Wordsworth’s Naturalistic Spirituality. The Effects of Romantic Paganism in William Wordsworth’s Poetic Works

Abstract

Paganism flourished during the end of the Romantic period and the younger Romantics were considered to have been influenced by this. However, the pagan aspects that influenced several of the younger generation’s work were also around when William Wordsworth wrote his poetry. My thesis explores an unnoticed or neglected aspect of William Wordsworth’s poetic works, his nature-worshipping and pagan language, symbolism, and references. His naturalistic language has often been seen with a Christian undertone and it became a part of Christianity. However, I argue paganism serves as a replacement of several Christian elements and doctrines because his language is religious and he uses similar terminology to describe both God and Nature. In doing so he sometimes rejects Christian doctrines and provides Nature with the same divine aspects as God. His references and use of pagan language is ambiguous because of his lacking references to God and excessive use of Nature.