CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
B. Discussion
In this chapter, researcher has found out the terms of beauty of nature and human dignity in three poems that have been interpreted by the researcher with some supporting data.
1. Tintern Abbey
In Wordsworth’s Tintern abbey, researcher finds both terms discussed in this chapter; beauty of nature and human dignity. In Tintern Abbey, there are some stanza in which the terms are found.
In Tintern Abbey, beauty of nature was explained in stanza 1 and 2 although it is not fully shown in the second stanza. As discussed in finding that the first stanza mostly told about the surroundings which are described by the speaker as his impression to the place after spending five years in another place far from the place he told about. In the second stanza Wordsworth tells his readers that his first visit to this place gave him "sensations sweet" when he was in the "lonely rooms" of the city. He intimates that these "feelings... / Of unremembered pleasure" may have helped him to be a better person, perhaps simply by putting him in a better mood than he would have been. Wordsworth goes on to suggest his
spiritual relationship with nature, which he believes will be a part of him until he dies.
Stanza 3, 4, 5 and 6 mostly told about human dignity. Stanza 3, he doubted about his feelings whether it is real or it is just his imagination. He is afraid of the hostile surrounding but with the spirit that he believed was given by the power of nature. In the third stanza, he begins to consider what it would mean if his belief in his connection to nature were misguided, but stops short. Seeming not to care whether the connection is valid or not, he describes the many benefits that his memories nature give him. At the end of the stanza he addresses the Wye River: "How oft, in spirit, have I returned to thee / O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the woods, / How often has my spirit returned to thee!"
Stanza 4 shows the speaker’s feeling with the change he is facing now even though he never forgets the wonderful memory with the nature that he called “something”, he can feel the sound, he can feel it comes inside his soul, flows with his blood and lightens all the weary weight on his shoulders and he believes that it lives inside him. Speaker begins by explaining the pleasure he feels at being back in the place that has given him so much joy over the years. He is also glad because he knows that this new memory will give him future happiness: "in this moment there is life and food / for future years." He goes on to explain how differently he experienced nature five years ago, when he first came to explore the area.
Stanza 5 continues the speaker’s concerns in the previous stanza, he said that “something”gives him pure mind, guard him, inspire him, and live him in the soul. Stanza 6 surprisingly revealed that the speaker is not alone, he is with Dorothy his beloved sister. In the last stanza, the speaker wants his sister to be like him, to feel what he feel, to be the part of “something”in case he has gone, she will replace him to continue his dream protecting nature each other. Wordsworth then shares his deepest hope: that in the future, the power of nature and the memories of his will stay with Dorothy. He is implying that he will die before she does and hopes that in her memory he will be kept alive
2. La Belle dame sans Merci
La Belle dame sans Merci’s Keats consists of 12 stanzas which told about a Knight that has just met a fairy lady, fallen in love, and got a nightmare about the lady. In the beginning stanzas, the poet starts the poems by questioning the knight who is in terrible condition. According to Soyinka in litxpert.wordpress.com, the poet wonders what sickness has gripped the knight, making him look so exhausted and miserable. He seems to be in a terrible condition: the color is fast fading from his cheeks and his forehead glistens with sweat, contrasting with his increasing pallor.
An aura of mystery surrounds the scene, and one cannot help but wonder what a knight, a man used to action and surviving in harsh conditions, is
doing walking aimlessly around the moor, and what is it that has befallen him to reduce him to such a pitiful state.
In the next stanza, the knight starts to answer the question from the poet. He tells his tale that he met the most beautiful lady whom he called an angel’s child. He enjoys spending time with the lady, he gives her a garland, bracelet, and fragrant zone which are made from plants. Then, he told us how she joined him riding horse together which he called the best moment that he would never waste. Their intimacy continues when she sings beautifully then gives him delectable things to eat such as sweet roots and honey even she provides him a food from heaven “manna dew”.
She speaks a language that the man does not think she would say even it sounds strange for him but she does say that she love him.
In the few last stanzas, the lady then took him to her elfin grot, and the reader realized that the lady is an actual fairy, a supernatural being that the knight has fallen in love with. The knight remembers that she looked at him sadly as he kissed her wild troubled eyes to sleep. As they slept together on the hill side, the knight had a dream: he saw the deathly visions of kings, princes and warriors, with gnarled lips and ghastly figures.
They all cried out to him, warning him that the lady has no mercy and he is in her trap now as well. That is when he awoke and found himself alone and on the verge of death, without any sign on his lover in sight. He has been wandering the land ever since, hoping either for his lady to return or for death to embrace him.
3. Ozymandias
In Ozymandias, researcher found that nature was used to liken the powerful king named Ozymandias.
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 2 Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies
Line 2, 3 and 4 give us several images of nature: the "stone," the
"desert," and the "sand." The "stone" reminds us that the statue is a product of nature in some sense; the way in which the legs are standing in the sand suggests something similar, as if they were just emerging from the sand or nature were giving birth to them. "Half-sunk" calls to mind images of the sea: it's as if the head is being reclaimed by an unforgiving ocean of sand. The materials used to make the statue are slowly returning to the place from where they came, completing a kind of natural cycle of life and death.
whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command 5
We know that later in the poem Ozymandias will brag about the greatness of his works (human dignity), but here he seems less than satisfied with something, as if he thinks his works could be better. We can imagine the sculptor hammering away at the statue and Ozymandias giving him a dirty look because something about it just isn't right.
Alternatively, perhaps Ozymandias was perpetually frowning because his empire just wasn't good enough, or big enough.
those passions...
which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things 7
Line 6 and 7 explained about lifeless is an incredibly rich word in this passage. That the pieces of the statue are now "lifeless" suggests that they were in fact once alive.Perhaps a work of art is alive when it's complete or, rather, not in fragments like the statue of Ozymandias. Or perhaps it has something to do with the role or function of the work of art in a particular culture. Because the surrounding temples and civilization have been destroyed, the statue no longer functions as a tribute to, or symbol of, Ozymandias's political power; it is "dead" because it is now an artistic curiosity, an object for museum-goers to look at and poets to write about rather than a statue with a specific function within a particular culture.
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: 10 Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair"
In these lines, the king showed a lot of arrogance in this statement, as if he were saying that his name means "king of kings." He brags about his "works" (statues like the one described, pyramids, etc.) as well, telling the "Mighty" to "despair" because their works will never be as good or as
his. Ironically, Ozymandias's works are nowhere to be seen – all that's left is a barren desert and this broken statue. His pride is made to look stupid because his "works" are all gone, except for this fragmented statue that, quite literally, is on its last legs.
… lone and level sands stretch far away
The last line showed that nature has the final victory in this poem:
the statue is almost gone, suffer the same fate as the civilization that produced it. Ozymandias's empire once "stretch[ed] far away," but now it is nature – embodied by the "lone and level sands" – that extends its empire. Interestingly, the sands are "lone" even though there is a statue still there, as if the statue is so insignificant relative to nature that it is almost not worth mentioning.