William Wordsworth: A Master of Nature

 William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 at Cockermouth in Cumbria. His boyhood was happy; he could roam among the fields of his beloved countryside, in company with Nature and the books he loved (see The Prelude). Both Wordsworth's parents died before he was 15, and he and his four siblings were left in the care of different relatives. Sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, 1787. As a young man, Wordsworth developed a love of nature, a theme reflected in many of his poems.

While studying at Cambridge University, Wordsworth spent a summer holiday on a walking tour in Switzerland and France. He became an enthusiast for the ideals of the French Revolution. He began writing poetry while at school, but none was published until 1793.

In 1795, Wordsworth received a legacy from a close relative, and he and his sister, Dorothy, went to live in Dorset. Two years later, they moved again, this time to Somerset, to live near the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was an admirer of Wordsworth's work. They collaborated on Lyrical Ballads, published in 1798. This collection of poems, mostly by Wordsworth but with Coleridge contributing "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", is generally taken to mark the beginning of the Romantic movement in English poetry. The poems were greeted with hostility by most critics.

In 1799, after a visit to Germany with Coleridge, Wordsworth and Dorothy settled at Dove Cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District. Coleridge lived nearby with his family. Wordsworth's famous poem, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," was written at Dove Cottage in 1804.

In 1802, Wordsworth married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson. The next few years were personally difficult for Wordsworth. Two of his children died, his brother drowned at sea, and Dorothy suffered a mental breakdown. His political views underwent a transformation around the turn of the century, and he became increasingly conservative, disillusioned by events in France culminating in Napoleon Bonaparte taking power.

In 1813, Wordsworth moved from Grasmere to nearby Ambleside. He continued to write poetry, but it was never as great as his early works. After 1835, he wrote little more. In 1842, he was given a government pension and the following year became poet laureate. Wordsworth died on 23 April 1850 and was buried in Grasmere churchyard. His great autobiographical poem, 'The Prelude', which he had worked on since 1798, was published after his death.

1798: "Lyrical Ballads."

This contained not only the noble Tintern Abbey lines (one of Wordsworth's noblest efforts), but also Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. In 1800, a second and enlarged edition of the book was published, with a valuable preface, containing an outline of his "poetical theory". Among the new poems were "Lucy", "The Fountain", "Matthew", and "Nutting", all characteristic of Wordsworth's genius.

1807: Poems in two Volumes.

This contains ballads, short poems, sonnets, the Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, one of the very greatest poems of the century, the Ode to Duty, and the Happy Warrior lines. In these two volumes, we have Wordsworth at the zenith of his powers.

1814: "The Excursion".

Wordsworth's longest poem (largely autobiographical) is full of discussion on man, on nature, and on human life. The Recluse and The Prelude were published after the poet's death. To this year belongs the fine classical study Laodamia.

Many of his Sonnets were written during these years, but his magnificent patriotic sonnets belong to the period 1802-11.

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF WORDSWORTH'S POETRY

WORDSWORTH'S TREATMENT OF NATURE

As a poet of Nature, Wordsworth stands supreme. He is "a worshipper of Nature" : Nature's devotee or high-priest. Nature occupies in his poems a separate or independent status and is not treated in a casual or passing manner. Tintern Abbey is a poem with Nature as its theme.

Wordsworth pursues Nature in a way different from that of Pope. Unlike Pope, Wordsworth sincerely believed that in town life and its distractions, men had forgotten nature and that they had been punished for it. 'Constant social intercourse had dissipated their energy and talents and impaired the susceptibility of their hearts to simple and pure impression. One of his sonnets is eloquent of this idea :

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we waste our powers;

Little do we see in Nature that is ours;

Wordsworth brings a new and intense interest in Nature. Pope looks at Nature as objectively as possible; his view is hardly coloured by his 'hyper-individualism'. It has been stated that the antithesis to Pope's idea of Nature is hyper-individualism. Interestingly enough, Wordsworth's explorations of what Nature had to say to him spring from his 'hyper-individualism'. Thus, with Wordsworth the poetry of Nature took on a new range, passing beyond sensuous presentation and description to vision and interpretation. Under the influence of Nature, he experiences a mystic mood. a transcendental feeling.

FOUR STAGES OF WORDSWORTH'S LOVE OF NATURE

First Stage

He loved the outward appearances of Nature, her grandeur in color and beauty, her form and external features like many other poets of his own and subsequent ages; and with the precision and faithfulness of a lover, he described her form, and experienced a child-like joy in simply describing the details of the features of Nature with wonderful accuracy; 'the periwinkle trails its wreaths' through primrose tufts; the celandine is muffled up in close self-shelter'; the green linnet 'is a brother of the dancing leaves'; the tuft of hazel trees 'twinkles to the gusty breeze'; he heard the two fold song of the cuckoo, he saw the beauty of the 'moon that bares her bosom to the sea'.

Second Stage

But the external features of the land, the sea, the sky, the sun, and the moon were not all the sources of joy to him. "Wordsworth is one of the world's most loving, penetrative, and thoughtful poets of Nature. He found much of his greater joy in the presence of her calm, her beauty, her external revelations of a Divine hand. For Nature possesses a soul, a conscious existence, an ability to feel joy and love". In the Lines Written in Early Spring, he says :

"And 'tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes".

In the Immortality Ode, he incorporates this belief in the lines.

"The moon doth with delight

Look round her when the heavens are bare".

Third Stage

But what was more, he not only conceived that Nature was alive; "it had, he imagined, one living soul, which entering into flower, stream or mountain, gave them each a soul of their own. Between this spirit in nature and the mind of man, there was pre-arranged harmony which enabled nature to communicate its own thoughts to man, and man to reflect upon them, until an absolute union between them was established."

And it was his belief that man makes himself miserable by tearing himself away from the heart of Nature,-by waging a foolish strife with Nature :

But we are pressed by heavy laws-The Fountain.

Fourth Stage

This brooding communion with Nature brought him much wealth of moral illustration, and this he communicated in poetic language for the benefit of the spiritual side in human nature. The poet-philosopher considered it a mission of his life to be a teacher of mankind. Many of the smaller poems were written with the object of teaching mankind the truth that his subjective contemplation revealed to his own mind; such are the Lenser Celandine, The Fountain, and Two April Mornings.

Main Aspects of Wordsworth in the Treatment of Nature

Wordsworth had a complete philosophy of Nature. Four points in his creed of Nature may be noted :

 (a) He conceived of Nature as a living personality. He believed that there is a divine spirit persuading all the objects of Nature. This belief finds a complete expression in Tintern Abbey when he tells us that he has felt the presence of a sublime spirit in the setting sun, the round ocean, the living air, the blue sky, the mind of man, etc. This spirit, he says,

rolls through all things :

A motion and a spirit that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things ....

The guide, the guardian of my heart and soul

Of all my moral being.

This belief in a divine spirit pervading all the objects of Nature is called Pantheism.

(b) Next, Wordsworth believed that the company of Nature gives joy to the human heart. In Tintern Abbey he expresses the joy he feels on revisiting a scene of Nature. Not only is the actual sight of this scene pleasing. The very memory of this scene has, in the past, soothed and comforted his mind; he gained "Sweet sensations” from these objects of Nature in hours of weariness. Nature has a healing influence on troubled minds, as he tells his sister. Wordsworth looked upon Nature as exercising a healing influence on sorrow.

(c) Above all, Wordsworth emphasized the moral influence of Nature. He spiritualized Nature and regarded her as a great moral teacher, as the best mother, guardian, and nurse of man, as an elevating influence. He believed that between Man and Nature there is spiritual intercourse. According to him, Nature deeply influences human character. In Tintern Abbey, he tells his sister Dorothy that "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her", that Nature can impress the human mind with quietness and beauty; that Nature

gives human beings lofty thoughts. He advises Dorothy to let the moon shine on her and the winds blow on her, i.e., to put herself under Nature's influence.

In his eyes, "Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn if we will, and without which any human life is vain and incomplete." He believed in the education of Man by Nature. In this, he was somewhat influenced by Rousseau. This interrelation of Nature and Man is very important in considering Wordsworth's view of both. In Tintern Abbey, he also distinguishes his love for Nature as a boy from his love for her as a man. As a boy, his love for Nature was a physical passion; as a grown-up man, his love for Nature is intellectual or spiritual. As a boy, Nature was an "appetite, with its aching joys and dizzy raptures;" as a man, his love is thoughtful because of the still, sad music of humanity which he has heard.

In the Immortality Ode, he also tells us that as a boy, his love for Nature was a thoughtless passion, but now the objects of Nature take "a sober coloring" from his eyes and give rise to profound thoughts in his mind because he had witnessed the sufferings of humanity :

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that lie too deep for tears.

(d) Wordsworth's attitude to Nature can be clearly differentiated from that of the other great poets of Nature. He did not prefer the wild and stormy aspects of Nature like Byron, or the shifting and changeful aspects of Nature and the scenery of the sea and sky like Shelley, or the purely sensuous in Nature like Keats. It was his special characteristic to concern himself, not with the strange and remote aspects of the earth and sky, but with Nature in her ordinary, familiar, everyday moods. Nor did he recognize the ugly side of Nature; Nature 'red in tooth and claw' as Tennyson did. Wordsworth is to be distinguished from the other poets by the stress he places upon the moral influence of Nature and the need of man's spiritual intercourse with her.

 WORDSWORTH'S PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINE OF NATURE

The philosophical content of The Prelude is made up largely of Wordsworth's doctrine of Nature, which is outlined and repeated in other poems, especially in Tintern Abbey and Lucy's education of nature. It has been rightly pointed out the Wordsworthian philosophy of Nature, with its emphasis upon the divinity of Nature, Nature's holy plan, the one life in the Universe and in Man, the joy in the widest commonalty spread and Nature as a source of wisdom and moral health etc., was derived from the current speculations of the day, to which poets, philosophers and scientists had contributed alike. Wordsworth took these tenets from the deep-rooted convictions of the day and gave them the authenticity of personal experience and the vitality of the poetic expression. Keats has rightly stated that the conventional proverbs, precepts, and dogmas of religion are meaningless to us until they are tested on our pulse, come home to our business and bosom, and have become the formative influences in our moral and spiritual life. This is actually what Wordsworth has confessed in so many words, on so many occasions. There is, therefore, little force in the observation of Arnold and others, including Morley and Raleigh, that the philosophy or doctrine of Nature in the poetry of Wordsworth is an illusion. As a matter of fact, Wordsworth regarded himself with Coleridge as a philosophical poet, and his philosophy, according to his own confessions, was hewn out of his own experiences and entitled him to the position of the teacher of society, which he was anxious to achieve and maintain.

The basic principle of this doctrine is the unity of man and Nature as partakers in the one and the same life, which meant a preordained harmony between the two. Nature was animated by a soul which was the 'Eternity of thought', wisdom, love, joy, and the central peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.' Every object in Nature was alive and full of joy and energy, subsisting in perfect love and concord and waging no strife with other objects, as unfortunately is the case with the human individual and multitudes.

Nature, thus, is best fitted for the position of man's teacher; she brings 'sweet love' as contrasted with the bookish knowledge which is an 'endless strife'. Hence, Wordsworth stresses the necessity of wise passiveness, the attuning of the mind to the mood of nature so that the whole scene may sink into it, or the mind may drink in the influence like a child at the breast of the mother. Thus, it follows that influences of 'deeper birth' are likely to come in solitude.

Nature was 'both law and impulse' with powers to kindle and restrain so that her beauty and fear were equally necessary for the growth of the poet's mind. The Prelude in its early part, is mostly occupied with the growth of the moral sense affected by Nature's ministration of fear in the young poet. But as the story proceeds, the picture of the changing pattern of the relationship between the poet's mind and Nature is clearly unrolled. The four stages distinctly marked in Tintern Abbey are present in The Prelude also, and have been described by Prof. Dowden as those of blood, senses, heart, or imagination and spirit. The first is the stage of childhood when he either ‘bounded as a fawn', unmindful of Nature, or received suggestions through fear inspired by her. The second stage covers boyhood and youth when his heart awakened to the loveliness of nature and 'sounding cataracts haunted him' like a passion, and the form and color of the objects absorbed his whole heart. But as he advanced in life and came face to face with the suffering of humanity, especially during his stay in France, the 'wild joys and giddy raptures of youth mingled with the melancholy note of experience :

The still sad music of humanity

Nor harsh, nor grating, but with ample

Power to chasten and subdue.

It is a Being which pervades the universe, as described in the Tintern Abbey in the grand but well-known passage, as something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of the setting sun and the wide ocean, and the living air and in the mind of man, a spirit and motion which moves all thinking things and all objects of all thought, and 'rolls through all things'. This was Pantheism, the identification of God with Nature, which was anti-Christian. As Wordsworth advanced in age and his revolutionary fervor declined into the sober light of orthodoxy, he began to re-examine the early version of The Prelude (1806) in order to make its doctrine more conformable to the Christian sentiment. The pantheistic passage in The Prelude, therefore, is immediately followed by verses which place God, the Uncreated, above and beyond His creation, so that the objects of Nature are made to look up to Him and sing the one song of thanks and glorification of His mercy and might.

The final position reached in The Prelude is a further modification of Pantheism. Growth of mind means the growth of Imagination, which is at once 'the amplitude of mind, and Reason in her most exalted mood' and an aspect of Love and intellectual sympathy of thought soaked in feeling. The great mind with its full-grown imagination faces Nature, a reservoir of beauty, power, and energy, and the exquisite 'wedding' of the two is productive of the best and greatest of poetry.

This partnership between Mind and Nature is based upon 'mutual domination which means that sometimes the mind can change and transfigure nature by its own energy and imagination, but on other occasions it is caught by the spontaneous beauty and grandeur on the face of Nature, as angels are caught by the higher harmony of heaven as they enter the celestial domain after their journey through the other regions in the sky.

The difference from the transcendental philosophy finally adopted by Coleridge is quite apparent. In this philosophy, nature is made alive by the mind of man, and the 'object' becomes one with the subject; it is a philosophic 'monism', while the Wordsworthian doctrine is based on 'dualism'; the entities of mind and Nature are wedded together but not fully identified, each retaining its separate strength to modify and color the other. He believes that God shines through all the objects of Nature, investing them with a celestial light- “a light that never was on sea or land”. He finds him in the shining  of the stars; he "marks Him in the flowering of the fields". This immanence of God in Nature gives him mystic visions. Nature is no longer a mere vegetation; Subject to the law of growth and decay; not a collection of objects to be described but a manifestation of God. Nature is a Revelation and Wordsworth is the prophet.

. He believes that God shines through all the objects of Nature, investing them with a celestial light- “a light that never was on sea or land”. He finds him in the shining  of the stars; he "marks Him in the flowering of the fields". This immanence of God in Nature gives him mystic visions. Nature is no longer a mere vegetation; Subject to the law of growth and decay; not a collection of objects to be described but a manifestation of God. Nature is a Revelation and Wordsworth is the prophet.

WORDSWORTH'S PANTHEISM

Pantheism is the belief that God and Nature are one and the same, or that a divine spirit exists in all things. In the poetry of William Wordsworth, nature is not just scenery—it is alive, spiritual, and divine. His pantheism is gentle, emotional, and philosophical rather than strictly religious. Pantheism is a central feature of his poetry. He believed that a divine spirit pervades all elements of nature, and that God and nature are essentially one. In poems like Tintern Abbey and Ode: Intimations of Immortality, Wordsworth describes nature as a living presence that inspires, guides, and morally shapes human beings. Unlike traditional religious views where God is separate from creation, Wordsworth sees the divine spirit existing within mountains, rivers, trees, and even the human soul. His pantheism is emotional and intuitive, expressing a deep spiritual unity between man and the natural world. Wordsworth believed that nature is filled with a universal spirit. In his poetry, mountains, rivers, clouds, flowers, and even silence seem alive. In Tintern Abbey, he speaks of:

A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts...

Here, nature is not lifeless. It has a “presence”—a spiritual force that inspires and uplifts the human soul.

This shows that for Wordsworth:

• Nature is not separate from God.
• The divine spirit exists within nature itself.

 THE CONCEPT OF  “UNIVERSAL SPIRIT”

In Ode: Intimations of Immortality, Wordsworth suggests that human beings come from a spiritual world and gradually forget their divine origin as they grow older. This idea supports his pantheistic view. He believed that:

One life flows through all things.

This idea reflects pantheism — everything is connected through one eternal spirit.

Wordsworth’s pantheistic ideas were strengthened through his friendship with Coleridge. Together, in Lyrical Ballads, they began the Romantic movement, which emphasized:

• Emotion over reason
• Nature over artificial society
• Imagination over logic

Romanticism naturally encouraged pantheistic thought.

 EMOTIONAL PANTHEISM

Wordsworth’s pantheism is not philosophical like Spinoza’s system. It is emotional and intuitive. He feels the divine presence rather than arguing about it logically. His poetry shows joy in flowers and clouds, spiritual peace in solitude, deep unity between man and nature, nature as divine, the universe as spiritually unified, the human soul as connected with nature, and God present in all natural objects

His poetry transforms simple natural scenes into spiritual experiences. Through pantheism, Wordsworth gives nature a sacred dimension and makes it the source of moral and emotional growth.

The pantheism of William Wordsworth is a central feature of his poetry. He believed that a divine spirit pervades all elements of nature, and that God and nature are essentially one. In poems like Tintern Abbey and Ode: Intimations of Immortality, Wordsworth describes nature as a living presence that inspires, guides, and morally shapes human beings. Unlike traditional religious views where God is separate from creation, Wordsworth sees the divine spirit existing within mountains, rivers, trees, and even the human soul. His pantheism is emotional and intuitive, expressing a deep spiritual unity between man and the natural world

Wordsworth came to believe that beneath the matter of the universe there was a soul, a living principle, acting, even thinking. It may be living, at least, speaking to him, communicating itself to him :

In all things, in all natures, in the stars,

This active principle abides, from link to link,

It circulates the soul of all the worlds.

WORDSWORTH'S MYSTICISM

Aubrey de Vere speaks of Wordsworth as a mystic. Indeed, his mysticism is such a fundamental and pervading element in his poems that it must be considered very carefully. Wordsworth believes that God pervades the entire Universe, both animate and inanimate. He believes that God shines through all the objects of Nature, investing them with a celestial light- “a light that never was on sea or land”. He finds Him in the shining of the stars; he "marks Him in the flowering of the fields". This immanence of God in Nature gives him mystic visions. Nature is no longer a mere vegetation; Subject to the law of growth and decay, not a collection of objects to be described, but a manifestation of God. Nature is a Revelation, and Wordsworth is the prophet.

 It is in the thought of God that the Universe exists, and its life is in God's thought. Not only that, the life in every flower, bud, insect, and mossy stone on the hillside is a part of the Divine Life. As such, Nature (and every object in it) has a life of its own. And it is even conscious of it. That is why Wordsworth, in all his moods of inspired ecstasy or calm contemplation, is thrilled through and through with the sense of some inscrutable presence in Nature to which the soul of a man is linked by some mysterious bond of connection :

I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things.

WORDSWORTH'S THEORY OF POETIC DICTION

In his preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth thus sets forth his aims. "The principal object proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them throughout in a selection of the language really used by men, and at the same time, to throw over them a certain colouring of the imagination whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect". He goes on to say that "humble and rustic life was generally chosen because in that condition the essential passions of the heart find a better soil, in which they can attain their maturity, realism under restraint and speak a plainer and more emphatic language.' In the above statement, we get some important points regarding Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction.

Firstly, in the choice of subjects or themes, Wordsworth goes straight to common life, and, by preference to humble and rustic life(Cf-Michael, The Solitary Reaper).

Secondly, Wordsworth describes his themes taken from humble and rustic life as far as possible in a selection of language actually used by ordinary men. He does not look with favour upon the pompous and stilted cirçumlocution of the eighteenth century writers who delighted in using gaudy language.

Thirdly, Wordsworth says that while choosing his themes from common and rustic life and describing them in the language of the common people, his object is to "throw over them a certain coloring of the imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to

the mind in an unusual aspect".

 WORDSWORTH'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND POETIC DICTION

Wordsworth does not present a formal religious doctrine; instead, he expresses a deep feeling that a living spirit pervades the natural world. He is best known for his deep love of nature, simple language, and focus on human emotions and imagination. Wordsworth changed English poetry by moving away from artificial language and focusing on real human experience and natural beauty.

Wordsworth held certain theories of language and poetic diction that deeply influenced his work. He disliked intensely the artificial diction employed by the 18th century poets. Loving as he did Nature and the simple ways of rustics who hourly communed with the beautiful objects of Nature, he considered simple language to be a better medium for poetry than the conventional diction used by poets of the time. In his famous Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, he enunciated his theories. He said that he was going to use "a selection of the language really used by men", and this chiefly "in humble and rustic life," and "at the same time to throw over (the incidents described) a certain colouring of imagination". He also said that "there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and verse."

MORAL VALUE OF WORDSWORTH'S POETRY

Wordsworth's poetry is characterised by a restrained yet undaunted optimism. He holds that life, despite its manifold evils, is yet good and worth living. The evils themselves are stepping-stones to good. Our virtues are developed through suffering. Man is not alone in the world, nor alone in his suffering, because God is always and everywhere present to protect and support him. Man can rise above his suffering by calling to his aid his own moral strength and the resources of Divine Providence. Faith in God, and faith in a glorious human destiny-this is the solution of the problem of earthly life. It is a creed full of lofty spiritualism, and Wordsworth could justifiably claim that his poetry would cooperate with the benign tendencies in human nature in making man nobler, purer, and better.

WORDSWORTH: THE TEACHER "A TEACHER

Wordsworth once said, "Every great poet is a teacher. I wish either to be considered as a teacher, or as nothing." It appears, therefore, that Wordsworth wrote poetry more in order to teach than to answer the urge of his poetic soul. But this is only one side of the truth about the poetical work of Wordsworth. Though his aim was to teach, he was preeminently a poet. He combines, as every poet does, the functions of a poet and a teacher. How does a poet teach? He teaches not by giving out moral precepts and maxims, as a moralist or a theologian does; he teaches by presenting before the world a new vision of life. He sees beyond the surface things, and the truth which he perceives and realises, he expresses in his own way. Every good poet reveals a new aspect of truth, which his contact with life has revealed to him. He finds something which nobody else has found before; he discovers a new beauty, a new wonder in the common facts of life; he beholds it with joy and communicates it to the world. This new vision that the poet discloses is not only beautiful and glorious, but also provides us with a new angle from which to look at life. It is like clearing our blurred sight and exciting our dull minds. And because the poet speaks in the language of feeling, his poetry penetrates deep into our hearts and refines our feelings. He does not educate the mind so much as he elevates the soul. He does not teach as the schoolmaster does, but moves the springs of feeling and emotion and thus raises the moral and spiritual level of mankind. Where Wordsworth consciously and deliberately teaches, his poetry flags and becomes dull and prosaic; where he presents his vision of life, his teaching is merged in his poetry, which thrills and inspires.

 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS IN WORDSWORTH'S POETRY

Every great poet expresses through his work his imaginative vision of life, and the quality of his poetry depends upon the depth and range of his vision. And this vision of the poet is the most essential quality of himself, apart from his vision; he is like any other man, and to this vision he gives a poetic vesture. This is his real and essential poetry.

The three great poems which are distinctly and frankly autobiographical are Lines Composed Above Tintern Abbey (1798), The Prelude (1799-1805), and Ode on the Intimations of Immortality (1806). Besides these three poems, there are many others, like the Matthew poems, Ode to Duty, Peele Castle, some sonnets, and probably the Lucy poems, which have an autobiographical interest and reveal the mind and personality of the poet. Wordsworth is always subjective in his treatment of nature and man; his lyrics are all self-revealing. But there are some poems, like those mentioned above, in which the poet either describes his life and experiences or directly reveals some aspect of his personality.