Nature, God, and Civilization in ‘Tintern Abbey’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’

Abstract

This essay examines the theme of nature in two classics of Romanticism, Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey' and Washington Irving's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', using nature as a point of entry to explore the spiritual, ethical, and social concerns reflected and mediated by these texts. Specifically, it argues that both authors incorporate nature to explore its relation to the supernatural as well as to techno-industrial modernity. It contends that, while Wordsworth sees the boundary between the natural and the supernatural as fluid and porous, Irving sees the opposite. Conversely, while Wordsworth sees the distinction between nature and techno-industrial modernity as absolute and ethically black-and-white, Irving has a more nuanced, morally complex conception in this regard. Ultimately, the essay concludes that the theme of nature in these texts provides a fascinating snapshot into the moral-spiritual and socio-political preoccupations of the long nineteenth century, and reveals how Romantics sought to address, mediate, and reframe such preoccupations through their writing.