Loss of Innocence in Wordsworths Nutting Essay - 1900 Words

A Loss of Innocence in Wordsworths Nutting A romantic poet, William Wordsworth examines the relationship between the individual and nature. In the poem Nutting, Wordsworth focuses on the role that innocence plays in this relationship as he describes a scene that leads to his own coming of age. Unlike many of his other poems, which reveal the ability to experience and access nature in an innocent state, Nutting depicts Wordsworths inability as a young boy to fully appreciate nature, causing him to destroy it. Addressing a young girl, most likely his sister, he writes to poem as a warning of what happens within oneself when one does not fully appreciate nature. In his youth, the speaker is too excited by duty and too tempted by†¦show more content†¦As he heads into the forest, the speaker describes himself as tricked out in proud disguise of cast-off weeds to help with his task (9). Although dressed in cast-off weeds, a costume made of someones garbage, the boy is proud to wear them, showing his delight in his task. When the boy reaches his chosen hazelnut tree, the innocence of nature further provokes him and adds to his desire to reap natures hidden treasure that his duty already caused. When he gets to the spot, the speaker describes it as one dear nook, unvisited, where not a broken bough drooped with its withered leaves (16-18). The word unvisited reveals the purity of the scene, an image that is heightened by the lack of a broken bough and withered leaves, pointing to the vibrancy of the small area. In contrast, the hazels rose tall and erect, with tempting clusters hung, a virgin scene! (19-21). The usage of tall and erect addresses the word drooped from the previous image and further emphasizes this vibrancy. The phrase tempting clusters hung reveals the boys desire to collect the hazelnuts. This craving to strip nature of its fruit is shown in the exclamation a virgin scene!. Virgin evokes the innocence of the scene, while the sexual nature of the word suggests that the boy sees nature as something he has the power to corrupt, a prospect which excites and entices him, shown by the exclamationShow MoreRelatedWordsworths Nutting1863 Words   |  8 PagesA Loss of Innocence in Wordsworths Nutting A romantic poet, William Wordsworth examines the relationship between the individual and nature. In the poem Nutting, Wordsworth focuses on the role that innocence plays in this relationship as he describes a scene that leads to his own coming of age. Unlike many of his other poems, which reveal the ability to experience and access nature in an innocent state, Nutting depicts Wordsworths inability as a young boy to fully appreciate nature, causingRead MoreSummary of She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways11655 Words   |  47 Pagesthe English Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) between 1798 and 1801. All but one were first published during 1800 in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, a collaboration between Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that was both Wordsworths first major publication and a milestone in the early English Romantic movement.[A 1] In the series, Wordsworth sought to write unaffected English verse infused with abstract ideals of beauty, nature, love, longing and death. The poems were written