appeal to me: I bring to life, I bring to death; The spirit does but mean the breath: I know no more” In this case the woman is not nurturing, she is nature but as a powerful entity and causes Tennyson to question life, and faith. He knows no more. With Robert Browning, there is something different altogether. Because of the changes in society, Browning is free to express love and sex more freely than in the Romantic era. The industrial revolution had people living closer together in cities and the topic of sex was something that was able to be discussed and expressed through poetry. In Porphyria’s Lover, he uses nature to explain the scene as well as the temperament of the characters. “The rain set early in tonight, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, and did its worst to vex the lake: I listened with heart fit to break. When glided in Porphyria; straight She shut the cold out and the storm…. She put my arm about her waist, And made her smooth white shoulder bare, And all her yellow hair displaced, And, stooping, made my cheek lie there, And spread, o’er all, her yellow hair, Murmuring how she loved me—she Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavor, To set its struggling passion free” ”(Greenblatt, S., 2012, page 1279).