Romanticism, Nature, and Civilization: Poem and 4 Questions
Do You See What I See?
(Mike DePung — Post 8)
Brilliantly burning, densely packed gaseous
Masses transmit electromagnetic waves of energy
Traversing vast reaches of
Non-atmosphere — Vacuum.
Beauty, dreams, romance, love, hope,
Celestial patterns, guides of destiny (for some),
All this evoked by these myriad stars.
Well, at least they tell us myriad —
Astronomers, scientists, you know.
Here in 21st century mid-America suburb, though,
If I wished, I could count all those pinpricks of
Light that I can observe,
The rest not visible through artificial
Haze of our own design.
Questions and Thoughts
When our own devices, our own technologies, our own inventions, our own lifestyles, our own reasonings, and our own greed obscure nature and the lessons and laws that Nature freely offers, perhaps we have worked ourselves into our own black abyss, one in which we must not remain if we desire lives of love, compassion, relationship, and reality — as opposed to artificiality. I do not mean to shut off power after eight o’clock but rather to get to a spiritual place to be able to see ourselves naturally, to see that we are all human and that we should treat one another humanely in our laws, ethics, and international, national, and personal relationships. William Wordsworth addressed such in the following lines.
“The World Is Too Much with Us” [1st quatrain]
The world is too much with us, late and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon.”
- Wordsworth and the other great Romantic era writers looked to Nature for balance. How do I see my relationship to Nature? How do I balance my life?
2. How can I use Nature to help me discover my true self, my core self?
3. What do I do that may obscure the instruction or insight that I might receive from the Universe?
4. What do the stars evoke from me, personally, that make a lesson, an impression on me?
