I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud, By John Muir And William Wordsworth

Thousands of flowers swaying in the wind, lined up like stars in the night sky. Just the thought of nature brings a smile to my face. The two authors, John Muir and William Wordsworth have two different styles of writing, but they share their love of nature to help us appreciate nature. We have two beautiful writings, written by two naturalistic authors, Williams Wordsworth and John Muir. Both authors have different ways of explaining what nature means to them, but at the end of the day both pieces of work are beautifully and creatively written. Wordsworth and Muir express their meaningful relationship with nature using descriptive words and witty writing.

Two literary works best conveyed nature in their own manner, one called "The Calypso Borealis," an essay written by John Miller called and a poem written by William Wordsworth's called "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." Both author created work that captures the beauty of nature, while displaying their compassion and emotion for such beauty. They each capture the essence in their own way, one through a poem while the other through an essay , each using a their own descriptive imagery to cultivate the scenery and amazement of the experience. William Wordsworth and John Miller not only through the diction , vocabulary, and syntax, but also through the impact of tone, and mood, and while both authors express their relationship in different ways there

Henry David Thoreau once said, “It 's not what you look at that matters, it 's what you see.” William Wordsworth, the author of the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, and John Muir, author of the essay The Calypso Borealis, have proved this in their works by looking at nature and portraying it differently but beautifully in each piece. They have been able to express their relationships with nature differently through choices about format, such as if a rhyme scheme will be used; their word choice, like choosing to give something a specific name; as well as through literary devices used, including tone, mood, and irony, but, even though they made many different choices, their works are both able to make nature seem beautiful and mysterious.

While both poets Muir and Wordsworth wrote about the happy feelings that they have towards nature the beautiful outdoors or what some people may say Mother Nature, some of which the feelings are the same and some that are different as they speak of the different plants.

Where can happiness be found in the world? John Muir answers this question in his essay “The Calypso Borealis,” and William Wordsworth answers this in his poem “I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud.” They both describe the positive relationship that they have with nature, and how happy nature makes them. But the literary devices they use to express their relationships with nature are slightly different. Both John Muir in "The Calypso Borealis" and William Wordsworth in "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" use positive connotations of words and personification to express their relationships with nature, but Muir also uses specific imagery to show how he appreciates nature, whereas Wordsworth uses unique syntax to help show how joyful nature makes him.

John Muir and William Wordsworth are great examples of this theory. Throughout their stories, both men give great insight to how the harmony of nature impacts their lives in a way that can make them forget about all the sorrow and depression they have following behind them; Wordsworth and Muir’s stories include syntax and diction to verbalize their passionate relationship towards nature. William Wordsworth’s poem, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” excellently shows how the power of beauty can changes one's once depressed, sad day into joy and blissfulness. In Wordsworth's story, he exploits his experience of how nature changed his mood of depression and sorrow to grateful and glee when he stumbles across a bed of beautiful golden daffodils dancing in the breeze. Wordsworth writes: “A poet could not be but gay, in such a jocund company” (stanza 3). In this passage, Wordsworth shows his change of heart when in the presence of something so beautiful and alluring. Wordsworth also shows how nature impacts his mood from the quote: “They flash upon the inward eye, and my heart with pleasure fills” (stanza 4). In this final quote, Wordsworth explains that even when he is apart from the beautiful golden daffodils, it is the memory that keeps his spirits alive. While Wordsworth's experience with nature

He states “The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the pathes which the minds travels...etc." Both of these authors used nature differently but showed their love for nature in their essays.

After reading and analyzing Wordsworth’s poem and Muir’s essay, I can see that both men use writing as a creative way to express their love for nature all around them.

During the 1800’s, the period of the life of Walt Whitman, there were several notable writers who felt strong ties to the natural world and allowed their work to reflect this. These included Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson and John Muir and they were all players in the Transcendentalism movement that was coming to life. That theory – that people found their own version of spirituality, often through a connection to nature – is one that all of these great minds espoused in one way or another. But, perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson had the most influence over Walt Whitman. Their views of nature were closely matched and Emerson, already being an admired writer, was someone Whitman looked up to.

William Wordsworth and John Muir were two lonely men. Both writers loved nature and were connected to it, but both were also depressed. Nature brought them both happiness and through their writings, you can tell it took away their depressive state. Muir and Wordsworth described in their writings how the beauty of nature both cleared and healed their minds. The thoughts and memories of the nature they saw brought a state of peace and tranquility to their minds, which healed them of the depression that had invaded their minds.

Phrases such as “botanising in glorious freedom [...] wandering through innumerable tamarac and arbor-vitae swamps, and forests [...], rejoicing in their bound wealth and strength and beauty, climbing the trees, revelling in their flowers and fruit [...], glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog [...] displayed in boundless profusion”, “rarest and most beautiful”, and “I was able to wander many a long wild fertile mile in the forests and bogs, free as the winds, gathering plants, and glorying in God's abounding inexhaustible spiritual beauty bread”, all show how Muir felt about nature and what nature meant to him. A key phrase that shows Muir’s attitude towards nature states, “Storms, thunderclouds, winds in the woods—were welcomed as friends”. These phrases, as well as the words mentioned above, are extremely positive and show the utmost joy Muir found in his surroundings. The long and detailed descriptions of Muir’s surroundings helps to reinforce his joy in nature. The words that Muir uses to describe nature shows that he is close to nature and feels a connection with it. These positive words also show how absolutely stunning Muir finds nature and how he finds peace and joy in the wild. All of this is also supported by one of Muir’s

Muir discusses the power of nature; his description presenting his viewpoint of plant life (par. 4). Muir writes that plants like the Calypso evoke emotions in people. He believes his encounter with the Calypso was unforgettable, and more outstanding than his experiences with meeting people. John Muir gracefully writes in paragraph three about his

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth, a poem that discloses the relationship between nature and human beings: how nature can affect one’s emotion and behavior with its motion and sound. The words the author adopted in this poem are interconnected and related to each other. They are simple yet profound, letting us understand how much William Wordsworth related his works to nature and the universe. It also explained to us why William Wordsworth is one of the greatest and the most influential English romantic poets in history. As Robert DiYanni says in his book, “with much of Wordsworth’s poetry, this lyric reflects his deep love of nature, his vision of a unified

Wordsworth says that, wandering like a cloud floating above the hill and valleys, he encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake, in the poem. “I wandered lonely as a cloud” A poet could not help but to be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. William stared and watched but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him. Whenever he feels “vacant” or “pensive” the picture would flash upon “that inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude. : and his heart fills with pleasure, “and dances with the daffodils.” (Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud). Wordsworth also created songs of innocence such as “Daffodils Song”. The Romantic poets, predominantly Wordsworth and Blake were spellbound by the natural world. The author used pastoral landscapes to evoke joy, to create peaceful scenes that were only darkened by the threat of urbanization and the Industrial Revolution. (William Wordsworth: Artistic Reaction to the Industrial Revolution, Fed 14, 2000)

Wordsworth continues to relay his experience in nature as he expounds upon the affiliation between the daffodils and another natural element. Applying simile, the poet connects the flowers to the stars, "Continuous as the stars that shine / And twinkle on the milky way" (7-8). A mental picture of infinite flowers is created, while "shine" and "twinkle" produce an image of light. Wordsworth uses the light imagery to link the two aspects of nature; the luminous stars of the night and "golden" daffodils of the day. The link shows the reader the connection the poet sees in different facets of nature. The second stanza continues the description of the dance "Ten thousand saw I at a glance, / Tossing their heads in sprightly dance" (12). The image created is of large numbers of flowers moving in unison and expresses the harmony the poet finds in nature. The usage of "sprightly" makes another reference to light, but in the sense of movement and weight as "cloud" and "floats" were utilized in the first stanza. Diction in the second stanza provides the reader with a multi-dimensional prospective of Wordsworth's imagery by giving the images action, feeling and weight.