Characteristics of Nature, Essay Example

Nature plays an ominous and interesting role in how people view the world around them.  Due to the ominous experience that nature can inflict upon us, three separate and unique characteristics have been developed to define nature.  Within the text it is written that “the three characteristics of nature might be identified as elements of Romantic vision.  First romantic nature is particular.  While it is still retains the aura that earlier surrounded nature as either a Paradise or a fallen realms, it is watched and understood first in its own right” (Damrosch 2151).  The romantic nature is effectively described and illustrated by many authors and it is through this description that readers are able to understand the healing powers of nature as well as its existence as a separate realm from the current reality.

Within the poem “Ode to the Nightingale,” John Keats portrays nature as a separate reality from that of the world in which we live.  It is suggested that nature, and more specifically the forest, is a place to escape from the harshness of the real world.  Therefore, nature is described from the Romantic view as a place that extends outside of the common living realm. Keats begins to emphasize this aspect of nature through lines 19-20 by writing, “That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim.”  Clearly, the comment “leave the world unseen” states that there is a romantic notion that nature is a viable option to enter a world that is somewhat unknown and mysterious.  Through this unknown world, the writer is suggesting that nature is a separate place from the rest of the world and is often unknown and commonly uninhabited by the normal person.

While Keats suggests that nature is an unknown and separate realm, he continues to describe nature as an opportunity for escape from the everyday troubles that men and women experience.  In fact, he attempts to suggest that nature has a vague healing ability for individuals to escape from their problems and to forget about all that has happened.  This escape is conducive to healing because of the main romantic element that Keats has developed in stating that nature is separate and particular.  The healing powers of nature are described in lines 21-22 of the third stanza in the poem.  Here, Keats writes “Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget, What thou among the leaves hast never known.”  The innocence of nature is the true element that is able to provide an escape for man.  The comment by Keats “what thou among the leaves has t never known” illustrates that there are pains and troubles from the current reality that have not plagued nature.  This creates the romantic nature and its separate and particular elements that force individuals to want to enter for its serenity.

Keats is able to further illustrate the separate and particular notion of nature by contrasting it with what he affectionately labels “here” to describe the present realm in which all men and women live.  In lines 23-24, Keats continues to describe the healing powers of nature by writing about the current realm in which he states, “The weariness, the fever, and the fret, Here, where men sit and hear each other groan.”  Not only do these two lines explain the pain and anguish that individuals are forced to endure in the current reality, but Keats is suggesting that all of the daily frustrations and pain can be forgotten when entering into nature.  He appropriately devalues the current reality by calling it “here.”  Clearly, the separate and particular elements of nature are beneficial to provide a certain amount of healing power and escape from the everyday struggles in the current reality.  It is through this romantic vision of nature that Keats and other authors have described that presents a highly desired and mysterious notion of nature and what characteristics it truly possesses.

References

Damrosch, David. The Longman Anthology of World Literature. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.