A Study of the Eco-critical Concerns in the Selected Poems of William Cullen Bryant
Abstract
Ecology forms a significant strand in almost every genre of literature; and, a study of these ecological aspects as represented in a literary genre is named as eco-criticism. It is a term used for the study of the relationship between literature and the earth’s environment. It captures an interdisciplinary point of view by analysing the works of writers, researchers, and poets in the context of environmental concerns and nature. Environmentalism, in response to how environmental damage has become a threat to all on the earth, began to take shape in the second half of the 20th century, and in its more radical form in the 1990’s. Conservation of nature has acquired unequivocal importance in the contemporary world, so has eco-critical genre of literature. Also, the natural disasters have not only obligated the human society to consider the conservation of nature but also cautioned the human race that any action against nature will be disastrous to the world at large. As a result, the genre of eco-criticism has become an integral part of literature. This paper is a study of eco-critical concerns in some of the selected poems of William Cullen Bryant.
Key words: William Cullen Bryant, Ecocriticism, A Forest Hymn, To the Fringed Gentian, To a Waterfowl, Nature, and American poets, American Poetry
Introduction
Glotfelty, in his introduction to “The Ecocriticism Reader” (1996), defined ecocriticism as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. Just as feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production and economic class to its reading of texts, eco-criticism takes an earth-centred approach to literary studies” and she further states “simply put, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (Glotfelty xviii) Ecocriticism being interdisciplinary in nature, requires collaboration between natural scientists, environmentalists, ecologists, anthropologists, historians, writers, literary critics and others. Ecocriticism exhorts up on us to analyse ourselves and the world around us, examining the way that we treat and depict the environment. At the heart of ecocriticism, many maintain, is “a commitment to environmentality from whatever critical vantage point” (Buell 11).
Buell and Glotfelty Wave of Ecocriticism
Scholars and critics have divided Ecocriticism into two waves -Buell and Glotfelty. The characteristic of Buell wave, taking place throughout the eighties and nineties, was emphasis on nature writing as an object of study. It was considered not only as a meaningful practice but a necessity. Creating awareness and seeking solutions was believed to be the duty of both the humanities and the natural sciences. As such, a primary concern in first-wave ecocriticism was to “speak for” nature (Buell 11). Perhaps, owing to this ecocriticism gained its reputation as an “avowedly political mode of analysis” (Gerrard 3). The second wave, Glotfelty wave, is particularly modern in its breaking down of some of the long-standing distinctions between the human and the non-human, questioning these very concepts (Gerrard 5). A few scholars debate over what exactly constitutes the two and assert through their writings that these waves are not distinct. For instance, some ecocritics claim activism as a defining characteristic of ecocriticism whereas others see activism as a defining feature of primarily the first wave. Although the exact features attributed to each wave may be challenged, it is apparent that Ecocriticism continues to evolve and has undergone several shifts in attitude and direction from the time of its origin.
Ecocriticism and Poetry
Ecocriticism as a literary theory is of recent origin but the fundamentals of this theory can be traced in the works of several writers of the earlier periods. Nature has been the subject of different genres of literature. Poetry, in specific has drawn inspiration from nature and has garnered the attention of the readers and critics alike. When we study Romanticism, we can identify that the soul of romanticists’ works lies in nature. The Romantic poets glorified the mystery and wonder of nature, and established a significant relationship between literature and Nature. To them, Nature was an important source of inspiration and divine enlightenment.
Nature, in whatever form it appears, forms a prominent part of thematic as well as artistic elements in poetic expressions. Different elements of nature acquire symbolic significance that add to the poetic creations enriching their texture. Poets like William Wordsworth, P.B.Shelley, Robert Frost, William Cullen Bryant and many others have celebrated nature from different perspectives. Their treatment of nature brings to light how nature as a treasure trove ushers various interpretations and meanings. At times, nature appears divine and Holy giving solace as a mother or a close associate, and at other times it is like ferocious with violent force that inflicts destruction. It also acts as a supernatural agency to punish human beings for their wrong doings. William Wordsworth, first generation English Romantic poet, worshipper of nature, viewed nature as a living entity endowed with feeling and purpose. According to Dean Church, “Wordsworth was first and foremost a philosophical thinker, a man whose intention and purpose was to think out for himself, faithfully and seriously, the questions concerning man and nature and human life” (Bradley, 1999, p. 129). Similarly William Cullen Bryant depicted through his poems a mutual consciousness, spiritual connect and mystic communion between human beings and nature.
Ecocriticism in William Cullen Bryant’s Poems
William Cullen Bryant, one of the first authentic voices of the Romantic Movement in America, combined the essential simplicity of a romanticist with careful observation of and adherence to nature. His poems demonstrate minute observation and simple care, fashioned into verse that is simple, lucid and moving. The treatment of nature in his poetry is noteworthy in spite of the overwhelming presence of a host of the then socio- cultural issues.
Bryant as a poet of nature is at par Wordsworth, who was popularly known as the American Wordsworth, is substantiated by the fact that he sought poetic inspiration from the smallest and the greatest of nature’s creatures, from the silent sea to the storm, the bee to the bison, the stream to the ocean, from a blade of grass to an old and majestic oak. He was a worshipper of nature with a keen eye and ear for nature’s varied moods, sights and sounds. Bryant, an amateur scientist who understood the principles of geology, medicine, chemistry, and botany, used his knowledge in his poetry (Ringe, 507).
Like Wordsworth, his poetry is filled with the images of nature - the mist of the mountains, the soft murmurs of the river, the rustle of the leaves, the hues of twilight, the sunrise and sunset, the constellations, the waning and waxing of the moon and its effect on the tides. Though he adored the aura of nature, he was aware of the nature’s fury and the terrifying tempests that send chills down the spine.
“A Forest Hymn” poem by William Cullen Bryant is a blank-verse, published in the year 1825, and reprinted as the title poem of a volume in 1860. In this poem, Bryant refers to the trees as “God’s first temples,” that also implies the antiquity he attributed to the forests. A close reading of his poem indicates that God shows His mercy and fury through nature. According to the poet, God is Nature and worshipping nature is the simplest way to reach God. Nature provides a still and static scenic background comprising both beauty and horror. Further, the poet states that human beings are instrumental in awakening either of them with their actions. Thus nature is an agency and human beings as agents impact their own existence on earth.
Bryant as a poet is given to serious contemplation and observation of nature. Trees are a major focus of Bryant’s poetic imagery. In “A Forest Hymn,” he reminds the readers how saints and sages lived in the forests to learn the lessons of nature. He claims that the forest is more grand and holier than a man-made cathedral. In the contemporary circumstances of ecological crisis, environmental concerns like global warming and climate change, Bryant’s poem “A Forest Hymn” presents a simple solution to human beings by urging unto them to consider nature as a God made cathedral. The pantheistic treatment and consideration of nature as a temple should sensitise majority of human beings who otherwise remain indifferent to nature.
Bryant’s poem endows nature with divine powers. The poet indeed starts off by standing in an “aged wood.” The poem is not a mere celebration of beautiful flowers and metaphorical flights of fancy on the shape of clouds but it is thought provoking. The poet sees the eternity of God in the eternal process of His creation ‘nature’.
The groves were God’s first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them–ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication. (Bryant, AFH)
The destruction caused by nature in the form of floods and earthquakes are the result of human beings insensitive treatment of nature. When natural as a resource is taken for granted for use and abuse then nature shows its ferocious side.
Oh, God! when thou
Dost scare the world with falling thunderbolts, or fill,
With all the waters of the firmament,
The swift dark whirlwind that uproots the woods
And drowns the village; when, at thy call,
Uprises the great deep and throws himself
Upon the continent, and overwhelms
Its cities---who forgets not, at the sight
Of these tremendous tokens of thy power,
His pride, and lays his strifes and follies by? (Bryant, AFH)
Of the life forms found on earth, Bryant refers to plants the most. This is not unusual since he was a botanist. He uses trees to symbolize various concepts in his poetry such as God's temples, death, soothing power of nature, and political comments.
Bryant went to nature to meditate, to escape from civilized life. Nature, during this time of meditation, is meant for the individual only (Baxter, 23). David Baxter states of Bryant’s poetry that Bryant’s view of nature was more pastoral and picturesque than primitive and wild, and because the antithetical to man is the primitive; Bryant tried to bring man and nature into a tenuous harmony. . . With Bryant it was never all man versus nature, or nature versus man. He longed for a balance with all civilized men living in contact with nature. (Baxter, 24)
According to Bryant’s philosophy, those that truly worshipped nature become such a part of her that nature would not betray them; in their worship, they become one with nature (Duffey, 8). Nature to Bryant is not only a teacher but also a healer. Whenever man suffers pain and sorrow or is going through a bad patch in his life, nature takes away the sharpness from his suffering.
Bryant’s other poem “To the Fringed Gentian”, a short verse of five four-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter, is a creative description of the beauty of nature, which the writer encountered on mountains while in Massachusetts. This poem celebrates the beauty of a blossom. In addition to the celebration of beauty, it adds a sublime tint as it gradually moves from simple description to more philosophical and divine reflection. It implies that all nature found in the universe, from the stars, mountains, planets, wind, rain, storms are all part of God.
Commenting on Bryant’s love of nature and religious belief, an American critic and poet, Richard Henry Stoddard said: “The gravity, the dignity, the solemnity of natural devotion, was never before stated so accurately and with such significance. We stand in thought in the heart of a great forest, under its broad roof of boughs, awed by the sacred influences of the place. A gloom which is not painful settles upon us; we are surrounded by mystery and unseen energy. The shadows are full of worshippers and beautiful things that live in their misty twilights”.(TCPWCB, 2018)
Bryant has a unique standing as a nature poet. He was truly representative poet of the then America in every sense. His poetry is a combination of Romantic spirit, naturalist’s concern and puritan belief. He not only wrote in the tradition of the Romantic poets who saw sublime images in nature, but also followed the American Puritans, who saw natural events as signs of spiritual import. Like the Puritans, he read Nature as God’s book, which can deliver insightful messages about the spiritual world.
Edmund Clarence Stedman refers to Bryant’s poetry as having an “elemental quality.” Bryant delighted in writing poetry about the earth, wind, and water, and extraterrestrial bodies (81). In his poem “To the Fringed Gentian” the poet notes that the fringed gentian is unique as it blooms in late autumn, when the world is colder and most vegetation is dying off, as “The aged year is near his end.” He visualises the flower is gazing up to heaven, and he endows the flower eternity and states the flower has instilled the very same hope of heavenly eternity to him. In the final stanza he desires that hope of heaven will blossom in his heart as death approaches him:
I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart. (Bryant, TTFG)
Nature, Bryant argues, discloses the one underlying principle, which the people have failed to identify. He advises every human being to recognize this animating principle. In fact, he has used his poetry to disclose this fact, and he attempts to articulate that man is not the lord of Nature. He advises everyone to realize his or her duty of loving and preserving Nature.
Bryant has a unique standing as a nature poet. He was truly representative poet of the then America in every sense. His poetry is a combination of Romantic spirit, naturalist’s concern and puritan belief. He not only wrote in the tradition of the Romantic poets who saw sublime images in nature, but also followed the American Puritans, who saw natural events as signs of spiritual import. Like the Puritans, he read Nature as God’s book, which can deliver insightful messages about the spiritual world. Edmund Clarence Stedman refers to Bryant’s poetry as having an “elemental quality.” Bryant delighted in writing poetry about the earth, wind, and water, and extraterrestrial bodies (81). In his poem “To the Fringed Gentian” the poet notes that the fringed gentian is unique as it blooms in late autumn, when the world is colder and most vegetation is dying off, as “The aged year is near his end.” He imagines that the “eye” of the flower is serenely gazing up to heaven, and in the final stanza wishes that hope of heaven will blossom in his own heart as he approaches death:
Oft in the sunless April day,
Thy early smile has stayed my walk;
But midst the gorgeous blooms of May,
I passed thee on thy humble stalk.
So they, who climb to wealth, forget
The friends in darker-fortunes tried.
I copied them--but I regret
That I should ape the ways of pride.
And when again the genial hour
Awakes the painted tribes of light.
I’ll not o’erlook the modest flower
That made the woods of April bright. (Bryant, 1, 22, 21-32)
The above lines show that the violet reminds the poet of guilt incurred in his social relations. It serves to explain man’s neglect of the humble beauties of nature?” Bryant, 47-48).
Bryant is confessing his sin of pride and presenting a moral as well. He did not recognize someone socially as he achieved prominence and expresses his guilt and regret in the poem. He is not like others who climb to prominence, however. He regrets his sin. The concluding stanza is a promise that in the next life he will recognize the person whom the yellow violet represents. This guilt may be why Bryant avoided the so-called respectable people and felt more at ease with the humble people (Brooks, 203). There is more to the interpretation because the violet looks earthward and is nourished by nature. The person that Bryant overlooked is apt to be one who instructed him in the lessons of nature, probably as a child or younger man, and it seems one lesson did not take.
The best representation of immortality by a flower is found in “A Forest Hymn.”
That delicate forest flower,
With scented breath and look so like a smile,
Seems as it issues from the shapeless mould,
A visible token of the upholding Love,
That is the soul of the great universe. (AFH, 64-69)
Aesthetic use of specific detail in delineation of the objects of Nature serves many a purpose in Bryant’s work. It sometimes reinforces the sense of sublime immensity of the landscape, when contrasted with a puny object. For establishing a scale for expansive landscape the poet uses details of sound and sight. In Bryant’s “To a Waterfowl”, a single bird flying through “the desert and illimitable air” from “zone to zone” (I: 27) suggests the vast expanse of space against the smallness and vulnerability of the bird. Bryant also uses detail to suggest the tone or mood of a particular scene.
Bryant believed that nature uplifted man morally, chastised him, soothed, and ennobled him (Van Doren, 269). Nature’s lesson for Bryant is the continual cycle of death and rebirth, a manifestation of Bryant's religious belief. In some objects of nature Bryant saw permanence amidst change, the striking contrast between the permanence of nature as against the transience of man. They also bring out the fact of change in life, of permanence amid change, and also a sense of continuity.
In “Summer Wind” Bryant uses details of sound and movement to emphasize the serenity of the landscape thus:
It is a sultry day; the sun has drunk
The dew that lay upon the morning grass;
There is no rustling in the lofty elm
That canopies my dwelling, and its shade Scarce cools me.
All is silent, save the faint
And interrupted murmur of the bee,
Settling on the sick flowers, and then again
Instantly on the wing. (TCPWCB, 91)
Nature is a means, an object of Bryant’s fascination that inspires him to give poetic words to the surroundings in and around America. He witnesses God as the creator, preserver, and destroyer. Development, continuity, immortality and transformation are for Bryant the primary objectives of man’s association with nature. Bryant conveys his message of human beings dependence of nature through his poetry. He writes on trees, birds, rivers, mountains, and ocean and sees through them the invisible presence of God. He treats man also as an object of nature who has in him the attributes of generation, operation and destruction, and indicates through his poetry towards something higher than the acts of generation, operation and destruction. In this way, in the treatment of nature, Bryant is more inclusive than Wordsworth because Wordsworth desists from depicting the wild and the evil in nature.
Life in the city is characterized by uproar, agony and fretful situations. But Nature is a symbol of peace and harmony. If the fretful life of the city dominates Nature, humankind will become agitated, and life will become meaningless. If people realize the importance of Nature, it will offer them a harmonious life. Bryant marvellously portrays the reward offered by Nature, if humanity loves it:
Fit shrine for humble worshipper to hold
Communion with his Maker. (Bryant, AFH, 89)
As mentioned earlier, critics and readers often compare Bryant with Wordsworth as a poet of nature. But, upon close analysis of Bryant’s poetry it can be asserted that he is certainly more inclusive a poet of nature than Wordsworth. He had extensive knowledge of plants and trees and we find an abundance of flora and fauna addressed by him than any other American poet. He uses description and detail not for the ornamental affect but in a more meaningful and functional way. Though the oak, used as subject in 23 poems, seems to be the favourite tree, other trees like pine, maple etc are also repeated subjects in his poems. Likewise, in his poetic garden there are three full poems- “The Yellow Violet”, “The Fringed Gentian”, “The Painted Cup”- each dedicated to a specific flower. Reading of these poems establishes his command on Botany coupled with creative insight that is rare to find. Bryant’s poetry is a statement of his experience and vision that gets transformed into his natural philosophy. He is a pragmatic thinker who embraces others’ philosophy, adds his own observations, first hand experiences amidst nature. Thus, in his treatment of Nature, Bryant emerges as a great natural philosopher.
References
Sandhya Tiwari, Ph.D., Asst. Professor, Dept. of English, Palamuru University, MBNR. Telangana. 509001. eMail-drstpu@gmail.com