How is Nature presented in Romantic Poetry?

Exploring the role of Nature in the works of Romantic Poets William Blake and William Wordsworth.

Nature is presented as an essential constituent within Romantic poetry, encompassing the intrinsic pastoral reverence of poets belonging to the Romantic movement. Both William Blake and William Wordsworth are avid disciples of the championing of the natural world and the demonisation of industrial advancement, characteristic of their positions as prominent Romantic poets. Unlike Wordsworth, who was a Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death, Blake was unheralded during his lifetime – he was only regarded after his death as one of the most influential early critics of industrialisation and its pollution of the pastoral. He criticises the parasitic nature of humanity in The Sick Rose (Songs of Experience), mourning the anthropogenic defilement of Nature and how it has instigated disharmony between Man and Nature. In contrast, Wordsworth was a poet of the sublime landscape, social order and pastoral divinity. In Lines Written in Early Spring, he explores the intimacy between Man and Nature, advocating in his desire for a continuum between the two. Through their poetry, both poets describe the symbiotic relationship between Man and Nature.