by Drew Woodson

Created on: January 19, 2009

Against the smoky backdrop of begrimed cities, Romantic and Transcendentalist writers criticize industrialization as an unhealthy divergence from nature. These writers describe both the cities and nature with vivid images. By idealizing nature, authors like William Wordsworth and Henry David Thoreau show a contrast to the cruelties of city-life. In his more direct criticisms, William Blake focuses on specific images, usually describing the absence of nature. Throughout their works, these writers form a cohesive protest to the smoke and the poverty of the industrial revolution using descriptions of nature to elaborate their criticisms.

Although all of these authors include nature in their works, each uses nature with a specific function. While Wordsworth idealizes nature through figurative language, Blake points out its absence through juxtaposition and irony. Thoreau uses nature in extended metaphors that explain his philosophy on the progress of man. These diverse uses spring from the common problems and the prevalent questions brought by the rapid industrialization of the United States and Great Britain. The writers of the 19th century use these assorted literary devices to entangle nature and industrialization in a discussion on the changing state of their society.

As a Romantic, William Wordsworth seeks truth about society in nature. To him, nature is the perfect teacher of the truest knowledge. His poems reflect this belief by idealizing nature in figurative language. He declares nature's calming effects in "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" when he personifies the sleeping city. To Wordsworth, "the beauty of the morning" seems to clothe the city "like a garment" (1). He uses this simile to underscore the purity of nature and its positive effects on the city. He leaves the city in surreal inaction, however, to suggest that when the sun rises above its "first splendour," the city will awaken, the air will no longer be "smokeless," and nature will retreat to the countryside. Wordsworth equates nature with peace and openly worries that humankind will lose nature's gifts. In "The World is Too Much with Us," Wordsworth echoes this concern: "Little we see in Nature that is ours;/ We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" This "sordid boon," or filthy gift, separates humankind from nature. In that poem, Wordsworth clearly states that humankind "lay[s] waste" to its own powers by buying and selling nature, something not rightfully owned by

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