Throughout the year, one of our main endeavors in this course has been to identify and understand different conceptions of nature and how it relates to man in the Romantic and Victorian literature we have read. We have studied how scientific advancements, economic theory, politics, and social changes have influenced the authors’ understandings. In addition, I would argue that the authors’ treatment and conceptualization of time is often inextricably linked to the way they understand and portray man, nature, and the relationship between them in their work. Conceptions of the nature and its relationship to man have changed over time, but poets across the 17th and 18th century have viewed differences temporality as a divisive factor creating a conceptual separation between man and nature, and based on whether authors consider the past, present or future, nature may seem distinct or distant from man or intimately related.
Nineteenth century geology had a profound impact on Victorian writers and their understanding and treatment of time. During this era, Geology was at the forefront of science, boasting a “wide amateur following” and spurring efforts to map the land in Britain’s various colonies (Victorian Geology; Miguasha).
A page from the notebook of Sir William Logan, who began mapping land in Canada
In the 1820’s the field featured a debate between uniformitarians, and catastrophists.Uniformists like Charles Lyell emphasized gradual change and posited that the same geological processes (such as erosion and sediment deposition) were occurring today as they had in the past (Charles Lyell). Catastrophists such as Cuvier held that geological history was permeated by catastrophes that caused extinctions of many species at a time (Darwin). Uniformism as well as Lamarck’s theories which posited the inheritance of acquired characteristics as opposed to spontaneous generation posed threats to the tenets of Christianity and indicated an immensely ancient earth (Clifford, Landow). Williams states in his essay, that before the scientific developments in the 19th century "the laws of nature were indeed constitutional, but unlike most real constitutions they had no effective history." (73). Yet the work of these scientists prompted poets to consider earth’s past, which influenced their conceptions of nature.
Algernon Charles Swinburne’s consideration and presentation of time and temporality is highly influenced by geological theory and is inseparable from his conceptions of nature, man and the way they relate. In his poems “The Forsaken Garden” and “The Garden of Proserpine,” differences in temporality create a conceptual divide between man and nature. These works emphasize the temporary nature of men’s lives. Yet nature is presented as practically timeless, and nature’s time is cyclical and regenerative on account of the season. In “the Forsaken Garden,” Swinburne seems to argue that though man has the power to alter nature, nature will greatly outlive man’s influence and reclaim any of his adjustments. The poem begins by presenting the“ghost of a garden,” a type of nature that has been arranged by human hands but is now “Guestless” (4, 13). Though the flowers he planted are gone, the garden is being reclaimed by weeds and features “Thorns that are touched not of time” (20). The abstract figure of man has disappeared but the narrator explains, “The wind that wanders, the weeds wind-shaken, / These remain” (23, 24). Man and nature are opposing forces, yet man’s influence is temporary. Nature is long-lasting, and as seasonal rebirth continues to occur, nature eventually triumphs while man’s memory is erased. In “The Garden of Proserpine,” death creates a literal spacial separation of man from the natural processes of Earth as men must dwell in the realm of the Proserpine after they expire. Proserpine “waits for all men born; / Forgets the earth her mother, / The life of fruits and corn; / And spring and seed and swallow / Take wing for her and follow / Where summer song rings hollow (57-64). This realm of man’s death is devoid of fertility and the seasonal rebirth that occurs in nature on earth. Nature is timeless but “Time stoops to no man’s lure;” and man is fated to die (76). The author exclaims, “From too much love of living, / From hope and fear set free, / We thank with brief thanksgiving / Whatever gods may be / That no life lives for ever; / That dead men rise up never; / That even the weariest river / Winds somewhere safe to sea” (81-88). Though this conceptualization of the afterlife was considered pessimistic by many in our class discussion as well as in posts by David and Nicolas, I believe death is not presented as frightening, but seductive, and a welcome rest. Both man’s sorrow and his passion are exhausting and death is a peaceful sleep that the author is grateful for. Swinbourne is an atheist like many who were unable to marry scientific advancements of the period with Christianity and does not believe in the second coming, so this sleep is eternal as well. Because death is human, it has no part in the world devoid of man of “the Forsaken garden,” and Swinburne explains, “Here death may deal not again forever;
/ Here change may come not till all change end” (66).
The seasons may continue to change long past men have disappeared, but Swinbourne believes that all things come to an end, and so shall nature. True death of nature only occurs when there is no more seasonal rebirth, or when all change ends. In the garden of Proserpine he explains, “Then star nor sun shall waken, / Nor any change of light: / Nor sound of waters shaken, / Nor any sound or sight: / Nor wintry leaves nor vernal, / Nor days nor things diurnal; Only the sleep eternal / In an eternal night” (89-96). Unlike Byron’s man-driven apocalypse, Swinburn’s end of the world occurs due to natural processes. “Death lies dead,” he argues “Till the slow sea rise and the sheer cliff crumble, / Till terrace and meadow the deep gulfs drink / Till the strength of the waves of the high tides humble / The fields that lessen, the rocks that shrink” (73 - 76).Here we see the influence of nineteenth century geology as Swinburne describes the geological processes of erosion and change in sea level. Nature is depicted as self devouring, and its end is gradual just like geological change.
Though pursuit of wealth is the main factor that separates man from nature in “Beachy Head,” Charlotte Smith uses tense, examination of the passage of time and presentation of the temporary nature of the lives of men to divide man and nature conceptually. Smith is moved to sublime awe by Beachy Head, the “stupendous summit, rock sublime” (1).
When she considers the past of this massive mountain, which now towers over the ocean as apparent in the image above, she is still impressed, and wonders, “did this range of chalky mountains, once / Form a vast bason, where the Ocean waves / Swell'd fathomless? What time these fossil shells, / Buoy'd on their native element, were thrown / Among the imbedding calx: when the huge hill / Its giant bulk heaved, and in strange ferment / Grew up a guardian barrier, 'twixt the sea / And the green level of the sylvan weald” (382-389). Here we see that Smith is quite familiar with 19th century geological knowledge such as the way sediment layers trap fossils and how the rise or fall of the sea level changes slowly over vast periods of time. The hulking mountain has survived the great passage of time and the elements of nature such as the ocean are depicted as endless. While Beachy Head has only grown more imposing over time, Smith depicts all human attempts at greatness eventually crumble. She explains, “Contemplation here, High on her throne of rock, aloof may sit, / And bid recording Memory unfold /
Her scroll voluminous--bid her retrace / The period, when from Neustria's hostile shore
/ The Norman launch'd his galleys, and the bay
/ O'er which that mass of ruin frowns even now” (117-123). Remembering human strivings across the passage of time proves only how temporary human achievements are. The Norman palace, built to express the achievements of by a race of great conquerors lies in ruin, yet the natural throne of Beachy Head remains high and mighty. Smith achieves transcendence from standing upon Beachy Head, nature’s triumph and only negative feelings from remembering human’s past. She cries, “Hither, Ambition, come! / Come and behold the nothingness of all / For which you carry thro' the oppressed Earth[…]the pirate Dane, / who from his circular camp / Bore in destructive robbery, fire and sword
/ Down thro' the vale, sleeps unremember'd here;” (419 - 421). Here Smith shows that human life is temporary and insignificant and men are unable to achieve any sort of immortality through being remembered.
Not all examination of the past so violently divides man from nature in this poem – Smith implies that personal memory can be used to maintain an emotional connection with nature when physically separated from a treasured environment. Though she presents humans and nature as conceptually separate entities, Smith’s poem implies that the individual human can commune with nature and experience an intense emotional connection, such as that which occurs when beholding the sublime. Yet this can only occur in a specific environment, like that of Beachy Head or the surrounding hills. In his post, Cole mentions the importance of this quote, which exhibits the painful separation that Smith feels from her childhood home “I once was happy, when while yet a child, / I learn'd to love these upland solitudes, / And, when elastic as the mountain air,
/ To my light spirit, care was yet unknown And evil unforeseen:--Early it came, / And childhood scarcely passed, I was condemned,
/ A guiltless exile, silently to sigh,
/ While Memory, with faithful pencil, drew / The contrast; and regretting, I compar'd / With the polluted smoky atmosphere” (291). Smith believes happiness is achieved through a connection with nature, yet this only occurs in a specific environment. Smith is able to experience some solace by returning to this environment through memory, and she cries, “Ah! hills so early loved! in fancy still
I breathe your pure keen air; and still behold
Those widely spreading views, mocking alike / The Poet and the Painter's utmost art.” When she recreates the sublime environment in her mind she experiences joy once again. Yet any representation, whether in memory, poetry or art cannot completely recreate the sublime environment, and more lasting happiness can only occur in this specific place.
Dorothy Wordsworth also emphasizes the importance of place in her work and seems to feel an intense connection with her surroundings that translates into an excessive present-based perspective of time. Though her diaries are written in the past tense, Dorothy is completely absorbed in her daily happenings and the surroundings in which they occur. Almost every day Dorothy comments on the weather and consistently spouts a seemingly endless list of rarely engages in any reflection or remembering in her journal. For example she lists, “Went a part of the way home with Coleridge in the morning. Gathered fir apples afterwards under the trees. I went to the shoemaker’s. William lay under the trees till my return. Afterwards went to the secluded farm house in search of eggs, and returned over the hill” (Alfoxden Journal, 148). Though Dorothy muses over the events of her day and her journals seem to largely lack an interior life, she does record her emotions and her profound sadness permeates her journals. Yet again, Dorothy neglects to engage in any reflection of these feelings, for to do so would effect a disengagement from her present environment that she is so interested in describing. Instead is seems that her emotions are projected onto the environment where she can process them and remain in the moment. “The evening cold and clear. The sea of a sober grey, streaked by the deeper gray clouds. The half dead sound of the near sheep-bell, in the hollow of the sloping coombe” (Alfoxden Journal, 142). The sorrow Dorothy feels appears in the gray tone of the day and the sound of the bell. Dorothy’s surroundings and the events that occur within them overshadow any interior-life, placing her journal in a present-based state.
The way these authors understand nature, man, and the relationship between them is manifested in the way they treat time in their work. In his essay “Ecology without nature,” Morton argues that "Nature wavers in between the divine and the material," which I believe accurately describes the nature of Swinburnes poems and beachy head (14) "Nature" as a concept is imbued with a sort of timelessness and exemption from death, yet it makes up the thorns and weeds of the forsaken garden, as well as the cliff of Beachy head. Humans on the other hand live fleeting lives and are quickly forgotten. Smith also subscribes to the concept of the sublime, which dictates that an emotional connection and communion with nature, and the way she treats memory in her work implies that this can be achieved in a certain type of awesome place. Yet Dorothy Wordsworth is places so much importance on place and environment that her journal is extremely present-oriented and her work boasts very little reflection or remembering.
Sources
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Clifford, David. "Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)." The Victorian Web. N.p., 14 September 2004. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.
“Darwin and Evolution.” The Victorian Web. N.p., 1999. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. < http://www.victorianweb.org/science/darwin/darwin5.html>
Logan, Sir William. Logan’s notebook. Canada Archives, 1843. Print.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. "A Forsaken Garden." Bartleby.com. Bartleby, n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2011.
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. "The Garden of Proserpine." Bartleby.com. Bartleby, n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2011.
"The geology craze of the 19th century." From Water To Land. Miguasha National Park. Virtual Museum of Canada., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2011.
van Wyhe, John. "Charles Lyell (1797-1875) gentleman geologist." The Victorian Web. N.p., 28 September 2002. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.
van Wyhe, John. "Victorian Geology." The Victorian Web. N.p., 3 June 2002. Web. 18 Dec. 2011. < http://www.victorianweb.org/science/geology.htm>
Williams, Raymond. "Ideas of Nature." Culture and Materialism. London: Verso, 2005. Print.
Wordsworth, Dorthy. The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals. 1991. Reprint. Oxford: Oxford's World Classics, 2008. Print.
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