Wordsworth's Poetical Works
Does the consciousness of the "still, sad music of humanity" (91) have to come from a close relationship with nature, or could it be developed from another source?
Over the past five years, the speaker has developed a new approach to nature: For I have learned To look on nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity. As a more sophisticated and wiser person with a better understanding of the sad disconnection of humanity, Wordsworth feels a deeper and more intelligent relationship with nature: And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused... Although one might reflect on the dislocation of humanity as having something to do with a lack of feeling the natural elements, I think that Wordsworth feels that a relationship with nature must come from the source itself.