they were integral to the development of the human way of thinking. However, this train of thought seems to give the Romantics a great deal of credit. From another perspective, Wordsworth and Keats can argued to be two poets dazed through an infatuation with nature, or as two writers influenced by paganism who mastered the art of poetry in a time when the west was ready to embrace or at least consider a new worldview. But for the purpose of this essay, Wordsworth and Keats will keep their credibility as revolutionary poets (who did not indulge in any hallucinogenic substances).
After inspecting Romantic poetry it is fairly obvious that nature played an essential role not only as a muse, but as a subject in many of the poems. Nature was even at the core of Darwin's Origin of Species. It is with a certain conviction that one can state that nature ruled in the Romantic's thoughts. William Wordsworth reinforces this statement in The World is Too Much with Us, when he writes: "Little we see in Nature that is ours." In this poem, Wordsworth is making a plea to the audience and the world to start noticing nature for her beauty and grace and to rekindle our admiration for her divinity before we are overcome with the growing materialism. He states that "we are out of tune" because we're so caught up with our worldly lives.
Throughout this poem Wordsworth is showing a passion for nature that is so deep-rooted that he personifies the ocean as a woman who "bares her bosom to the moon." This in itself conveys a feeling of affection that is usually only found between two people. However, if one looks at the poem as a whole, it seems almost strange that one person can have such an enthralment with nature alone that he will spend the time to write something so beautiful about it. It is, of course, not the only example of the Romantics using nature in their poems. Conversely, it is a romantic poem that does not employ nature as an expressive tool to bring forth a different message. Nature is used here rather to represent itself, and nothing more.
John Keats, like William Wordsworth and the other Romantics, also enjoyed using the nature-image in his works. In Bright Star, Keats uses the image of a star to express his discernment of steadfastness. The beauty of the ocean and the fresh snow ("new soft fallen mask / Of snow (....)") is also exploited in this poem to emphasise his adoration for the loved one he speaks of. It is interesting to note that although Keats states that he would only want to be as "steadfast" and "unchangeable" as the star, he is still tremendously sensitive and gives the reader an unambiguous feeling of how he