NATURE AND ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ROMANTIC POETRY: A STUDY OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

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Romantic poetry represents one of the most important literary movements in the history of English literature, especially because of its deep engagement with nature, imagination, emotion, spirituality, and human consciousness. Among the major Romantic poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge occupy a central position for their profound treatment of nature as a living, spiritual, moral, and imaginative force. Their poetry moves beyond the simple description of natural beauty and presents nature as a source of wisdom, emotional healing, moral growth, and ecological awareness. This article examines the representation of nature and ecological consciousness in the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge. Wordsworth’s poetry presents nature as a nurturing presence that shapes human character and restores emotional harmony. Poems such as “Tintern Abbey,” “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” “The Prelude,” and “Lines Written in Early Spring” reveal his belief in the spiritual relationship between humanity and the natural world. Coleridge, on the other hand, portrays nature as mysterious, symbolic, supernatural, and morally significant. In poems such as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “Frost at Midnight,” “Kubla Khan,” and “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison,” nature becomes a medium through which moral responsibility, imagination, guilt, and redemption are explored. The study argues that both poets anticipated modern ecological consciousness by emphasizing interdependence between human beings and nature. Their poetry criticizes human arrogance, industrial materialism, and emotional separation from the natural world. Wordsworth’s ecological vision is grounded in harmony, simplicity, and rural life, while Coleridge’s ecological imagination is shaped by mystery, spiritual unity, and moral consequence. Together, their works present nature not as a passive background but as an active presence capable of shaping human identity, ethics, and consciousness.

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