Compare and Contrast Nature in The Task and Windsor Forest

Both Windsor Forest and The Task use nature in their poems to as a means of portraying a wider political idea. However the opposing poetic princlipals behind both poets works are echoed in their potrayls. Pope celebrates the groomed, contrived garden of Windsor forest as a means to show admiration for Queen Annes rule; under her reign the garden has been ordered meticulously to reveal its true potential, a metaphor for society. In the Task Cowper celebrates pure organic nature, that has not been infiltrated by the influence of man. The untarnished countryside is illustared to be superior to the man made city, as it is closer to god; God was the creator of the country and the man made cities are threatening to undermine the entire realm.

The titles of the two poems make the differences in content more explicit. Pope’s piece is primarily a quixotic descriptive piece about Windsor Forest, elevated by combing the descriptions of external nature with feelings accordant to the actual state of society. The Task is a much more unromantic, logical and sober as its title reflects. Didacticism is present in its great descriptions of natural scenery. Cowper saw clearly the actual reality of organic nature, and ignored the pruned gardens dealt with by Pope; he presents an argumentative verse rather than a panegyric like Windsor Forest. Nature for Cowper was an assertion of God and the poem seems to echo the creation story, in the sense that it starts wtith the notion of Gods construction of pure beautiful nature, much admired, and ends with the threat of damnation. Pope lacks this moral scheme in Windsor Forest, nature for him serves as symbol of political and social harmony.

The mood in the in the Task changes, it is extremely reverential in its outset. Cowper opens with "God made the country, and man made the town". Thus his descriptions of nature are given meaning, they are in fact worships of god as the creator. The Task developes an increasingly condemning tone by means of negative comparisons. He contarsts the divine country with the manufactured town in order to revile the folly, vice, corruption of the town. Windsor forest on the other hand is continuously uplifted and complimentary. This mood is sustained through the use of comparisions, like Cowper. However Pope employs positive comparisions unlike Cowper whose comment usually exclude, deny and find fault with.

Both poems are similar in the fact that there genres are not explicit but are both can be seen to be linked to the georgic tradition and are epics in structure. The dymanics of gerneric play in Windsor forest echo the most familiar couplet in the whole poem: “where Order in Varity we see, And where, tho’ all things differ all agree.” Though primarily a take on georgic, the poem involves a great variety of literary kinds, pastoral, myth, panegyric and prophecy. In his poem the diffent patch work styles create a cohesive whole, a metaphor for the nature in the garden, which is inturn a symbol of Jocobian society, the different plants all are cohesive in the harmonious garden. The principal here behind the description of the landscape is Concordia discors, Ovids phrase in Metaorphoses. This links it back to its epic structure, which is a distinct tribute to classical literature. The poems mix of genres adds to this neo-classical nature, making it specifically Augustan. Thus the structure of the poem can be taken to express the poems aesthetic and its political program. Cowpers historical position as a transfitional figure between the Neoclassical and romatic periods in English literature can be seen in the poems structure. The task is an epic, typical of neo-classiscm however is less rigid than Popes. The poem develops in a more organic nature and is less contrived. This encompasses the emotionalism of the Romantics, who stressed the natural spontaneity as good qualities of poetry. Indeed Pope's example had, for Cowper, made poetry "a mere mechanic art". Cowper’s organic style is less artificial than Popes, as is the nature that he appreciates.

The rhyme scheme is reflective of the opposing qualities that the poets find admirable in nature. Windsor Forest is entirely composed of rhyming couplets. This has the effect of separating thoughts and inclosing different ideas; similar to a well-groomed garden, where different types of plant will have defined sections where they flourish. Thus the poem’s rhyme scheme reaffirms the appreciation the poet has for order and control, both in nature and society. The rhyming couplets also add to the poems Augustan style as they produce a very lyrical quality. This echos the demand in the epigraph for the muses to sing, that is an illusion to classical literature, such as Homer but more notably Virgil. Besides complimenting his dedicatee Granville, Popes epigraph announces his own literary aims, it is an appropriation of Virgil’s recusatio. Indeed line 6, “what Muse for Granville can refuse to sing?” echos Virgils neget quis carmina Gallo?. The Task lacks a rhyme scheme, a reflection of his appreciation of nature in its pure form, real countryside, where plants are left by God to grow at will. Cowper’s ideas in turn are relayed in no structured manner, alluding to the idea this poem was a natural development that was provoked by emotion. This is clearly a stylistic shift toward the Romantic- Wordsworth himself in the Preface to his and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads defined good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”.

Windsor Forest is compilation of literary and symbolic language, it chiefly consists of rural description but is intermixed with referencxes reinforcing its Augustian nature and role as a neo-classical piece. The language has an extremely lofted tone and is highly animated and poetical, with extremely formal register. The language is exaggerated with an synthetically Greek syntax. The effect of this is that nature is portrayed in an artifical manner. Due to the rigid neo-classical style, Pope uses ambiguous and general epithets to describe nature. As Thomas Campbell asserts: “ Pope writes like a man who saw nature through the medium of the classics, and not with the naked eye”. This couplet is the best exampler of his unnatural portrayl, “ See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown’d, Here blushing Flora paints th’ enamel’d ground”. Pan was the Greek god of shepherds, flocks and pastures; Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruit trees; Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers, this couplet produces no tangible or recognizable natural elements, but is almost entirely a couplet of refernces, that would alienate a common reader.

The Task on the other hand is written in a much more informal manner. Cowper employs spontaneous, natural diction and emotional response to nature. “Thee sleeping leaves..birds warblimng all the music”, these are sincere illustartions of untamed nature. The Task is distinguished by the fact it presents his theme by using abundant descriptive detail but also a conversational mode. He presents his argument in a witty and satirical manner: “ Folly such as yours, graced by a sword, and worthier of a fan”. This makes his argument about nature resonate and find affinity with the reader, as Sitter sates, Cowper: “gave the most striking and forceful expression to the later eighteenth century that rural living was ethically superior to urban living”.

Although Pope refernces, “the grooves of Eden”, It is cowper who redirects the energies of Neoclassicsm in the service of God. Cowper establishes an appreciation for pure nature as he has set him self the task of redirecting a corrupted society back to a christain ethos. In the Task the empire is weak due due to the disruptive actions man. Cowper is aware of the profound effect of the Industrial Revolution and implied that man now had not only the opportunity and the knowledge but the physical means to completely subdue nature. Cowper is empathetic with nature, he like the “ The thrush (who) departs” is scared of the implication of this Revolution. The Task asserts that nature is threatened, as is the Empire by the developments of the era. Contrasting to this, Popes description of nature in Windsor Forest presents his view of the moral and physical superiority of Britain. Published in anticipation of the end of the War of Spanish Succession in 1713. The conclusion of this war, which had involved most of the major Western European powers of that time, and the Treaty of Utrecht which established the status of European nations after the war, severely reduced the influence of France and Spain and made Great Britain the most powerful nation in the world. The control and order over the expansive fruitful garden echos the glory of the Empire. The landscape in the forest is a metaphor for England’s power and strangth, that, in Pope’s opinion unrivaled by any other country: “Let India boast her plants, nor envy we, the weeping amber of balmy tree.” The pharse “Not proud Olympus yields a nobel sight” elevates this idea and gives it a classical connotation.

The long extended sentence structure, elevated imagery and symbolism create the effect of the abundance and richness of the garden. However nature’s description in Windsor Forest has been described by William Lisle Bowles as : “too general and inappropriate”. Gardens as a metaphor for kingship has a deep history in literature. Indeed the metaphor of England as a garden is very famous in Shakespeare’s Richard II and it seems Pope is more interested in this metaphor than a realistic depiction. Nature is a vehicle for Pope to explore morality, antiquity, history, feelings of tenderness, or patriotism through his neo-classical ambitions. The poem’s antedecent scenario was a political treaty exemplifying Stuart power, and that is what his deep concern is. The final couplet, like the starting one, declares its Jacobite politics: “Rich Industry sits smiling on the Plains, / And Peace and Plenty tell, a stuart reigns”.

Cowper’s connection to nature is much deeper. The poet feels a deep connection to nature evidenced by the repeated phrase “our..” when describing the pure country. This is where he feels most at home in the world, he is “least theaten’d in the fields and groves”. There is no pleonasm in this poem when describing nature, for there is the inference that nature here is appreciated in its raw form. The lack of imagery, especially in comparison to Windsor Forest serves to exemplify the humility that is lacking in the superfluous effeminate society. The phrase: “scared and offended the nightingale is mute”, is very telling of how deeply the threat to nature is effecting himself as a poet. As the nightingale is the symbol for the poet, this line blurs the distinctions between the poet and nature. Indeed the poet demonstrates how the threat to nature is having a profound effect on Cowper.

The Task demonstrate Cowper's contention that nature in the country lends itself to the cultivation of “piety and virtue,” while life in the city degrades humankind by its corruptive influence. The work is viewed as Cowper's lasting poetic expression on nature, society, God, and man. with deeper issues and is argumentative in kind, and the title reflects a larger issue at heart than just natural beauty. Cowper is assertive, using nature uses the poem to describe his desire for peace, beauty, piety, his religious yearnings and qualms about society.