"…thus Disturb/The Calm Of Nature With Our Restless Thoughts"

William Wordsworth, as a forerunner of Romanticism, is often referred to as a nature poet, for most of his poems center on the natural world. However, the word"nature"has layers of meanings which make different readings of Wordsworth possible. This paper, by sticking to one layer of meaning of nature as the concept through which humanity thinks its relation to other beings, is intended to shed an ecological light on Wordsworth.The first part is a literature review to see how various layers of meanings of nature are applied to reach different conclusions about Wordsworth and to explain why a"green"and holistic perspective is needed to re-analyze Wordsworth in this new age.The second part will give a definition to"Wordsworthian nature"by detailed comparison between traditional pastorals and Wordsworth's pastorals, the aesthetic category of which is the sublime. Nature, penned by Wordsworth, is defined by how it is lived in by man and the sublime means the trinity of the harshness, the minutiae and the misery.The harshness in nature manifests the humility of human race and thus inspires our reverential love for nature. The firm belief in the values and functions of the minutiae is a showcase of Wordsworth's conviction that every being in nature is equal, even such an obscure creature as earth-worms matters. The misery means the human suffering, physically not psychologically. One has to toil before getting food and drink. Nature has its own rhythm and mankind has to respect the powers and processes of nature and respond attentively to changes in time and space. One should work in partnership with one's natural environment to achieve being-at-oneness with nature. However, the nature-culture rupture is getting bigger and bigger. The third part will analyze why this is so and how Wordsworth proposes to solve the problem. The routes back are"locality"which means one's integration with a community and the"dissolution of self"which is a breakdown of the dichotomy between self and other, between subject and object, and between mind and body.Chapter will bring this paper to a natural conclusion.