Industrialization in William Wordsworth's Selected Poems

Abstract

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) is undeniably one of the most significant Romantic poets. He is famous for his love for nature. He finds tranquility and solitude in the company of nature. For him, nature is everything, including faith and God. Wordsworth believes that God has mirrored himself through nature. The industrial revolution made life more complicated, yet productive. The industrial revolution solved some problems while it caused some others, violation of nature is among the most distressing one. As a worshiper of nature, Wordsworth has noticed this impairment and portrayed the two lives, one closer to nature and the other industrialized. This paper aims at presenting William Wordsworth's love for nature through standing against industrialization. His poetry preserves the persistence of nature without any destructive mechanization. From this perspective, three poems of Wordsworth are explained to elucidate the different ways of his approach to new technological innovations and urbanization. The poems include; "The World is Too Much with Us", "Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways" and "On the Projected Kendal and Windermere Railway". Prior to describing industrialization in the poems, the industrial revolution and its outcomes are generally introduced. Besides, a brief account is given to the British Romanticism due to the fact that Wordsworth is one of the key poets of the movement.