"The Grammar of the Wild: A Literary Study of Scientific Patterns in Wordsworth’s Nature Poems"

Abstract

Romantic Spirituality, emotional sublimity, and phenomenological experience have long characterised William Wordsworth's poetry about nature. In addition to these familiar associations, there exists within Wordsworth's nature poetry a secondary aspect that has received little attention by scholars: This is the "proto-scientific" way of reading the natural world as structured, patterned, ordered and systematic, and it is hypothesised that Wordsworth's poetry represents a kind of "grammar of the wild" (the structured, patterned way of observing and understanding nature) similar to the logical method of scientific inquiry. The current research is investigating how Wordsworth's representation of natural phenomena reflects ways of seeing, classifying, observing and empirically proving ecological relationships between different natural phenomena and elements. The research has focused on studying some of Wordsworth's most important poems: "Tintern Abbey", "Lines Written in Early Spring", "Ode: Intimations of Immortality", "The Prelude: Selected Books of The Prelude", "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud", "The Tables Turned", and "To a Skylark" by examining how Wordsworth's uses of cyclical patterns, ecological interdependence, sensory observation of the world in relation to time, chronological sequencing in relation to time, and other recurring themes reflect the way symbolic generalisations are followed throughout The Prelude: Selected Books of The Prelude". To accomplish this task, we employed a method of close reading and pattern mapping, along with Ecological Literary Theory, Romantic Science Research, and Cognitive-Poetic Analysis, to develop a Structural Mapping of the major thematic elements of Wordsworth's Nature Poetry.
Wordsworth combines three different types of patterns based on science into his lyrics: 1. patterns of ecology, which represent nature as interconnected networks; 2. patterns of observation, which represent ways in which science operates; and 3. patterns of cognitive and emotional processes in the workings of the mind, reflecting a feedback mechanism for human consciousness similar to the feedback mechanisms of ecological systems and biological systems. Wordsworth describes nature as a system that has self-organisation based on time, cyclicity, and laws rather than being inherently chaotic (e.g., a random movement). Wordsworth displayed and processed both the aesthetic elements of nature (i.e., beauty and wonder) and the scientific elements (e.g., temporal, sensory, ecological, psychological) in his poetry. He produced poetry using both types of lenses. Wordsworth’s poetry serves as a precursor for both ecological and naturalist observations within the Romantic movement, which combines aesthetic understanding with scientific knowledge. Wordsworth’s study of nature offers a chance to further explore the interdisciplinary connections between literature and environmental science. In many ways, Wordsworth’s work reveals a level of insight into the epistemological basis of the study of nature.