Sonnet II: Written at the Close of Spring

Charlotte Smith's "Sonnet Written at the Close of Spring" is a romantic poem about nature written in the traditional form of a sonnet. It shows that nature and humanity are interconnected and uses human traits in the non-human world. The sonnet starts off discussing the wonders of spring, and talks about many flowers that bud and bloom in the spring: anemonies, primrose, hare-bells, violets, and purple orchis. Every spring, these beautiful flowers come alive again. Smith appreciates the beauty of nature and how it renews itself each spring, but is saddened that humans cannot do the same. "Ah, poor humanity! so frail, so fair, Are the fond visitors of thy early day, Till tyrant passion, and corrosive care, Bid all thy fairy colours fade away!" In these lines, Smith is speculating about youth and growing old. She feels sorry for humanity because unlike flowers, we age until our colors fade away, and then we never see those youthful, vibrant colors of our personalities ever again. At the end of the sonnet, Smith asks "Why has happiness no second spring?" Since humans are most happy when they are young and vibrant, she is basically asking, "Why don't humans have a second spring?" In a way, Smith is saying that nature is far better off than humans are, because nature has the ability to start over and become vibrant over and over again.

Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress

Wordsworth was always a fan of Helen Maria Willaims' poetry. He owned many of her works, and many of his poems are based off of hers, sometimes nearly identical. He absorbed many of her tropes and styles of writing, and even stole information from her writings. He plagiarized her in his account of Revolutionary France, since he was not in France at that time (Todd 458). He also appreciates and respects Williams sensibility. But I think that in the "Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress," Wordsworth is showing something a little more about his appreciation for Williams. He not only appreciates her writings, but is also enamored of her. This is shown in the poem by very emotional lines like "My pulse beat slow, And my full heart was swell'd to dear delicious pain." This almost sounds like he is in love with her. He also says that she has great virtue by showing such compassion. Wordsworth was infatuated with Williams, and he tried very hard many times to try to meet her. In 1791 when Wordsworth returned to France, he sent a letter of introduction to her with a request to meet her, but she left as soon as he got there (Todd 457). This made him very disappointed. He tried many other times throughout the years to meet her, but did not get to do so until 1820, when he was 50 and she was almost 60 (Todd 456). But in his teenage years, Wordsworth wrote his first poem about his poetic heartthrob and anima, Helen Maria Williams. And it is easy to see from this poem that he is enamored of her.
The information I used in this article was found here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717918
Todd, F.M.. "Wordsworth, Helen Maria Williams and France". JSTOR: The Modern Language Review. 03/17/10 .

Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey

Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth is not only about Wordsworth's return to Tintern Abbey after 5 years, but also about his return to nature itself. Throughout almost all of his work, Wordsworth emphasizes the importance of nature to a person's intellectual and spiritual development. This poem not only emphasizes that importance, but also relates nature to the divine. In this poem, Wordsworth seems Pantheistic. Pantheism is the view that the Universe (and Nature on Earth) is the only thing worthy of the deepest kind of reverence. Pantheists think that the best way to understand God is to relate to nature. Wordsworth calls himself a "worshipper of nature" with a "far deeper zeal of holier love," and it is obvious that he not only loves nature, but reveres it. Nature has helped him get through tough times in his life, and when he was lonely the thought of nature has made him happy. Wordsworth goes on to say that nature has given him a "sublime" gift, which in this case I believe sublime really means divine. This sublime, or divine, gift allows Wordsworth to understand the "unintelligible world" and "see into the life of things." Through nature, he understands God and everything God created. This thought process is similar to a section of Hartley's Observations on Man, which says that the pleasures that we enjoy can be understood through nature. Wordsworth says that nature is "The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul, of all my moral being." This relates to Rousseau's A Discourse upon the Origin of Inequality. Rousseau says that in the state of nature, man is the most pure and moral. Society corrupts man and makes him wicked because he desires artificial faculties. In Tintern Abbey Wordsworth worships nature for how pure and simple it is.