The Love of Nature

The Love of Nature

Although William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge are both romantic poets, they describe nature in very different ways. Coleridge emphasizes the tragic and supernatural aspects of nature, while Wordsworth uses stories of everyday life and emphasizes the tranquility of nature. To guarantee a relationship with nature, Wordsworth uses imagery and comparison in 'Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey' while Coleridge does the opposite in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. For Wordsworth nature seems to identify the love and suffering of the character. The scenery is observed as an internal feeling rather than an exterior scene. Wordsworth's idea is that poetry is created by the tranquility that nature puts forth. On the other hand, Coleridge believes that poetry is developed from nature. In reading the poems 'Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey' by Wordsworth and 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Coleridge, ultimately seeing a difference in the tranquil atmosphere shown by Wordsworth and the supernatural images by Coleridge, the poems show the writers approach on nature in their lives.

In 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', Coleridge demonstrates how going against nature brings trouble to the perpetrator. In this poem, the mariner kills the giant sea-bird, the albatross, which evidently symbolizes nature. And in return nature takes revenge by cursing the ship the mariner is traveling on. Coleridge expresses the cruel, dark side of the sea, and shows how powerful nature truly is. He created those dark images in order to demand respect for nature. Because the ancient mariner killed the albatross, he has to undergo personal suffering, loneliness, and fear. Coleridge begins describing the regret of the mariner after the albatross is killed. "And I had done a hellish thing, and it would work 'em woe: for all averred, I had killed the bird that made the breeze to blow" ( The Ancient Mariner, lines 91-94). The Mariner gets worried because all the shipmates suddenly believe he killed the bird of good luck. "Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'twas sad as sad could be; and we did speak only to break the silence of the sea" (The Ancient Mariner, lines 107-110). Soon after, the albatross begins to take revenge on the ship, and the sea becomes strange; there is no wind, the sun turns red, and slimy sea snakes appear. Nature then makes the mariner feel lonely. "Four times fifty living men / with heavy thump, a lifeless lump. They dropped down one by one" (The Ancient Mariner, line 216-219). All of his shipmates suddenly die, and the curse on the mariner began.

The mariner has been travelling for seven days into open seas with the dead shipmates around him; "Is the curse in a dead man's eye! Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, and yet I could not die" (The Ancient Mariner, lines 260-262). While still surrounded by dead shipmates, and the albatross hanging from his neck the mariner could not pray to relieve him from this curse, but while watching the sea snakes in the water he discovered their beauty. "A spring of love gusht from my heart, and I blessed them unaware" (The Ancient Mariner, lines 284-285). Without knowing, he broke the curse by realizing the beauty of nature that's surrounding him, and the albatross fell from his neck into the sea. Nature then brings him rain to quench his thirst and the wind from the Polar Spirit eventually pushes the ship to his native country, the English coast. However, the mariner is never fully saved from the curse because the Polar Spirit loved the albatross that loved the mariner. Therefore, when the mariner killed the albatross