From Wordsworth to Whitman: Nature and Nation in English and American Verse

Abstract

This paper explores the transatlantic dialogue between William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman, two poets who, though separated by time, geography, and culture, redefined the relationship between nature, self, and nation. Wordsworth’s vision of nature, rooted in the moral and spiritual depth of English rural life, presents the landscape as a site of introspection and human regeneration. In contrast, Whitman transforms nature into an emblem of democratic freedom, celebrating the vastness and diversity of the American land as a reflection of collective identity. While Wordsworth’s poetry seeks harmony between the individual mind and the natural world, Whitman’s verse expands that relationship into a universal, communal experience. Despite their differing tones—Wordsworth’s meditative restraint and Whitman’s exuberant inclusiveness—both poets converge on the belief that nature embodies the moral and imaginative essence of a nation. By examining their shared and divergent treatments of nature, this study highlights how landscape becomes a language through which poetic selfhood and cultural identity are expressed across the English-speaking world.