Nature and life

Nature and life, can be intertwined with each other as one is inherently a part of the other. The last portion of our semester we traveled into the nature aspects of poetry.   Nature, Oxford English definition is senses relating to physical or bodily power, strength or substance.  Life whether it is human or animal is a universal subject that is connected in poetry that transcends time, regardless of the perceptions and the Nature and life are two subjects that are universal and without them nothing would exist, as life is found in nature and what is more natural than life? Nature is what connects every living thing from human life, plant life, animal life, all life forms in our universe.   

            My initial interest in life and nature was when we began the poem “The funeral” by John Donne, the lines “if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall Through every part Can tie those parts, and make me one of all, Those hairs which upward grew, and strength and art have from a better brain,” in these lines there is a piece of emotion that connected intently with brain movements and motions.  The words sinewy thread caught my eye, there was an annotation in the book that referred to this as the inside of the brain, where much of the activity is connected.  At the time mental illness was strongly stigmatized and obsessions and romantic love were often confused, if diagnosed as an illness a possible solution was a lobotomy.  Life is important for death, without one the other cannot exist, life exists in our realities, including those who have mental illness, whether it a societal judgment, during the times of the poem. Donne expresses the worship the narrator has for this woman “Whate'er she meant by ‘it, bury it with me, for since I am love's martyr, it might breed idolatry” the infatuation of her, the suggestion of idolatry, the value of women, their personhood was entirely wrapped in their sexual purity, a virgin woman was considered the ideal woman.  The image of a virgin until marriage was worshipped and idolized, the ultimate self-worth of their life is tied into this factor, whether or not a woman was worthy of honor and respect in society.  Donne extends the annoyance of the narrator for not consummating the relationship with him. “To afford to it all that a soul can do, so, 'tis some bravery that since you would have none of me, I bury some of you.”  She will have none of him, the time of the poem was the early 16^th century where purity and chastity was the pinnacle of womanhood, and sex was reserved for marriage and was used mainly for conception.  According to (womenshistorynetwork, 2011) “relished the reluctance with which the Pursuers youth and innocence made her admit the first embraces of a Husband”,  sex is one of the most natural act in basic humans, through this method until the late 20^th century was the only for human life to begin and humans to continue. 

Nature and life, can be intertwined with each other as one is inherently a part of the other. The last

portion of our semester we traveled into the nature aspects of poetry.   Nature, Oxford English 

definition is senses relating to physical or bodily power, strength or substance.  Life whether it is

 human or animal is a universal subject that is connected in poetry that transcends time, regardless of

 the perceptions and the Nature and life are two subjects that are universal and without them nothing 

would exist, as life is found in nature and what is more natural than life? Nature is what connects 

every living thing from human life, plant life, animal life, all life forms in our universe.   

http://www.subhankarbanerjee.org/image/photographs/arctic-photo-white-04.jpg

For the last poem I chose to examine the way that life and nature reveal itself in the one of the many

bird poems that we covered.  The beautiful nightingale, Charlotte Smiths “To a nightingale”

nightingales around the 18^th century were a popular topic, the beauty of their sound provides a muse

for Smith “Poor melancholy bird, that all night long tell'st to the moon thy tale of tender woe;

From what sad cause can such sweet sorrow flow, and whence this mournful melody of song?”  Smith is using the birds singing which she interprets as a sorrow flow, she wonders the question of why this bird is singing a sad tune.  Her interpretation of the song as sorrowful, the bird is merely singing a tune, Smith is the one attributing the sorrowful characteristics of why the tune is melancholy.  Through many of her writings smith wrote about the constant turmoil she was facing, the nightingale sang a melancholy sound all night, the way a serious problem or situation can continue to run through her mind singing a mournful melody.  The nightingale is a symbol of grace, elegance and pleasure, the pleasure that can be found in the peace observation of nature, life can be interpreted as mournful singing giving the current circumstances this is realized by Smith in her next lines “Thus to the listening night to sing thy fate.”  Smith’s view of the sound in a bird, a natural part of life, uses the bird’s natural tune to convey her current life circumstances.  Smith uses the bird, with so much elegance and grace to describe and compose her thoughts about her current circumstance

               Life and nature are tied together because nature is a part of life and vice versa.  The literature that we covered this semester has opened these two subjects into a completely different area, where they were exposed, opened, examined in ways that I had not thought about before but now understand the undertones of life and nature.  These concepts are connected as a part of the systems that we have all the time.  Through these poems life is nature exposed as disgusting, romantic, sick and ultimately deadly, and it is also seen as survival, and a form of the cycle of life.

Web links:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/october/fire-aborigines-wildlife-102913.html

http://womenshistorynetwork.org/blog/?p=821

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/edgarallan403422.html#1Jg85p7Q7yC7coQI.9