Bradford Academy - Chimes Yearbook (Haverhill, MA)

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ANNALS As he grew older he turned from his tions of his early impressions, and found the impresgigng Still remai boyish pastimes the founda- ning. , I i I was left alone, Seeking the visible world nor knowin wh The props of my affections were remogfed, Y. And yet the building stood, as if Sustained By its own spirit! Thus he came to realize what he had been uncon all through his boyhood. Nature was now to him a personality, with whom he could commune, losing himself to all else. sciously learning Oft in these moments such a holy calm Ivould overspread my soul, that bodily eyes IVere utterly forgotten and what I saw Appeared like something in myself, a dream, A prospect in the mind. Looking back over the years of his boyhood, he perceived that the joyous, but calm and faithful character of his life had been due to the lessons which God in Nature had taught. For it was through the intertwining of his soul with the visible forms of Nature that God mani- fested Himself to him. . At the age of seventeen Wordsworth left Hawkshead and attended St. John's College, Cambridge. Here his education under the influence of Nature almost ceased for a time. He was caught up in the fascination and the whirl of social gaieties. But when the glamor wore off, and the close confinement fretted and depressed him, he would leave his com- rades and the crowd and roam alone out across the fields. The remem- brance of the beautiful, happy valley he had left would then return to him and brighten and refresh his drooping spirits. He Hperused the common countenance of earth and sky and called on them to teach him what they might. To every rock and flower, to every natural form he ascribed a moral lifefl To him they seemed to feel or be linked with some great feeling. p This idea is beautifully expressed in the lines I The budding twigs spread out their fans To catch the breezy air, And I must think, do all I can, That there was music there. At first this idea seems difficult to comprehend. But have you h d 'thout a feeling ever plucked a tiny violet and seen it droop itSl .93 , W1 4 of pain that you have hurt it and taken it from its nest among the tall 93

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ANNALS Prize Essay, 1 9 1 O The Influence of Nature Upon Wordsworth ESTLED among the hills of Cumberland, on the banks of the Derwent as it winds its way through wooded valleys to the sea, lies the little town of Cockermouth. Here was born in April, 1770, William VVordsworth, the poet of nature. ' Even in his infancy the music of the flowing stream found an answering echo in the heart of the boy poet. As a child he seemed to derive a pure physical delight from all the forms of nature. The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion, the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colors and their forms, were then to me An appetiteg a feeling and a love, That had no need of a remoter charm. In Wordsworth's own account of the development of his mind under Nature's influence we may, perhaps, expect to find his opinion biased by the passing of years, yet one cannot help feeling that there is a great deal of truth in his portrayal, because of the effect of those influences on his later life. It seemed that he drank in all the beauty and freshness of the fields and hills. The calm solemnity of the forests also entered into his childish soul, elevating him all unconsciouslyj Fair seed-time 'l had his soul and the little seed was not destroyed by the joys and pleasures which were his while in school at Hawkshead. Nature was a background for his happiness, yet it was a background so interwoven with his life that it formed an essential part of it. The whole world of Nature was filled with an indescribable glory which filled him with rapture. Often while engaged in sports with other boys this feeling caused him to go a little apart, that his joy might be still more perfect and his exhuberant spirits calmed and quieted by the glory and majesty which clothed his world. It was at such times that he seemed to feel, pervading the streams and hills and valleys, a spirit which haunted him. One day in the woods, he found a tree loaded with nuts and ruthlessly tearing at the branches shook them down. But upon looking up at the silent tree he instantly felt a sense of pain. The quiet spirit of Nature had spoken to him and awed him, he felt its power but could not then understand. . Q2

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ANNALS grasses to fade? Then you can better understand lVordsworth's view- point. Thus he formed a world about himself, all his own, and placed a barrier that no stranger might enter in. Then to his friends he would ' return, elevated and refreshed. Sometimes, however, these thoughts gave place to superficial pastimes. Forced labor and indeeision in regard to his future vocation in life at times took the joy from these moments of solitude, and he would join with his fellow students, either in reading trivial books, or in harmless pastimes, idling away his time. Imagination slept but not completely, for he could not tread the same pathways which generations of illustrious men had walked without being influenced, though perhaps uneonsciously,by the ennobling atmosphere of Cambridge, the poets' university. An explanation may be found in the fact that Wordsyvorth had been brought up in daily intercourse with the mountains and the hills and he was ill-prepared for the captivity of college life. Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife. Come, hear the woodland linnet- How sweet his music! on my life, There's more of wisdom in it. TVe must not get the idea, however, that Wordsworth did not love and appreciate the good in literature. He himself says that all the strength and beauty of character which man is capable of, is derived first from Nature, which is the breath of God, then from the works of such men as Homer, Milton and Shakespeare. It is the endless pouring over books without ever looking up to learn the lessons in the world about one, which Wordsyvorth deplores. Though Vlfordsworth did not utterly neglect his books, he was less zealous in study, for his mind was so filled with this passion for Nature that there was not much room for anything else. Eight months of this varied life at college passed, and when the ninth came he returned to his native hills. Vlfhat those hills had meant to him he now more fully realized, for his heart overflowed with joy in revisiting his old haunts. lYalking one evening to Esthwaite 'Water, the little lake where he had played as a child, this sense of the spirit in Nature was overwhelm- ingly present. He seemed to be standing in' the very presence of God and all the temporary joys and idle pleasures of this mortal life seemed to fade away in the presence of the majesty and holiness of his surroundings. Q4 in W d sh- th- ll- sin tha his the Wit his by ins: sist sou, Wife witl the Wor lutic Alpg thos hfglvi mine