The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry - Between Pope and Wordsworth

Myra Reynolds explores how English poetry has learned to “treat” nature—shaping landscapes into something that speaks to human feeling, moral order, and poetic purpose. Moving between the elegant, rule-bound vision of Pope and the more expansive, responsive stance associated with Wordsworth, the book traces how changing literary ideals altered what nature could mean on the page. Reynolds shows that nature is never just scenery: it becomes a tool for style, a measure of taste, and a gateway to ideas about truth, emotion, and the self. By following this shift across key poetic moments, the study reveals a lively transformation in how poets approached the natural world—turning it from a crafted backdrop into a living presence charged with deeper significance. The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry - Between Pope and Wordsworth is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1896.