Mindful College Writing - William Wordsworth

November 1, 2017

William Wordsworth: Inner Child, Spiritual Depth and Grace through Nature

William Wordsworth is a mover and shaker of his generation. As a young man he witnessed the French and American Revolution and quickly learned the immaturity of man. Society began to turn away from country side living to voyage into capitalism and industry. He wasn’t fond of the shallow behavior of greedy man and believed the lightness of nature as the true reality man should pursue. Wordsworth cultivated the idea well of man having an inner child that should never “…fade into the light of common day” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 1015). He encouraged himself to not weaver from the joy of perceiving nature through the eyes of a child. “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers,” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 1019), this quote from “The world is too much with us” showcases Wordsworth’s disempowerment with culture pulling people away from content with self into unruly restlessness with hierarchical climbing. Raised up in the sovereignty of green his perspective on life is similar to Native American oneness and Buddhism maturity through mindfulness. According to Wordsworth, the “power” of man is the ability to see nature as a magnificent creation.

As an adult Wordsworth wanted to create a new style of poetry, “…closer to language of ordinary people and would deal with genuine emotions” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 1013). Wordsworth’s writing would be the start to the Romantic Movement which focused on imagination, nature, melancholy and the supernatural. His message is a call for humanity to grow a simplistic life style that would guarantee stainable peace and prevent “It moves us not” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 1019), a poetic statement on the mundane meaninglessness people feel when disconnected from nature. The themes of his work are inner child, spiritual depth as an adult and grace through nature.

The inner child, soft and complete, provides indescribable clarity to one’s existence and is felt through the timelessness of presence. Wordsworth in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” reflects on the significance human feels when there is a spontaneous dance with the on goings of ordinary day that is curious to learn and open to the many dimensions of consciousness. Wordsworth, similar to Native American culture, is able to connect the macro, such as the universe, to the micro, a meadow, grove and steam and simplifies that broad creative connectivity into a single image. “There was a time when meadow, grove, and steam… appareled in celestial light” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 1014), depicts the human body as a gown made of galaxies and stars. A soul will wear a human gown for a temporary time but is not the only gown a soul will dress in. The soul takes on the many skins of creation. A modern interpretation of oneness from Neil Degrasse Tyson provides the same reflection,

“The most astounding fact…the atoms that made the human body are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements…these stars…went unstable…collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the universe…When I look up at the night sky…yes are apart of this universe, in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us… what you really want in life is to feel connected….

Children have the highest level of quiet, an emptiness not yet full with ideology, religion or low self-worth. Wordsworth gives gratitude to this existence by honoring it as a notion correct, “Thanks to the human heart by which we live” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 1018). Cherish the childlike heart is Wordsworth’s message in “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” and is expressed as a light before endless imitation, repetition with no imaginative creation. Barth writes Wordsworth’s image of the inner child as “Our light may gradually be buried under cares and distractions, but is not quite extinguished” (91). The inner child is the true self, the imposter self born out ideology can bury the true self but the light of its marvelous sight will always exist as truth to all things.

Spiritual depth as an adult is a theme in “Ode: Imitation of Immortality.”

Strength and thought together give us… the power to see through our own venality and triviality and to recapture, in this new form, our bond with nature (Pierce 91); this quote affirms the spiritual depth of human can get lost to shallow desire. The reintegration of the multifaceted perceptive children access requires strength of will. “…not as in the hour/Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/The still, sad music of humanity. Nor harsh nor grating, thought of ample power/To chasten and subdue” (Gross 121), Wordsworth understands the stifling pressure humanity suffocates in. Many adults go about the day with suppressed spiritual depth. Sensitivity turns hard and hardness is unable to feel the non-reality persons engage in. The sad music of humanity is living blind to the bloom of bountiful green. The spiritual depth is the tool to sovereignty of mind and heart, returning eyes back to colorful bloom. Without strength and thought the energetic spring of delight dulls into “habitual sway” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 1018).

Grace through nature is a theme in “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” “Ten thousand saw I at first glance/Tossing their heads in spritely dance” (Ann Charters and Samuel Charters 782), this quote emphasizes that human wants connection. The technology age presents many facades people live by. Mask nature with profit and products but the longing remains for something beyond the light of television. It is a smoked mirror the reality everyone downloads the mind into. The matrix is “life happens to you and not for you” (Jim Carrey). The disbelief in mysticism, law of attraction, synchronicity, has everyone caught in random. The “power” of seeing nature as magnificent creation inverts the eyes and quickly one realizes the roots to trees and brain stems talk to each other, a language beyond the five senses. The dazzling light Wordsworth dances with as he voyages across a moment in time, that moment infinite and his life complete is a transmission of energy through images. And these images try to return the reader back to Love, compassionate and supportive as Trees. An enlightened society many philosophers have written on but the trees remain as the only enlightened community and the majority has no time to contemplate how they accomplished suchness. Priority is still imperial and addition is still avarice. The sparkle of Wordsworth’s grace is organic wonderment with nature. This life heals the heart and mind of culture constrictions and opens the chi to creative power.

“…we lived as children, we can find where the current runs strongest for us now, and with the thoughtful, affectionate courage appropriate to maturity can dedicate ourselves to the impulses that best reflect these noble origins” (Pierce 92), Yogi Bhagan said the greatest gift to give to children is high self-esteem so they may learn nobility as grace. The immaturity raves at rot of self-worth. There is no energy to reflect on constructive behavior patterns because the majority of thoughts are given to antsy. However, amongst the fog of adulthood slaving Wordsworth discovers inner child, spiritual depth and grace as his secret door to peace.