Poets of Nature

by
Karen L. Israel

Two poets were blazing new roads together but their attitude towards life has made all the difference. William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley were poets who greatly love nature. They were never alone with nature and spend most of the time contemplating about life. Both poets were very good when it comes to producing of well-defined rhythmic lines. But these masters of literature were too far different from each other especially when it comes to their outlook about life.

William found hope and faith in his kinship with nature and God while Percy dwelt on nature’s beauty itself. Wordsworth has a definite philosophy of life; on the other hand, Shelley is like a wanderer following a beautiful vague vision, forever sad and forever dissatisfied. Unlike Percy who is very pessimistic and cynical, William is his equal oppositehe believed that in childhood, one is extremely sensitive to all natural influences and represents the beauty and gladness of the world. Shelley was widely misunderstood by his contemporaries unlike William who was loved by his fellow writers. Wordsworth lived long until old age but Shelley died young in a self- imposed exile from England.