Mysticism of Wordsworth Poetry:

Wordsworth's mysticism is remarkable for his meditative mood and pantheistic conception of Nature. In fact the mystic clings to the truth behind the shifting symbol. About mysticism Tennyson says, "By God Almighty! There is no delusion in the matter! It is no nebulous ecstasy but a state of transcendent wonder, associated with the absolute clearness of mind." The fundamental basis of a mystic is grounded in the belief of the mystic that there is an essential unity, oneness of likeness in all the objects of nature and human nature created by the Almighty God. As a mystic Wordsworth sees one undivided changeless life in all lives and sees the one inseparable in the separate. The transcendental feeling of ecstasy and cosmic consciousness comes to Wordsworth at intervals and in such moment he becomes a living soul forgetting all about his external existence.

As a great mystic poet Wordsworth achieves name and tame in his age. He is mystic in heart. He was never simply satisfied with the presentation of the lovely and peaceful aspects of nature. He did not like to end purely as a graphic portrayer of the beautiful sights and seems of nature. He aimed at achieving something higher and leaves behind a record of his mystical experiences in nature and human life in his poetry. Thus his poetry is not simply a joyous record of happy objects of nature viewed by him in moments of ecstasy and joy but also a full experience of his mystical experience.

Wordsworth believes that a divine spirit permeates through all the objects of nature. As a true pantheist he also says all is God and God is all. In Tintern Abbey he says:

"And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts: a sense sublime

Of something for more deeply interfused

Whose dwelling is the light of the setting sun

And the round ocean and the living air

…………………of man."

"To discover behind the diverse forms and phenomena of nature the one Inseparable and changeless", says Raleigh.

According to Wordsworth between the spirit in Nature and the mind of man there is a pre-arranged harmony and it is the harmony that enables nature to communicate its own thoughts to man and to reflect upon them until the union between them was established. It was because of this harmony between man and nature that nature could teach and educate human beings.

Wordsworth believes that an unbroken chain binds all things in outward world, and that the spirit of man can commune with God through nature. Like a true mystic he gives life to all objects of nature and makes intercommunication between them possible. He witnesses the presence of sentient life in nature. According to Wordsworth the world is a world of loving and active friendship. Every flower and cloud, every stream and hill, the stars and the birds that lived among them, had each their own life.

As a true mystic Wordsworth honours even the simplest and the most ordinary objects of nature and human life. For him nothing is mean or low for everything that is present in the universe was touched by divine life. For him there is nothing petty or trivial. The commonest thing of nature shares in this universal life as much as the grandest phenomenon of nature; the meanest flower becomes as important as the setting sun:

"To me the meanest flower that blows

Can give thoughts too deep for tears. "

In estimation we may say that Wordsworth is not only a poet but also a seer and a practical psychologist and a mystic with an amazingly subtle mind and an unusual capacity for feeling. He can read the meaning of life in nature. Throughout his life he maintains the belief that nature is a living being and the dwelling place of God. This belief has formed the foundation of Wordsworth's mysticism.

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