The Solitary Reaper Vs The Singing Skylark

The cultural and philosophical denotation of"nature"has reached its peak in the 19th-century Romantic period. Nature, representing"liberty"and"individuality", enriches the romantic poetics. For the romantic poets, nature is full of sentiments and spirituality and able to purify the human mind and reawaken humanity.Like most romantic poets, Wordsworth and Shelley chant nature's beautiful landscape and eulogize it to express their deep love for it. They write poems to express their concern for humanity and the relationship between man and nature.However, their views on nature reflected in their poems display some significant differences which can be seen in the following three aspects. First, Wordsworth values nature in childhood and memories to vent his nostalgia for the good old days, while Shelley views it passionately and tends to look to the better future. Second, Wordsworth considers nature as a source of man's joy and a comforting force while Shelley worships nature as a source of general truth which he hopes to pass on to the people to strive for a more just society. Third, Wordsworth sees nature as a religiously-tainted entity and endows it with divinity, while Shelley imparts nature with political implications to express his social ambitions and political aspiration.The differences that exist in Wordsworth's and Shelley's views on nature can be explained in the light of their literary poetics and political stances. Wordsworth is more of a passive receiver, who"wandered lonely as a cloud"and above all, a"solitary reaper". He chooses as the subject of his poems the rustic life which is far from the urban hustles to sing high praises of nature and calls on people to return to nature for purifying their souls. However, as an active participant of the social movements of his time, Shelley regards the realization of equality, liberty and fraternity as his life pursuit. As a democratic fighter, he contributes most of his energy and effort to the realization of his dreams; as a poet, he is like a skylark, singing and flying in the sky.