Pastoral poetry- religion

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  • Created by: Emily
  • Created on: 05-06-15 16:08
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  • Pastoral Poetry- Religion
    • Religion is greatest in nature
      • The Garden
        • 'Scared plants'
          • It is suggested that the sacred plants (metaphor for Holy virtues) will only grow amongst other plants/ only found in nature
        • Nature allows contemplation, which leads to increased spirituality
          • 'like a bird it sits and sings'
            • Nature makes your soul happy
          • 'Prepared for longer flight'
            • Preparation for Heaven
      • The mower against gardens
        • 'The God's themselves with us do dwell'
          • Compared to statues in cultivated nature- the God's only exist in rural, nature.
          • Possible reason for plural 'Gods'- not Christianity as expcted, but perhaps paganism or pantheism?
        • Modern agricultural developments go against nature and therefore God
          • 'forbidden mixtures'
          • 'adulterate fruit'
            • Adulterate- connotes sin
      • Paradise Lost
        • Strong religious references throughout
          • Reference to a kind God who makes Adam and Eve's work easy
            • 'Pleasant task'
            • 'not to irksome toil but to delight/ he made us'
              • Links to pastoral ideas of a naturally leisurely life
                • 'Pleasant task'
        • Presents nature  a place to worship God/ the earth 'praise's God
          • 'Sacred light'
          • 'Earths great altar'
          • Morning incense'
        • Humans must control nature for it remain sacred
          • 'luxurious', 'wanton'
            • Nature when left to grow wild- connotes sin
              • parallel between nature going wild=giving into sin, and Adam and Eve giving in to satan
                • Perhaps suggesting that post-lapsarian nature is wanton and luxurious? Humans sin ruined nature
    • Alternative portrayals of religion
      • Elegy
        • Some ideas that go against orthodox Christianity
          • 'the paths of glory lead but to the grave'
            • Death is presented as final in the poem; what happens in life means nothing as we all die
              • Goes against religious views of the afterlife
          • 'Let Ambition not mock their useful toil' 'Grandeur'
            • Personification of Ambition and Grandeur- gives them power to influence people lives
              • Abstract nouns act as living things- goes against typical religious ideas
          • 'Their lot forbad'
            • 'Lot' connotes chance- potential suggestion that fate plays a part in the rural peoples desinies
      • Mower to the glow worms
        • Alternative view to orthodox religion- the glow worms care for nature's inhabitants
          • Whereas in Christanity this would be God's role
          • 'Living lamps'
          • 'to wandering mowers shows the way'
          • 'by whose dear light/ the nightingale does sit'
      • Tintern Abbey (pantheism)
        • Nature brings the benefits that typically in religion God brings
          • 'Harmony', 'joy'
          • 'my spirit turned to thee!'
          • poet truns to nature 'in hours of weariness'
          • 'Anchor of my purest thoughts'
          • nature acts as a 'nurse'
          • 'Soul of all my moral being'
          • The poet speaks of nature as  a religious person would speak of their God
            • 'I, so long a worshipper of Nature'
              • Capital N shows importance / personification
              • Pantheism- pastoral idea

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