Сompare and contrast the way nature is represented in the following Romantic poem and extract from a Romantic poem

Percy Bysshe Shelleys Mont Blanc and lines 452-542 from take for Sixth of The Prelude by William Wordsworth (Romantic Writings An Anthology, pp.329-32 and pp.133-5 respectively)Both literary texts that we will be dealing with in this essay, Percy Bysshe Shelleys Mont Blanc and an extract from Book 6 of The Prelude by William Wordsworth belong temporally to the Romantic Period (1780-1830), with the former having been scripted in 1816, and the latter screwd in 1805, although it was not published until 1926. Wordsworth belongs to the first generation of Romantic writers, whose Romantic literature was wartime literature.Thus he had lived through the Revolutionary geological period and had also witnessed the aftermath of it the dissipation in a long war. Despite his initial sympathy towards the early ideas of the Revolution concerning man and human liberties, he came to leave them, turning from a fervent progressist into a resigned conservatist. He began to argue against the received idea of poetical language as a refined mode of suaveness available only to those with an education in previous literary models, employing the language of men.The second generation, however, in which Shelley is included, belong to the post-war period, and having lived neither through the Revolution itself nor the reaction, they saw this remove of view as a betrayal. Shelleys writing can be characterized as a continuous rebellion aiming at the establishment of the reign of love and exemption in human society. Mont Blanc constitutes an impressive statement of his belief in a benevolent force in Nature and of moral activity in man. Likewise, Wordsworths Book 6 from The Prelude, entitled Cambridge and the Alps, aims at charting the growth of a poets mind, with particular emphasis on the importance of Nature, which is always a key notion in his ism and poetry.Having given this background, we will start comparing and contrasting the way Nature is represented in the two writings with reference to their characteristics in terms of poetic form and language.Mont BlancMont Blanc is a 144-line ode composed during the writers journey to Chamounix Valley in South-East France and intended to reflect the scenery through which he travelled. It is divided into five stanzas, with multifariousness in the number of lines in each, and is written in irregular rhyme as well as rhythmic pattern. This abandonment of regularity of pentameter iambics expresses a find of license which aims, in turn, at bringing about feelings of sublimity evoked by such a close contact with Nature. The point of view is of first-person, conveying, thus, immediacy.The poem begins with the get hold of The everlasting universe of things/flows through the mind., with which Shelley states his response to Mont Blanc to consider what the landscape before him can teach about the merging of Nature and the mind. In this first stanza, Shelley develops his intelligence of the mind participating in Nature, co mparing the human mind to a small stream surrounded by waterfalls and a river The kickoff of human idealsuch as a feeble brookwhere waterfalls around it leap forever (ll.5-9). Later in the poem as well, several ways in which the mind participates in the creative forces evident in the landscape argon indicated, as in business organisations 37-41, where his mind now renders and receives fast influencing.One legion of wild thoughts.He realises that knowledge is a combination of sensory perceptions and the ideas of the mind. The river can then serve as a symbol for the mind, a conscious power and a source for imaginative thought when he finishes the stanza with thou art there. Also, at the end of the poem, addressing the mountain, he states that the secret strength of things/which governs thought, and to the infinite dome/of Heaven is as a law, inhabits thee (ll.139-141).However, at certain parts, this response is implied as impossible this world of thought is too great for a human t o comprehend (for the very notion fails/Driven like a homelessamong the viewless gales, ll.57-59). By these means, the sublime of Nature is being foregrounded.The starting lines of the second stanza talk of the scene before him, the Arve, which is represented as the occasion the universal realm of thought, which surprises us by bursting into view like abstemiousning (Thus thou Ravine of ArveBursting through these dark mountains, ll.12-19). The syntax of these lines is funny Thus plausibly confirms evidence for the previous claim, although it is not clear what is being demonstrated then, we have sentence fragments, the use of dashes, even the word order of dark deep, that reverses typical locution. This disrupted, unusual syntax denotes the pressure of this overwhelming experience, causing Shelleys senses to instantly break down.Finally, we have an animating metaphor the Ravine, which is addressed as if it were animate (Thus thou), and the Arve, which descends as Power from his secret thr peerless (ll.16-17). This allows for the writer to later address direct questions to Mont Blanc, suggesting a presence in it that finds an answering response in us (Is this sceneonce this smooth snow?, ll.71-74). In this third stanza, Mont Blanc is presented as piercing the infinite sky (l.60), whose subject mountains have unearthly forms (l.62) and the deeps are unfathomable (l.64), introducing thus its connections to this higher power. The alliteration in Line 78 so solemn, so serene foregrounds the perception that Nature can be both benevolent and malevolent, depending on the relationship one chooses to establish with it. In any(prenominal) case, even though the power is too great for mankind, it can indeed serve as a teacher who teaches awful doubt (l.77), or a doctrine in human nature that will revolutionise the world.This language encourages us to conceive the mountain as a consciousness something like-if not superior to-human thought, lead-in imagination to exp and itself to the dimensions of it. In Lines 139-144 the power of the universe is symbolised by Mont Blanc, denying thus the existence of a natural religion, but for that power to have any meaning, one must exercise the imagination. The questions with which Shelley ends the poem grant the reader freedom to ponder the ultimate question of what is Nature if it doesnt merge with human mind and imagination, reflecting perhaps the freedom that he has experienced.The Prelude, Book 6Lets move to the extract from Book 6 of The Prelude now, which is structured as a narrative, telling a story which is complete in itself, as well as being part of The Prelude as a whole, and which forms part of Wordsworths autobiography. It is also lyrical in that in recounts his feelings and actions at a unique or typical moment during his crossing of the Alps. It is written in blank verse, which perhaps helps avoid monotony, and the rhythm is iambic pentameter.In Lines 453-456, Wordsworth expresses his confu sion in Mont Blanc it is a soulless image, which had unsurpd upon a hold thought/That never could be. A living thought is better than a soulless image it is better to think than merely to see. Here, semipolitical language is applied to nature and the working of mind (unsurpd), which could imply his disappointment in the contemporary political events.However, the sight of the Vale of Chamounix is quite compensatory it is a book from which the boylike and old learn (ll.473-7). He finds fascination in the landscape, which did make rich amends and reconciled us to realities (ll.460-1). The imagery of country life, such as small birds co-existing with eagles, a reaper at work in the fields, and the threat of Winter in the autumn sunshine, which is similed to a tamed lion (ll.466), are all experienced as edifying.The apogee comes at Line 524, when it dawns on them that they have crossed the Alps without knowing. The element of surprise is prominent in this climax I was lost as in a cl oud (l.525), which is perceived as the Power. The writer experiences a spiritual catharsis by being revealed of the power of the mind and the free-flowing spontaneity of the language conveys to us this stimulate rush of exaltation. Wordsworth celebrates the way that powercameathwart him (ll.527-9). So, impotence in the presence is followed by a future of infinite possibility, which is achieved through imagination and moves the poet from the disappointing place to time. The living thought/that never more could be (ll.455-6) is succeeded by a reference to something evenmore about to be (l.542). He is lost in the realm of time along with imagination, which transcends the human senses.Nevertheless,the light of sense/goes out in flashes that have shown to us/the invisible world (ll.534-6). This image conveys a denial that the normal faculties of consciousness are adequate to discover our destiny, our nature, and our home (l.538). The repetition of hope in Line 540 strongly foregrounds Wordsworths desire to reconstitute its grounds in a dark time of post-revolutionary reaction and despair.ConclusionOn balance, these two literary works share an interesting similarity in their use of apocalyptic and millennial imagery to express the relationship of man to Nature and to higher powers they are both successful in making their readers aware of the greater harmony of the universe, both within and outside the boundaries of time. However, where Wordsworth admitted his disappointment on the view of real Mont Blanc, Shelleys reaction was the opposite. Furthermore, while Wordsworth places great emphasis on the interaction of the human mind with its environment, Shelley emphasises the passivity of the mind in the unremitting interchange with the clear universe of things around (ll.39-40) Nature is the messenger and the imagination acts upon it only after having received it.