William Wordsworth Research Paper

William Wordsworth was and continues one of the most well-known Romantic poets of his time. His style of writing was recognizable, as he used simple words instead of the complicated language that most Romantic poets used. One of the things he loved deeply was Nature, which he revered and showed devotion to through his writings. However, because he was alive at the time of the Industrial Revolution, he suffered as he watched that beloved Nature being taken over by man-made machines and new inventions. One of his writings on this was his poem “Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways,” which has been explored by many critics over time. The Oxford Handbook of William Wordsworth, edited by Richard Gravil and Daniel Robinson, points out that Wordsworth wrote not only “Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways” on the Industrial Revolution, but many other pieces which discussed the dangers of machines against Nature. These included “The Pibroch’s note…”, “Nunnery,” and “Stanzas Suggested in a Steamboat off St. Bees’ Heads.” It is also noted that Wordsworth was “uneasy” over the success of progress when put against tradition, but was also willing to admit that Nature was willing to “embrace / Her lawful offspring in Man’s art.” His main concern, according to the Handbook, was the way the faster means of travel would disrupt the landscapes he loved so much, and by …show more content…
Dewey Hall writes in Romantic Naturalists: Early Environmentalists: An Ecocritical Study, that Wordworths felt nostalgic for the natural world that would eventually be ruined by the mechanical inventions taking over it. Wordsworth believed, according to Dr. Hall, that the extremely regulated schedules of trains, with exact times to arrive and depart, would confine space to be ruled by time. Wordsworth’s anti-industrialist stand left a great impression on Ralph Waldo Emerson, who, on his return to America, wrote and delivered “The Uses of Natural History”; this, in turn, inspired the early environmental

Show More

UPDATED ENG4U Syllabus Essay

Essay about Law and Law Review

William Wordsworth Research Paper

Related Documents: William Wordsworth Research Paper

UPDATED ENG4U Syllabus Essay

Essay about Law and Law Review