Wordsworth and Nature

Deep ecology, a particularly radical environmental movement is based in a deeply spiritual view of nature. Deep ecologists believe that the earth does not exist solely for human appropriation, but rather is a moral authority by which our actions should be judged. In reading Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," I could not help but draw a parallel between Wordsworth's view of nature, and that of deep ecologists. When Wordsworth states that nature is his "guide, the guardian of (his) heart, and soul/Of all (his) moral being," it becomes clear that his view of nature closely resembles religion - the basis for all morality, and something that he worships intensely. Environmental historian William Cronon is strongly against this idea that we can appeal to nature as a source of intrinsic moral value, and believes that Romantic era poets, such as Wordsworth, have been responsible for inspiring the deep ecology movement. Before the Romantic era, for instance, the idea of the "wilderness" was largely regarded as something to be afraid of and avoid at all costs. Over time, there has been a shift in the way society views the wilderness, and it is much more consistent with the way Wordsworth saw it - as beautiful and sublime, but also as possessing this sense of spirituality. William Cronon suggests that it is the Romantic era which created this conception of nature, which is entirely a human construction applying human values to nature, something that is distinctly different from the human being. This makes us question how we can appeal to nature as the objective measure by which we draw our values, when this conception of nature was likely created by those very values. The fact that William Wordsworth is largely responsible for changing the way human beings view nature makes the influential poet seem all the more significant in the grand scheme of history.