Analysis Of Them Poem “the Worship Of Nature” By John Greenleaf Whittier?
THE harp at Nature’s advent strung
Has never ceased to play;
The song the stars of morning sung
Has never died away.
And prayer is made, and praise is given,
By all things near and far;
The ocean looketh up to heaven,
And mirrors every star.
Its waves are kneeling on the strand,
As kneels the human knee,
Their white locks bowing to the sand,
The priesthood of the sea!
They pour their glittering treasures forth,
Their gifts of pearl they bring,
And all the listening hills of earth
Take up the song they sing.
The green earth sends its incense up
From many a mountain shrine;
From folded leaf and dewy cup
She pours her sacred wine.
The mists above the morning rills
Rise white as wings of prayer;
The altar-curtains of the hills
Are sunset’s purple air.
The winds with hymns of praise are loud,
Or low with sobs of pain,–
The thunder-organ of the cloud,
The dropping tears of rain.
With drooping head and branches crossed
The twilight forest grieves,
Or speaks with tongues of Pentecost
From all its sunlit leaves.
The blue sky is the temple’s arch,
Its transept earth and air,
The music of its starry march
The chorus of a prayer.
So Nature keeps the reverent frame
With which her years began,
And all her signs and voices shame
The prayerless heart of man.
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Start by looking up any words in the poem that you don’t understand. For example, “advent” means “arrival” or “beginning.” The first two lines say that for as long as the natural world has existed it has been singing worshipful songs of praise. (That “harp” in the first line is a metaphor. The creation of the world did not involve the literal construction of a musical instrument with strings.)
As you read through the rest of the poem, you’ll find various natural phenomena — waves breaking on the beach, dew dropping from leaves and flowers, the fragrances of plants, the colorful clouds on the horizon at sunset, etc. — described as acts of prayer. You’ll find parts of the natural world — the sky, the earth, the air — likened to structures built by human hands for religious purposes. In short, the poet perceives nature as a constant religious celebration. He sees the natural world as sacred and as perpetually aware of its sacredness. But the final lines of the poem say that humanity seems to ignore the holiness that is all around us.