On poetic interpretation of nature

by John Campbell Shairp

That flowers in tears of balm distill;

Through his loved groves that breezes sigh,

And oaks in deeper groans reply;

And rivers teach their rushing wave

To murmur dirges round his grave.”

This view of Nature has been philosophically condensed into a single stanza of Coleridge’s ode on Dejection. He says, that in looking at the outward world

“We receive but what we give,

And in our life alone doth Nature live;

Ours is the wedding garment, ours the shroud.”