William Wordsworth and Social Responsibility

In many of his works William Wordsworth writes a great deal about nature and people and how they do or do not relate to one another. His writing is not filled with flowery and exaggerated descriptive language but rather a more simplistic and straight forward depiction that allows the reader to assume the emotion and feeling of the writer. Rather than tell of an event, object, or person by describing it, Wordsworth focuses more on the reaction to what is being written about by the speaker in the poem. In doing this Wordsworth pulls the reader into the experience and forces them to confront their own reaction to what he is seeing.

While in much of his work Wordsworth can seem on the surface to focus on nature, he is actually using nature to comment on society. By pointing out certain aspects of nature he is able to examine the issues that are created as society drifts farther and farther away from a more natural way of life. His work goes beyond simply pointing out the beauty and tranquility of nature to his readers and incites them to consider many issues of social responsibility not only that which society has toward nature, but our social responsibility to each other as human beings. One of his earlier works, "Lines Written in Early Spring," is an excellent example of not only Wordsworth's admiration for nature but also of his concern for the direction that man has taken in turning away from nature.

The poem opens with the reader being drawn into a carefree and lighthearted scene where the speaker is observing nature in what appears to be a remote and secluded environment that is seemingly untouched by man. He is pleased by the tranquility that surrounds him but it also brings him sadness, "In that pleasant mood when pleasant thoughts / Bring sad thoughts to mind" (lines 4-5). The very act of observing nature brings a sense of melancholy to the speaker. The purity of his natural surroundings serves only to point out how man is abandoning a natural existence at an increasingly exponential rate.

As the poem continues Wordsworth personifies nature making it a creator of sorts when he writes in the first line of the second stanza "To her fair works did Nature link" (5) and he implies an inherent connection of man to nature in the second line "The human soul that through me ran;"(6). Nature, in her personified state, has created a simple and harmonious state of being that while in her mist, man feels somehow connected or "linked' to, but as man abandons nature he is drawn into an existence that is anything but harmonious and simple. A balanced perfection that brings contentment can be found in nature that is unmatched by man. The final two lines of the stanza, "And much it grieved my heart to think / What man has made of man?"(7-8).

These two lines of the poem coupled with the final two lines of the poem "Have I not reason to lament / What man has made of man?" (23-24) show the reader that Wordsworth had a great concern for the state of humanity. His words are poignant and direct as well as timeless. The concern that he feels toward the direction that society had taken ring true today just as they did when they were written in 1798, over two hundred years ago. Man, unlike nature who is perfect in her design, has made something unnatural of himself. Those of privilege and power exploit others who were weaker and less fortunate than they were in practices such as slavery. Human ambition created machines to do the work of people who were then rendered obsolete and forced out of jobs resulting in mass poverty. Society was not harmonious, nor was it content and it was only simple for perhaps a privileged few.

In Wordsworth's vision of nature the birds seem to be filled with pleasure and the flowers find joy in something as basic as the air that they breathe. Nature has not changed, and the birds and flowers still find pleasure in the comfort of Nature's flawless design. While man has changed in many ways, it would seem that human nature has not. The words "What man has made of man?"(8.24) resonate in recent events such as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and other suicide bombings in which man has made man a weapon to be used indiscriminately to kill other men. In all of the advancement that the human race has suffered through we have not only rejected nature and turned away from her, but we have ultimately hurt her and in our human arrogance many of us barely acknowledge the damage we have done.

Wordsworth saw that man had failed in his social responsibility and that his failure was largely attributed to his rejection of nature. There is a chasm in the accountability that man feels toward his fellow man and his environment. Perhaps the only way for man to become more socially aware and responsible is for man to reject what he himself has created and embrace the works of nature.

Wordsworth, William. "Lines Written in Early Spring." The Norton Anthology of English Literature Eighth Edition Volume Two. Greenblatt, Stephen., and M. H. Abrams eds.New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2006. 250.