Mysticism in Wordsworth's 'Nutting'

Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads elaborates on William Wordsworth’s perception of poetry: what poetry is, what poets are like, and what makes poetry engaging. Wordsworth suggests, "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." By being such a delicate outpouring, he says that poets are more capable of creating and feeling emotion – they can imagine how it must feel to be happy or sad or angry without any form of stimuli outside their own mind. Thirdly, Wordsworth says that the mundane should become mystical through poetry. As discussed in class, the poem Lucy Gray is cast in a particularly regular, comfortable meter and tone, despite the poem’s contents. By portraying such a despairing situation as though it is common, Wordsworth changes the feeling of the story through just the writing. Lastly, Wordsworth states that poetry is succeeded by valuing emotion over tranquility. True passion is achieved with emotion, not comfort.

Nutting tells the brief story of a young speaker on a short excursion to harvest hazelnuts. In short, the speaker leaves with a crook to find a well-hidden, unmolested grove, where he sits for a time before breaking limbs to harvest the nuts. What is so fascinating about this poem when taken in context with Wordsworth’s Preface is the magnificent aura granted to the trees, rocks, moss and flowers that surround the speaker before he violates them. “Perhaps it was a bower beneath whose leaves / The violets of five seasons re-appear / And fade, unseen by any human eye; / Where fairy water-breaks do murmur on / For ever;” it reads, as the speaker admires the scenery to great lengths. Elements of mysticism and magic are added as the speaker talks of fairies and spirits in the trees during and concluding the poem.  Further, the act of the harvest is written as though it were some grand trespass against nature, suggesting that the very common act of picking tree nuts is to be despaired over. In class we discussed Lucy Gray, a poem about a young girl who dies in a snowstorm, written in a very matter-of-fact and concise manner. In contrast, Nutting describes something very boring, likely tedious, as a grand adventurous sin against nature. Wordsworth’s Preface touches on both of these facets, and it seems to be fairly well represented within this poem. Where Lucy Gray seems to be a very measured and boxed-in manner of writing, Nutting is cautionary, emotional, and at time uncomfortable (intentionally).