“Romanticizing Nature vs. Dreading Its End: Two Centuries of Environmental Writing" by IRJET Journal

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 12 Issue: 07 | Jul 2025 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

“Romanticizing Nature vs. Dreading Its End: Two Centuries of Environmental Writing"

1M. Iswarya, 2Dr. T. Senthamarai

1Research Scholar, Department of English, Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, VISTAS, Chennai

2Associate Professor and HOD, Department of English, Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, VISTAS, Chennai ***

Abstract - Thewaywritersportrayournaturalworldhas undergone a dramatic transformation over the past two centuries. This article examines the striking contrast between 19th-century Romantic poets who worshipped nature'sbeautyandcontemporaryauthorswhowarnofits destruction. Where Wordsworth and Coleridge composed lyrical tributes to nature's spiritual power - finding transcendence in daffodils and ancient forests - today's climate fiction writers paint terrifying visions of environmentalcollapse.

Through close analysis of Romantic poetry and modern workslikeTheOverstoryandTheRoad,thisstudyreveals howliteraturehasshiftedfromcelebratingnature'seternal majesty to sounding alarms about its fragility. The Romantics saw nature as both muse and moral guide, offering escape from industrial society's ills. In stark contrast, contemporary environmental writing depicts natureasendangeredandangry-nolongerarefugebuta casualtyofhumanrecklessness.

This article argues that this literary evolution reflects humanity's changing relationship with the natural world: from awe-struck observers to perpetrators of ecological crisis.Bytracingthisjourneyfromreverencetodread,we gaininsightintohowliteraturebothshapesandrespondsto our environmental consciousness. Ultimately, these competing visions raise crucial questions about responsibility,survival,andwhetherwe'vemovedbeyond thepointofnoreturninourrelationshipwiththeplanet.

Key Words: romanticpoetry,climatefiction,ecocriticism, nature in literature, Wordsworth, environmental degradation.

1.INTRODUCTION

Forgenerations,poetsandnovelistshaveheldupamirrorto humanity’s ever-changing relationship with the natural world one that has shifted from reverence to remorse, fromawetoalarm.Inthelate18thcentury,Romanticpoets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge immortalizednatureasasacredrefuge,asourceofspiritual renewal in the face of industrialization’s encroachment.

Their verses celebrated the sublime power of untouched landscapes,framingnatureasbothmuseandmoralguide. Twocenturieslater,contemporarywritersofclimatefiction paint a starkly different picture: one of collapsing ecosystems,toxicskies,andanaturalworldpushedtothe brinkbyhumanhands.WheretheRomanticsfoundsolacein whispering forests and tranquil lakes, today’s authors imaginebarrenwastelandsandvengefulstorms.

Thisarticleexploreshowenvironmentalwritinghasevolved from Romantic idealization to modern-day foreboding a journeythatreflectshumanity’sownfraughttransitionfrom conquerors of nature to casualties of its decline. By examiningkeyworksfrombothmovements,weuncovernot justaliteraryshift,butaprofoundtransformationinhowwe perceive our place within the natural order. From Wordsworth’sdaffodilstothedyingearthof TheRoad,these narratives ask: Have we moved beyond the point of redemption, or can literature still inspire a path toward healing?

The Romantic Lens: Nature as Sanctuary and Moral Guide

TheRomanticsdidn’tjustdescribenature theyworshipped it. For Wordsworth, a field of daffodils was never merely flowers swaying in the breeze; it was a "host, of golden daffodils"thatsparkedtranscendentjoy,imprintingitselfon memory like a spiritual epiphany. Coleridge’s ancient mariner didn’t simply encounter sea creatures but recognized in them a sacred beauty that demanded reverence:"Ohappylivingthings!...Iblessedthemunaware."

Thiswasn’tpassiveobservation itwasactivecommunion, wherenatureservedasbothteacherandredeemer.

Industrialization’searlyrumblingsmadethisvisionurgent. TheRomantics,witnessingencroachingfactoriesandsmogchokedcities,framedwildernessastheantidotetosocietal corruption.In Tintern Abbey,Wordsworthfamouslycalled nature "the anchor of my purest thoughts" a moral compassinaworldlosingitsway.Yetthere’spoignantirony here:theiridylliclandscapeswerealreadyvanishing,evenas they wrote. Their poetry, then, was both celebration and elegy,capturingafleetingharmonybeforeitslippedaway.

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 12 Issue: 07 | Jul 2025 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

The Shattered Sublime: Climate Fiction's Bleak Prophecy

Twocenturieslater,theRomantics’sanctuaryliesinruins. Contemporary climate fiction strips away Wordsworth’s "serene and blessed mood," replacing it with choking atmospheres and mutated ecosystems. Where Coleridge’s marinerfoundredemptioninnature’sbeauty,charactersin novels like The Road scavenge through ash-covered wastelands, where even the memory of green things has faded.Thedaffodilsareextinctnow iftheyeverexistedat allinthesefictionalfutures.

Thisisn’tmerepessimism;it’sautopsy.Cli-Fiwritersdissect theRomanticfallacyofnature’sendlessresilience,exposing how thoroughly industrialization has poisoned Wordsworth’s "mighty world of eye and ear." In The Overstory, Richard Powers grafts scientific precision onto this grief: trees still inspire awe, but now as martyrs to humangreed,theirringsrecordingourcrimesincellulose andsap.Thesublimehasn’tdisappeared it’scurdledinto horror,wherestormsdon’tcleansebutpunish,andforests don’twhisperbutscream.

The Crucial Shift:

 Then:Natureasseparate,eternalbalm("amotion andaspirit"-Wordsworth)

 Now: Nature as wounded, interconnected victim ("theworldisdying,andweareitsmurderers"-CliFitrope)

Echoes in the Wasteland: The Unlikely Bridge Between Eras

Beneaththisstarkcontrast,anunsettlingcontinuity emerges.TheRomanticstrembledbeforenature’s power Wordsworth’s "sense sublime" of something"farmoredeeplyinterfused" justaswe now tremble before its fragility. Both movements share a visceral understanding: nature was never trulyourstocommand.Coleridge’smariner,cursed forkillinganalbatross,becomesapropheticfigure forourageofmassextinction.Hispenance forced torepeathistaletowarnothers mirrorsclimate fiction’surgentdidacticism.

 Yet there’s a crucial divergence. Romantic awe carried redemption; one could return to Tintern Abbeyandbe"laidasleep/Inbody,andbecomea living soul." Modern protagonists find no such solace.Whenthefatherin TheRoad whispers"carry thefire"tohisson,it’snotWordsworth’s"impulse from a vernal wood" but a desperate grip on vanishing humanity in a world where nature no longernurtures.Thefireisn’tspiritual it’sliteral, thelastflickeragainstencroachingdark.

The Pen and the Seed: Writing Our Way Back to Earth

Literature’spowerhasalwaysbeenitsabilitytodo whatstatisticscannot:maketheinvisiblevisceral. TheRomanticsmadeus feel nature’s pulsein our veins;climatefictionmakesustasteitsashesonour tongues. Between these two visions lies our crossroads notjustasreaders,butasinhabitants ofaplanetincrisis.

Consider the concrete beneath our feet. Where Wordsworth’s wanderer might have knelt to examine "a primrose by a river’s brim," we now encounterthetenaciousdandelioncrackingurban pavement. This isn’t nature defeated it’s nature adapting, insisting. Contemporary writers like Robin Wall Kimmerer weave indigenous wisdom with scientific insight, suggesting that if welisten closely,thelandstillspeaks.In BraidingSweetgrass, she observes: "Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world." The Romantics paidattentionwithwonder;wemustlearntodoso withaccountability.

The Living Story of Nature in Literature: From Romantic Wonder to Climate Crisis

This research follows the heartbeat of nature through two centuries of storytelling from the awe-filled poems of the Romantics to the urgent warningsoftoday'sclimatefiction.It'sabouthow writershaveputintowordswhatwefeelwhenwe standbeforeatoweringmountainorwatchaforest burn.

Wordsworthandhiscontemporarieswrotenature as a living church, where sunlight through leaves wasscriptureandriversspokeindivinewhispers. Their poems were love letters to a world they believedwouldalwaysbetheretocomfortus.But turn the page to today's climate novels, and that samenaturalworldspeaksinalarms risingseas drowncities,andsilentspringswarnofwhatwe've lost.

What This Exploration Reveals:

1. The Power of Stories to Shape Reality

o HowRomanticpoemsquietlypreparedus tocareaboutnature

o Why climate fiction's nightmares might helppreventrealdisasters

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 12 Issue: 07 | Jul 2025 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

2. The Unseen Thread Connecting Centuries

o TheRomanticpoets'earlyenvironmental concernsweoftenoverlook

o How today's writers are answering their questionswithnewurgency

3. Literature as Both Mirror and Compass

o What our nature stories say about our changingplaceintheworld

o How fictional futures could guide realworldchoices

Thisisn'tjustaboutbooksonshelves it's abouthowthe stories we tell become the world we inhabit. When Wordsworth wrote of daffodils, he gave us eyes to see nature'sjoy.Whenclimatefictionshowsusburningworlds, itgivesusheartstopreventthatfuture.Betweenthesetwo visionsliesourhumanjourneywiththeearth,writtenone storyatatime.

The Unfolding Story: When Warnings Become Prophecies

There’s a haunting moment in Romantic poetry when celebration gives way to unease a quiet tremor beneaththe beauty. Wordsworth, walking throughLondonin1802,saw"theveryhousesseem asleep" while humanity was "out of tune" with nature.Fastforwardtwohundredyears,andthat faint discord has become a siren: in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife, the Colorado River runs dry, and people kill for what the Romantics wouldhavecalled"thesweetmurmurofaflowing stream."

Whatchangedwasn’tnature’svoice,butourability to hear it. The Romantics wrote with ink made of curiosity and wonder; today’s authors write with theashesofwhatwe’veburned.Yetinthisshiftlies literature’senduringpower notjusttodocument loss, but to rekindle our capacity to care. When RachelCarsonwrote Silent Spring,shedidn’tinvent ecological concern; she channeled the Romantic sensibilityforwonderintoscientifictestimony.In this way, climate fiction isn’t rejecting Romanticism it’sfulfillingitsunspokenpromise: thatifwetrulylovenature’sbeauty,wemustfight topreserveit.

TheLivingQuestion:

Can we still find Wordsworth’s joy in a single blooming flower when we know entire species vanish daily? The answermaydeterminewhetherourstoriesbecomeelegies orblueprintsforrenewal.

Conclusion: The Stories We Need Now

ThejourneyfromRomanticpoetrytoclimatefiction reveals more than changing literary tastes it mirrors our evolving conscience. Wordsworth’s daffodils and McCarthy’s scorched earth are not opposites, but chapters in the same human story: our struggle to understand our place in nature’s web.

Whatbeganasspiritualcommunionhasbecomea matterofsurvival.TheRomanticstaughtustosee; climate fiction forces us to act. Where poets once foundsolacein"nature’sholyplan,"novelistsnow chart the consequences of ignoring that plan. Yet this isn’t a defeat it’s a maturation. The same reverencethatfilledTinternAbbeywithlightnow fuelsthedeterminationtoprotectwhatremains.

TheChoiceAhead:

We stand where two traditions meet one that cherishednature’sgifts,another thatcountstheir cost. Perhaps the next chapter of environmental writing will blend both: the Romantic’s eye for beauty with the climate novelist’s courage to face hardtruths.Ifso,literaturemayyethelpusdowhat neithersciencenorpoliticscanalone rekindleour loveforthiswoundedworldwhilethere’sstilltime tohealit.

The final line isn’t written. Whether it’s hope or lamentdependsonwhatwedowiththewarnings, andwhetherweremember,astheRomanticsknew, thatnature’svoicewasneverbackground butthe verygroundwestandon.

Works Cited:

 Atwood,Margaret. MaddAddam Trilogy. Bloomsbury,2013.

 Bacigalupi,Paolo. The Water Knife.Vintage,2015.

 Coleridge,SamuelTaylor."TheRimeofthe AncientMariner."1798.

 McCarthy,Cormac. The Road.Vintage,2006.

 Powers,Richard. The Overstory.Norton,2018.

 Wordsworth,William. Lyrical Ballads.1798.

 Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination HarvardUP,1995.

 Ghosh,Amitav. The Great Derangement.ChicagoUP, 2016.

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 12 Issue: 07 | Jul 2025 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

 Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2011.

 Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass Milkweed,2013.

 Morton,Timothy. Ecology Without Nature.Harvard UP,2007.

 Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

 IPCCClimateReports(latestedition)