Romanticism Synthesis

I chose to analyze the concept from the romantic era of valuing nature over man-made creations. By evaluating works such as “The World Is Too Much With Us” by William Wordsworth, “Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray and “The Introduction to Frankenstein” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, I understand the ideals these authors tried to depict through their writing. The common theme throughout each piece of literature was describing the importance of nature. Each author clearly depicted their ideas through poetry and prose.
In “The World Is Too Much With Us” by Wordsworth, human life is illustrated as a smorgasbord of materialism and ignorance about the true values in nature. Lines 3-4 of this somber sonnet read, “Little we see in Nature that is ours;/We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”. The entire sonnet drives in the main point that Wordsworth was trying to make about the man-made materialistic mindset of the 18th and 19th century human race.
Thomas Gray attributed to the Romantic era of poetry with his elegy about the beauty of the countryside. In “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard”, Gray describes the beauty of a simple rural life. He states in lines 99-101 that, “Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn/Brushing with hasty steps the dews away/To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.” Gray marvels at nature, and tries to open the eyes of his generation the importance of understanding the natural phenomenon of life rather than dwelling on what the world has to offer.
Finally, Shelley described that man-made creations are not as well crafted as natural parts of life. She shows that creations such as humans should not be messed with by man, but only nature, in “The Introduction to Frankenstein”.
It is apparent that the romantics of the romantic era viewed nature over man made creations. The authors and poets I selected illustrate this wonderfully.