The Nutting and Preface to Lyrical Ballads

In Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads, he continues to develop his ideal form of poetry. He discusses the expectation of a poet’s language to be filled with the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Broadview, 153) and the evocation of deep, substantial passion.  Both of these components, as well as many others, bring profound prose to Wordsworth’s audience in a common and easily understood form of language. In Nutting, the connection he makes between humans and nature correlates the man’s constant abuse to such a beautiful, naturally evoked place by the harvesting of hazels and the newly found form of his contact with nature. In this, the irony put forth by Wordsworth is clear. Here you have a man who finds fortune in harvesting these nuts (“exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings…” [Nutting, ln 50]) in a time where affluence is hard to come by (as long as the business you're in is not part of the industrializing economy), yet he begins to feel wrong in destroying something so gentle (In gentleness of heart with gentle hand…” [Nutting, ln 54]). In Wordsworth’s attempt to be succinct and easily understood in his descriptions of nature, he still leaves his audience with a haunting depiction of the setting in Nutting and a visual of where this man was going to gather his hazels. Using his detailed narrative to describe the natural scenes he found so refreshing from the neoclassical poet’s polished elegance and courtliness, he appeals to even the most common of folk who are searching for beauty in the written word. Along with this, Wordsworth uses the mysticism of the natural scene to bring into question how altering our destruction of nature actually is. This mysticism can be seen throughout Nutting, but mostly after the man does the deed of finding an untouched spot to harvest. “Where fairy water-breaks do murmur on…” (ln 32) and “Touch—for there is a Spirit in the woods” (ln 55) are both examples of this mysticism. In this, Wordsworth compares the disruption of the natural essence that surrounds the man to the disruption of something almost holy. The poet’s continual usage of natural and rustic elements can be explained in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads as, “the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.” (Broadview, 148). In this, Wordsworth attempts to explain his usage of natural elements as a way of stirring passions and emotions from his audience in ways the previous poets and writers could not, or would not. He evokes a new way of looking at the world and the landscapes that surround men, in order to evoke in them a deeper and clearer understanding of the importance of being introduced to such beauty.