NATURE AS POETRY

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH He was born in the year 1770. He was one of the famous authors of

romantic era. His writings were based on love,

fascination, obsession, myth and nature. He produced a style of writing which was

psychologically persuasive and based on direct autobiographical experience.

A majority of Wordsworth’s literature expressed his obsession with nature.

He devoted his life to poetry and used his feelings for nature to express himself and how he evolved.

He died in the year 1850.

William Wordsworth(1770-1850)

WORDSWORTH’S VIEWS ON NATURE

The poet did not always have the same idea about nature.

He even reflected doubts upon nature in some of his poems such as ‘The Prelude’, and ‘Tintern Abbey’.

In these poems he exhibits some of his hesitation about nature and the benefits that it can provide to the society.

He says nature keeps all his powers in healthy state of integration so a child of nature has imagination because he educates his principle from the beginning.

In addition, he says nature has the powers of purifying the feelings of beauty and fear.

His relationship with nature later became more complex and mature because of the events that were taking place in his life and according to growth of his mind.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE He was born on 7 May, 1861. He was a nature pioneer and sought harmony

between progress and preservation. He was also an artist, novelist, playwright,

philosopher and freedom fighter. His poems are filled with amorous and mystical

themes. It ranged from nature to patriotism. He wrote beautiful and mystical poems right

from his childhood. He read in a school at Santiniketan. Later he

read law at University College, London. In 1874, his first poem Abhilaash was published. In 1883, he married Mrinalini Devi. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in

1931. He died on 7 August, 1941.

Rabindranath Tagore(1861-

1941)

SONG VII OF GITANJALI AND ITS TRANSLATION

“ Amar e gan chherechhe tar shokol olongkar Tomar kachhe rakhe ni ar shajer ohongkar. Olongkar je majhe pore milonete aral kore, Tomar kotha dhake je tar mukhoro jhongkar.

Tomar kachhe khate na mor kobir gorbo Mohakobi tomar paee dite chai je dhora. Jibon loi joton kori jodi shorol bashi gori, Apon shure dibe bhori shokol chhidro tar.”

“My song has put off her adornments She has no pride of dress and decoration Ornaments would mar our union, they would

come Between thee and me, their jingling would drown

thy whispers.

My poets vanity dies in shame before thy sight O master poet, I have sat down at thy feet. Only let me make my life simple and straight, like a flute of reed for thee to feel with music . “

“The earth paints a portrait of the sun at dawn

with sunflowers in bloom. Unhappy with the portrait, she erases it and paints it again and

again.” --

Rabindranath Tagore

Tagore’s home at Shelaidaha in Kushtia District, Bangladesh.

TAGORE’S VIEWS ON NATURE

He was a nature pioneer and sought harmony between progress and preservation.

Nature with its colours, perfume, and beauty enchanted Tagore.

However this feeling of enchantment did not change him, rather it freed him.

It gave him the chance to expand to step outside himself.

To him, the essence of his freedom was his love for the universe and nature.

RAGHUNATH CHOUDHRY He was born in a small village at Laopara,in

Kamrup district of Assam in 1879. He got high school education in Guwahati. Later,

he worked as a teacher for few days and then went back to cultivation.

During this time, he started poetic creations. He contributed many poems to Assamese

literature. Raghunath had a poetic bend of mind since his

early days. His poems were based on love of nature, human

love and affection, spiritualism, devotion to knowledge and renunciation, etc.

Some of his famous poems are Keteki, Karbala, Dahikatara, Sadari, Navamallika, etc.

He died on 5 November, 1967.

Raghunath Choudhry (1879-1967)

CHOUDHURY’S VIEWS ON NATURE

He very keenly observed nature and was very much attached to it. His love of nature is unique and uncommon in the Assamese literature. In his poems, we find a poet deeply admiring the beauty of birds and flowers of nature. Beautiful objects and brilliant colours of nature brings in him a poetic mind. He considers nature as a friend, philosopher and a guide. He is a worshiper of nature. In his poem ‘Sakhiloi’ he writes about his childhood, hills,

woods, open fields,etc. He considers nature not only to have life but feelings also.

COMPARISON OF THE VIEWS OF THE POETS

Both Raghunath Choudhry and William Wordsworth were worshippers of nature. The two poets were of different ages. They believe that nature is the guiding principle and the best teacher for man. Both of them inspired the thoughts of man and awakened their love for nature with noble ideas of life. Raghunath Choudhry explored the potential of Assamese romantic poetry that worked as an inspiration for younger poets to write poems with new confidence and spirit. Both of them belonged to different age and culture but their poems regarding nature were completely extraordinary and unique.

“I have travelled around the world to see the tallest mountains and the deepest oceans. But I never took a few steps from my own doorsteps to see the beauty in dewdrops of a blade of grass.” --- Rabindranath Tagore

The main interest of Rabindranath Tagore was the impact of nature on men. So he wrote a lot of poems related to nature and men. Tagore had deep sense of feeling for nature from his childhood. He feels special when he is among the trees and clouds. He can even feel the tune with the musical touch of the slogans in air.

Tagore’s poems had also inspired a lot of younger poets and made them realise about the love of nature.

Tagore’s poems are somewhat similar to

those of Wordsworth’s. In Tagore’s poems we can deeply feel the relation between men and nature.

Similarly, in Wordsworth’s and Choudhry’s

poems we find love towards nature, the feelings when they see flowers blooming in the green field, birds flying in the sky and the beauty of hills and mountains. All the three poets have already known the real happiness to be a part of this beautiful nature and so they have praised this God’s creation wholeheartedly through their writings. All these three poets can be truly considered as lovers of nature.

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