The Book of Nature: Wordsworth's Poetry on Nature

by William Wordsworth

The Book of Nature - Wordsworth's Poetry on Nature is a sublime collection of the best nature poetry by poet-laureate William Wordsworth, housed in a convenient pocket-sized edition. Along with many other Romantic poets of the time, the theme of nature features heavily in the work of Wordsworth - to him, it represented a living thing, a sublime teacher-god that contained all beauty and divine truth. Wordsworth expresses his view on the natural world through the poetry in this charming collection while articulating his relationship with nature and its essential connection with human beings. Poems featured in this collection - Influence of Natural Objects - Lines Written in Early Spring - My Heart Leaps Up - Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey - To the Clouds
Carefully curated by Read & Co. Books, this collection of twenty-one poems also features an introductory excerpt on William Wordsworth by Thomas Carlyle from his 1881 work Reminiscences . The perfect gift for poetry readers and nature lovers alike, this beautiful pocket edition is a wonderful book of posey for those who love reading on the go.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

76 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2020

About the author

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads.

Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years, which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously titled and published, prior to which, it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

Reviews

[Alice]

Lovely nature poems. Some of my favourite lines ~

I looked, I stared, I smiled, I laughed; and all
The weight of sadness was in wonder lost
.


Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises in us, our life’s Star.
Hath has elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clothes of glory we do come

[Fenella Walsh]

The most perfect little book of poetry, some poems made me laugh, some made me cry, and so lovely to read whilst in nature ❤️

[Martha]

Since I'm from the Lake District, it seemed wrong not to read some of Wordsworth poems at some point, since many are inspired by the beauty of this location. Yet on top of the old language, I don't read a lot of poetry and at first I struggled to make sense of the poems. I found it helped to look up summaries of what each poem was about. After that, I enjoyed the imagery of what the writing conveyed. It's clear through all his poems that Wordsworth appreciated nature and found great joy in walking amongst it. Reading these poems made me open my eyes more to the world around me too and realise how lucky I am to live in a place where nature thrives. 

[Lucas]

Favorites:

ODE: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

To the Moon

[Kate]

Wordsworth is generally not for me. I have never fully appreciated the romantic poets. I find the language a little hard to follow and understand.

I did enjoy these tidbits:
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts bring sad thoughts to the mind

Behold an emblem of our human mind crowded with thoughts that need a settled home, yet like to eddying balls of foam within this whirlpool, they each other chase round and round and neither find an outlet nor resting place!

All of Tintern Abbey, but especially:
But oft, in lonely rooms and mid the din of towns and cities, I have owed to them, in hours of weariness, sensations sweet, felt in the blood and felt along the heart; and passing even onto my purer mind with tranquil restoration

We see into the life of things

That in this moment there is life and food for future years

For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes the still sad music of humanity, nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power to chasten and subdue - And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts a sense of sublime of something far more deeply interfused

There for am I still a lover of the meadows and the woods

Therefore let the moon shine on thee in they solitary walk; and let the misty mountain-winds be free to blow against thee.

[Megan Hricovec]

3 💫

[Steph]

This book was gifted to me and was the first read book of the year for me. Will re-read at the half-year mark as well.