This timeline reviews the paralleled experience of nature as a muse through various texts we have studied in class. For this project, I focused mainly on the involvement of human life in nature and how nature acts as a vessel of reflection. This piece of my project shows the evolution of how people view themselves as extensions of their environments and analyses how world events shape the use of nature in stories and poems. I have created a miniature collection of events that reflect the history of human involvement in nature between the Romantic, Victorian, and Twentieth Century periods to show how nature molds to the transforming world around individuals who return to it for inspiration and comfort.
Timeline
Table of Events
| Date | Event | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| 1726 to 1726 | Shelvocke: Action Against the Albatross
George Shelvocke’s A Voyage Round the World by Way of the Great South Sea (1726) is a firsthand account of his four-year privateering expedition during the War of the Spanish Succession, chronicling his journey around South America, through the pacific, and home again. His story describes shipwrecks, storms, fights with Spanish ships, and crew conflicts. The narrative emphasizes the hardships and dangers of long sea voyages and describes the popular event where a sailor shoots a black albatross during a storm. This event inspired Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1817). According to Junctures.org, the historical inspiration for the Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1817) came from the tales of George Shelvocke’s A Voyage Around the World By Way of the Great South Sea (1726) (Luke Strongman, 2008). Coleridge drew on account from the real maritime exploration—especially stories of voyages to the Antarctic, dangerous storms, and saliors superstitions, including the belief that killing an albatross brings terrible luck. These narratives, combined with Coleridge’s interest in old folk ballads, gave the poem its archaic style and mystical atmosphere. Coleridge’s work partly explores themes that personally preoccupy him in his other works (such as guilt, isolation, and moral responsibility). By weaving together historical scourges and his own philosophical concerns, Coleridge creates a poem meant to warn against violating the natural order and to emphasize the redemptive power of resacting all living things. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner reflects the core ideals of Romanticism through its emphasis on powerful emotion, imaginative storytelling, and the profound connection to the natural world. Nature is presented not only as scenery, but as an active, moral force that respond to human action. When the mariner kills the albatross, he disrupts the harmony of creation, and the natural world turns hostile. His redemption begins only when he recognizes the beauty and value of the water snakes, symbolizing the Romantic belief that true spiritual awakening comes from a heartfelt connection to nature. Sources Used for Coleridge and Shelvocke: https://archive.org/details/cihm_18634 https://junctures.org/index.php/junctures/article/view/21/357 Source for Photo used: https://otlibrary.com/black-footed-albatross-4/
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Aubrey Costello |
| 1815 to 1818 | The Year Without a Summer: The Eruption of Mount Tambora
The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, April 1815 was one of the most powerful volcanic events recorded in history, ejecting massive amount of ash and deadly debris into the atmosphere. The explosion killed around 10,000 people and resulted in, “The Year Without a Summer,” in Europe. Climate in Global Cultures and Histories says, “The eruption of Mount Tambora happened directly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars which left continental Europe in destruction…The Year Without a Summer coincided with a typhus outbreak, causing over 40,000 deaths,” (Science Smith, 2023). Not only were multiple parts of Europe affected by this eruption physically, it mentally destroyed and discouraged thousands of individuals due to the changing climate that resulted in drought, famine, and more deaths. This event resulted in the poem, “Darkness,” (1816) written by Lord Byron during his stay by Lake Geneva, Switzerland. This poem walks its readers through a bleak atmosphere where he is describing an end-of the-world scenario and perpetual collapse of human society. The poem’s apocalyptic imagery directly reflects the key characteristics of the Romantic period, particularly its focus on sublime nature, human emotion, and the limits of human power, The poem portrays nature not as gentle or harmonious, (as we see in other Romantic works like Wordsworth’s) but as overwhelmingly destructive, emphasizing the Romantic fascination with the sublime. It also conveys deep emotional despair and explores humanity’s vulnerability in the face of cosmic forces. The bleak vision of civilizations collapse underscores Romantic skepticism towards industrialization ad human progress. Overall, “Darkness” uses the historical context of Tambora’s eruption to embody Romantic themes of awe, terror, and the uncontrollable power of nature.
Sources: Mount Tambora Information: https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/the-eruption-of-mount-tambora-1... Mount Tambora Picture: https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-Tambora Poem of Refrence: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43825/darkness-56d222aeeee1b |
Aubrey Costello |
| 1843 | Industrialism: The Loss of Nature and Self
The period of industrialism, and the Industrial Revolution (1760’s-1840’s), was a time of rapid transformation in England from the late 18th to mid-19th century, characterized by mechanization and the rise of factories. This era drastically altered the Victorian outlook on nature. Many Victorians perceived nature as something being lost or corrupted by industrial progress, with polluted cities and exploited natural resources. The National Bureau of economic Research suggests that, “The preponderance of the evidence suggests that the lack of improvement in mortality between 1820 and 1870 is due in large part to the greater spread of disease in newly enlarged cities,” (Cutler, p. 102). Nature was often viewed either as a force to be controlled for human gain or as a mirror reflecting societies decay. Industrialism replaced the rhythms of the natural world with the ceaseless demands of machines and urban life, leaving workers and ordinary people estranged from the environment. Thomas Hood’s, “The Song of the Shirt,” (1843) reflects these social and environmental shifts. The poem exposes the harsh conditions endured by industrial-era seamstresses (specifically Mrs. Biddell), particularly women, who labored endlessly for starvation wages. Hood emphasizes the mechanical, repetitive nature of their work and highlights how industrial labor dehumanized people, turning the, into extensions of machines. Though the poem does not directly describe landscapes, the absence of nature in the seamstress's life symbolizes how industrialization had removed people from their natural world. Hood’s imagery of exhaustion, poverty, and decay parallels the environment in which England was forced to exist in during the time of the Industrial Revolution, illustrating not only the withering of the, “self,” but also the withering of the environment due to pollution. Source used for research: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w21647/w21647.pdf https://allpoetry.com/The-Song-of-the-Shirt Source used for photo: https://speakoutsocialists.org/the-lowell-mill-strikes-working-women-org... |
Aubrey Costello |
| 1859 to 1859 | Darwin’s Dilemma: The Victorian Approach to Evolution
Charle’s Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) argues that all living organisms evolved over immense spans of time through natural selection. Rather than presenting nature as static or divinely ordered, Darwin depicted it as dynamic and contingent upon competition and adaptation. His work dismantled the belief in the immutability of species and challenges the notion that humans occupied a fixed, privileged position in a divinely crafted hierarchy. Although Darwin himself largely avoided making theological claims, the implications of his science were very provocative for this time period. In the Victorian period, Darwin’s ideas had a seismic cultural impact. Victorian ideology generally imagined nature as orderly, purposeful, and morally instructive. Many Victorians believed in a stable and natural hierarchy, aligning with religious doctrine and the era’s confidence in progress guided by Providence. Darwin’s struggle, randomness, and constant change. For some, this was. A liberating scientific breakthrough, and for others, it threatened spiritual and moral foundations of life. Gerald Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur,” (1877) offers a striking contrast to Darwin’s naturalism. Hopkins affirms a sacramental view of nature where the world is charged with, “the grandeur of God,” (line 1, Hopkins) and continually infused with divine presence despite human toil and environmental degradation. Where Darwin sees the natural process operating independently of supernatural intervention, Hopkins sees God’s sustaining power running, “like shining from shook foil," (line 2, Hopkins). Yet, these two perspectives also intersect in a subtle way. Hopkins acknowledges a kind of resilience and renewal in nature which loosely echos Darwin’s sense of nature as dynamic and self-regenerating. Ultimately, Darwin challenges the Victorian belief in a divinely orchestrated natural order, while Hopkins reasserts it, making the poem a spiritual counterpoint to the unsettling implications of evolutionary theory. Sources used for writing: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/origin-species-charles-darwin https://www.gerardmanleyhopkins.org/lectures_2016/gods_grandeur.html Photo Source: |
Aubrey Costello |
| 1916 to 1618 | WWI: The Earth Remains, Though We May Not
World War I had a profound impact on how people viewed nature in the 20th and 21st centuries. The war’s unprecedented scale of industrialized violence and mechanical warfare destroyed landscapes, poisoned fields, and reshaped entire ecosystems. Soldiers and civilians alike witness firsthand how modern technology could devastate the natural world, leading to a more somber, sometimes disillusioned understanding of humanities relationship with nature. In society, this shifted cultural attitudes towards both the environment and the human experience within it. Nature was no longer seen solely as a comforting, idealize s space of beauty and renewal, but rather a site of destruction and vulnerability. This tension between beauty and brutality influenced art, literature, and environment thought throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Issac Rosenberg’s poem, “Break of Day in the Trenches,” (1916) reflects these societal shifts by portraying nature as indifferent to human suffering. In the poem, the simple act of a rat moving through the trenches contrasts sharply with the horrors of war, emphasizing how life continues in nature, despite human violence. Rosenberg does not romanticize nature, but instead highlights its persistence, resilience, and occasional cruelty. Thus, mirroring the way people came to understand the natural world after WWI—as something both enduring and unconcerned with human ideals. The trenches themselves become a microcosm of nature’s raw, unfiltered reality where lift and death exist without moral judgement. Rosenberg’s treatment of nature reflects 20th and 21st century idealism in the way that it moves away from the pastoral, that we see in earlier eras. Instead, his work aligns with a more modern awareness where nature is a living force that persists independently. This mirrors broader cultural shifts, where literature, philosophy, and environmental thought increasingly recognized that humanity is part of larger (often unpredictable) natural order. Rosenberg’s poem this captures the tension between human fragility and nature’s enduring presence. Source for Information: https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/destruction-of-the-eco... https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-material/the-environmenta... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13535/break-of-day... Source for Photo: https://www.britannica.com/list/life-in-the-trenches-a-world-war-i-photo... |
Aubrey Costello |
| 1952 | Seamus Heaney and the Grauballe Man
The discovery of the Grauballe Man in the Danish peat bog is 1952 highlighted a unique intersection between nature and human history. The bog’s acidic, oxygen-poor condition naturally mummified the body, allowing modern science to study the physical details of the life from over 2,000 years ago. Through a 20th century lens, this discovery reflected a growing fascination with archaeology, ecology, and the interconnectedness of humans and nature. Nature was no longer seen merely as backdrop for human activity, but as an active agent capable of preserving, shaping, and revealing historical truths. The Grauballe Man became a symbol of the way human is entwined with natural processes, illustrating how 20th century perspectives increasingly recognized nature as dynamic and capable of influencing human memory and identities. Seamus Heaney’s poem, “The Grauballe Man,” (1975) mirrors these 20th century ideologies by portraying nature and both a preserver and a witness to human life, while also reflecting on personal and cultural identity. Heaney uses vivid imagery to emphasize the body’s physical presence and the bog’s role in preserving it, turning the natural environment into a kind of historical and moral agent. The poem’s tone conveys reverence and empathy, suggesting a 20th century humanistic approach to nature that sees it as intertwined with human fate rather than as something to dominate. Additionally, Heaney’s attention to the Grauballe Man’s suffering and stillness reflects his own exploration of Irish identity and history, linking human violence and cultural memory to the natural world. By forcing readers to identify not only with his expierence and the Grauballe Man's expierence, Heaney frames the bog--and nature--as a witness to history and participant in shaping human consciousness, demonstrating how 20th century thought increasingly saw humans and nature as mutually consecutive. Sources used: https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/iron-age-exhibition/grauballe-man https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57044/the-grauballe-man https://www.jstor.org/stable/27224168 Photo |
Aubrey Costello |
