"Expostulation and Reply" and "The Tables Turned"

The two poems for today both deal with the same theme of nature being the greatest teacher of all. In the first poem "Expostulation and Reply", Wordsworth's friend asked him why he sits on a stone by himself and says that it is a waste of time. Wordsworth reply is that it is not a waste of time. Rather sitting on the rock is helping him understand nature in a better way. The message that Wordsworth conveys from this poem is that you can learn a lot more from going out and examining the world, than what you can learn from reading a book. When you read a book to learn about things, the book does not convey the same feelings and emotions as actually visualizing something in person. In addition, the facts in books are set in stone and unchanging once they are published. Meanwhile, nature changes at every moment so you are able to learn more. we are constantly seeing, feeling, and experiencing nature all the time.

The second poem, "The Tables Turned", also is a reinforcement of the idea that nature is the greatest teacher of all. In the poem, the speaker tells his friend he needs to get up and go outside instead of reading books. Again we see the speaker saying that nature can teach a person more than books can. In this poem, there is a better description of mother nature. To emphasize, the speaker says that mother nature has an abundance of wealth and is ready to give her gifts to us. One of the strongest lines in the poem is "One impulse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man." This line resonates again the fact that nature can teach you a lot. It can teach you the difference between good and evil. All you have to do is sit back and watch.

Both of these poems were probably thought to be radical because they went against the ideas of the time. Before the Romantic Period, learning was probably more pertained to books and people probably weren't allowed that much creativity in their way of thinking. Wordsworth idea of nature being the greatest teacher goes against the structure of that time. Thinkers of the previous time would see Wordsworth's ideas as being very radical. But this poem helps to show what the Romantic Period's idea of thinking was about.