Nature vs. Society: Wordsworth's Romantic Poetry

Nature Vs. Society: Wordsworth’s Romantic Poetry Over time, poetry has changed and evolved in its sense of the word nature. In its beginnings the idea of nature or natural was seen as negative and evil. However, in more recent times due to the era of Romanticism, nature in poetry is viewed in a positive and even beautiful light. William Wordsworth was a poet who wrote his poetry with a romantic attitude. Furthermore Wordsworth wrote specifically the poems “We Are Seven” (WAS) and “Three Years She Grew” (TYSG) in a style that showcased the superiority of nature over society. “We Are Seven” and “Three Years She Grew” portray a romantic attitude in their works, additionally the values placed on the natural world over the societal world are viewed as more significant in the period of Romanticism. Beginning with “We Are Seven”, it is a lyrical ballad that is essentially a story of a modern, city man who comes across a young, eight year old cottage girl. The poem begins with the first stanza in which was not written by Wordsworth, but by Samuel Coleridge. It starts of with the narrator speaking and in order to foreshadow the poems theme he describes a youthful, innocent child and then ends by stating “[w]hat should it know of death?”. (Wordsworth, WAS, 4) This gives the audience the impression that the poem has to do with the idea of death and who may know more it, the young and innocent or old and supposedly wise.
In the second and third stanza the man describes the young girl in vivid terms to paint the picture for the audience of that she is very natural. The narrator describes:
She had a rustic, woodland air,
And she was wildly clad:
Her eyes were fair, and very fair;
—Her beauty made me glad. (Wordsworth, WAS, 9-12)
With the use of words such as rustic, wildly clad and fair, the reader has an image a young, beautiful and natural untamed looking girl. The girl is used as a device to symbolize nature. Also when reading how the man describes the young girl,

Cited: Wordsworth, William. “Three Years She Grew”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2006. 1509-1510. Wordsworth, William. “We Are Seven”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2006. 1487-1488.