The Destructive power of nature.

The majority of my blogs up to this point have been about the therapeutic, utilizing and life sustaining power of nature, however I have failed to mention the destructive power of nature. This poem brought me back to that particluar reality; whilst nature performs its various processes it sometimes leads to adverse effects on its human kin. Charlotte's Smith's sonnet 44 "Written in the churchyard at Middelton in Sussex" brought me back to this reality. In this sonnet Smith writes about how a small church in Sussex has been destroyed by tidal waves. The tidal waves have even destroyed the grave yard, and consequently,many of the remains of the bodies have been washed into the sea.

Ever so often, we experience a natural disaster, natural phenomenon, or the "warring elements" as Smith puts it which wreaks havoc on the population which has experienced it. Take for example, the January 12th earthquake in Haiti, a natural disaster which led to the death of over 250,000 persons. There are countless examples of such occurences, the 2004 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. It is imperative that we not view these natural phenomena as the wrath of nature but contrarily as the varivous cycles of the same Nature which sustains us. As, we improve our scientific knowledge and understanding of our environmental kin, we may be able to avoid adversity associated with these natural phenomena. For example, it may not have been a wise idea to establish a town/village very near to a sea which has violent tidal waves.

This poem reminded me of how powerful nature is in comparison to human kin and how overwhelming it has the potential to be. "With shells and sea-weed mingled, on the shore..Lo their bones whiten in the frequent wave" (9&10) I related this poem to the 1809 Friedrich painting "Abbey in Oak Forest". In the painting the remains of the abbey, the graveyard and the overwhelming sky in comparion to the miniscule human beings greatly resembles the paradigm of Smith's Sonnet 44.

Forget in thee their cup of sorrow here

Although Charlotte Smith's elegaic sonnets are composed of material involving sorrow or mourning, I surprisingly found her work very intriguing. To the moon, was the sonnet which dealt with the question that man has been wrestling with since the beginning of time; The question that no one really has a completely definite answer to; the question which most religions are formed around; the question that most persons fear; the question that views our world as an interim "holding ground" for everlasting life.

Religions such as Islam, Christianity and indigenous religions such as the Arawaki religion all contain a spiritual/transcendetal heaven aspect, which proclaims that one day followers will be rewarded for their mortal behavior and deeds aligned with their faith in exchange for eternal bliss. Many a time, the work on Earth is percieved as a trial, as Charlotte Smith phrases it "a toiling scene". In To the Moon, I notice that Charlotte Smith seems to share such a transcendalist ethic or a variation of this trascendalist ethic.

"And oft I think, fair planet of the night, that in thy orb the wretched may go" Smith speaks of the dead leaving the earthly fate to enter the celestial realm. Smith suggests that after a life of misery or toil the celestial realm is a favorable place of benevolence, a "serene" world. "The sufferers of the earth perhaps may go, released by death, to thy benignant sphere" Smith desires to reach this benevolent realm, "And, while I gaze, thy mild and placid light sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast; and oft I think of the fair planet of the night.......Oh! that I soon may reach the world serene, Poor wearied pilgrim!"

Environmentalists and Eco-Theologians have raised concern about such a transecndalist ethic. Such an ethic views the world as a miserable interim, it presribes negativity to the imperfect Earth as it is being compared to a perfect, ideal eternal heaven. The anticipation of a perfect world which is contrary to earthly sorrow may encourage persons to mistreat and exploit Nature.

I made an interesting interpretation of this line in relation to Ecology"And the sad children of despair and woe Forget in thee, their cup of sorrow here". Every person who transcends to this beautiful idealistic heaven leaves their "cup of sorrow": their ecological footprint for generations to inherit. I see no problem with a transcendalist world view if repect for future earthly generations is encompassed in such a view.

This youtube video which you may have to copy and paste into your search engine, illustrates a beautiful heavenly abode, as I imagine heaven to be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D00Uv0qGoU

to nature with love

While reading this poem, I couldn't help but allude the character being written about to Mother Nature. When I think of Mother Nature, I think of her in a sensual, physical way. After all she is the abiotic force which nurtures the biotic community of the world. She is the one who is usually ignored and unthought of. Quoting the author in the early stanzas of the poem, "no cold exemption from her pain" All the pollution, toxification and habitat alteration which man's actions cause have to be absorbed and corrected by Mother Nature. "She knows the price of every sigh, the value of a tear".

While attemping to mitigate the anthropocentric damage caused by humans, I visualize Mother Nature "sighing"when she knows the damage is beyond her control. Not sighing for herself, but sighing for the demise that mankind will have to encounter due to her inability to recuperate from wrongs done to her. She probably also sighs as she knows that her human kin, or human dependents will deem her reprehensible for the human inflicted demise. In occurences of epidemics, natural disasters, drought and famine, Mother Nature is oft blamed and cursed for the downfall of man. Cursed for the downfall of man, when she is just doing what she has done for eons to preserve the balance of nature and the Earth's holistic ecosystem.

"She knows the value of a tear" as they fall onto the earth which she comprises. She knows the pain man feels when encountered with the consequences of environmetal destruction. Mother Nature always attempts "to heal the wounded heart". However, eventhough everyone may not come to terms with this, she, too has limits. She too has a carrying capacity that needs to be respected by the same human kin which she sustains every day.

We must respect the vary mother who has given us life, and blessed us with "friendship, sympathy and love, and every finer thought" as without breath, such dispositions could not be realized.

Nature never did betray

Many man made institutions such as religion and culture seek to separate us from the very thing that we are biologically and undeniably a part of, Nature. Nature is the intricate ecological network which we are solely reliant on for our daily sustenance. As Wordsworth says,
Of something far more deeply interfused. Howevwer, Religions such as the Judeo- Christian Religion teach us in Genesis that we are superior to Nature. Genesis 1:28 reads" And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (New American Standard Bible). In addition to this urge to subdue nature, the Judeo Christian Religion, oft emphasizes how the flesh, that of Nature is the carrier of evil, this prompting many Christians to deny their flesh, their nature and aim towards a heavenly, other wordly existence. There is only one problem, with this attempt to deny, subdue and exploit nature. We are dependent on it, and we are a part of it.
Wordsworth in the "Lines written a few miles above tintern abbey" appears to be suffering from his separation from nature. Wodsworth was intimate with nature as a young man, and now has a disconnect with nature. These forms of beauty have not been to me,As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the dinOf towns and cities, I have owed to them. Upon returning to nature, Wodsworth was met with a sense of joy "While here I stand, not only with the sense Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts that in this moment there is life and food.

"That in this moment there is life and food" "That in this moment there is life and food"

This is an amaizng line to read in the 21st century, the eon where humanity is faced with starvation, lack of nutrition, war, overpopulation, deforestation, climate change.

That in this moment there is life and food

Nature provides a closed loop of equilibrium, when we exclude our selves from this loop and render our selves superior to this natural equilibrium, there is no life and no food. We extract from nature more than it can replenish, we massively deplete our soils, pollute our waters, fill our biosphere with carcinogenic and toxic chemicals. We fight natural "checks" with medicine and technology thus increasing our population and decreasing the Earth's resources. The only way in which we will be able to return to equilibrium with nature, is if we see ourselves as a part of nature. Until we understand, as Wordsowrth did the value of nature. Nature serves aesthetic purpose, instrumental purpose and therapeutic purpose. Wadsworth alludes to the therapeutic power of nature, which we often deny and replace with savy technology. The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite: a feeling and a love, Nature provided Wordsworth elevated thoughts; a sense sublime. We need to respect and appreciate nature not only for its instrumental value, but for its therapeutic value to us. The more far removed we come from nature, the more we hurt ourselves. We cannot alienate ourselves from the very thing that sustains us, and allows us to live our "superior human" lives. We replace nature with still, sad music of humanity.”evil tongues,” “rash judgments,” and “the sneers of selfish men, We need to embrace the spoken words of Wadsworth and instill a “cheerful faith” that the world is full of blessings. Separation from MOTHER nature is not natural.

Below is the painting the Haywain 1821 by Constable, painted approximately 2 decades after Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.This painting depicts the "social harmony that has arisen between man and the natural world"(The Hay WAIN, www.icons.org.uk). Constable painted this in response to the vast urbanization of London, which he was not fond of. He preferred the symbiotic relationship with man and nature, than a hiearchy between the two