Poetry, which came much before prose in human history, has been a vehicle for the spiritual and social progress in man. The natural world with its great beauty and mystery has long been a source of inspiration to poets. The Romantic poets like Wordsworth and Keats, who were active in the nineteenth century, experienced the most inspiration through nature, which they captured in their poetry. William Wordsworth, especially, in his poetry, uses descriptions of nature to raise the mind to mystic heights. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the attitude of people changed - from an awe of nature to a desire to harness everything natural for the benefit of man, which the Romantic poets viewed with concern.
In his poems “The World is Too Much with Us” and “Nutting”, William Wordsworth makes use of the portrayal of the beauties of nature to deplore the greed of man who is mindlessly exploiting nature.
Written in Germany, the poem “Nutting” evokes Wordsworth's remembrance of turbulent feelings he had when he had gone' nutting' as a boy. William Wordsworth writes about a beautiful, pristine wood whose beauty and purity he had destroyed by his greed to gather the nuts .Continuing in the same vein, in “The World is too much with Us”, the poet laments the heartlessness of humankind, which has come under the sway of unfathomable avarice, and which no longer is moved by the beauty of nature.
Wordsworth describes the secret, unexplored place he went to after clambering over rocks and stepping over tangled ferns in “Nutting”. It is a place of perfect peace where the poet's heart experiences great joy. He describes the nook where he sits down among the flowers under the trees The poem conveys a deep sense of peace and meditation attained by man by connecting with nature. The final lines of the poem convey the spiritual feeling that the beauty of nature inspired in the poet.
The symbolism of the plentiful hazelnut clusters which cover the trees alludes to the bounty...