Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Charlotte Smith's interpretation on the relationship of nature and man
From Elegiac Sonnets & Other Poems it becomes confusing to really understand what perception Smith has of the relationship that nature has with man. She talks about the positive effects that nature seemingly has on man, however the sonnets always take a shift to the more negative perspective of the relationship. For example, in SONNET VIII. TO SPRING. "--thy prospect fair, thy sounds of harmony, thy balmy air, have power to cure all sadness--but despair." (Smith.) Smith is talking about the beauty of spring and the positive effects it has on all its surroundings. The language she uses in terms of rhyme heightens this positive effect, and the negative tone in the very last line is added in so purposefully and so particularly, that it could almost be missed. This particular placement almost makes the sonnet seem over-realistic about the negative relationship that is caused between the two entities, and until that negativity is realized and comes into consciousness of man, the positive effects will always be over-shadowed by this fact.
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ReplyDeleteI think Maryclaire makes an important point—Smith almost surprises the reader with this negative emotion in the last line. In some ways, the poem mirrors this last line itself. Sadness is more of a visual, surface emotion, and it appears little throughout the poem. But despair is what sticks in this poem. It only appears in the final line, yet once the reader has read that line, they cannot forget about the powerful emotion that lies there, or see the poem without that. In the same way, Smith says the wild can cure sadness—but the despair is still the underlying emotion.
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