Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
- Lord George Gordon Byron
Escaping into the simple woods away from the complexities of human society
This poem, titled "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," is written by the famous Romantic poet Lord Byron. It is an excerpt from Canto IV of the larger work. The poem is about the speaker's deep connection with nature and his preference for solitude and the natural world over the company of humans.
In the lines you provided, Lord Byron expresses his love and admiration for the unspoiled beauty of nature. He finds pleasure and a sense of rapture in the "pathless woods" and the "lonely shore," as well as in the sounds of the "deep sea" and its "music in its roar." These natural settings offer the speaker a sense of solitude and serenity, where he can escape from the complexities of human society.
The speaker also suggests that his love for nature does not diminish his love for humanity; instead, it enhances it. By immersing himself in the natural world, he is able to escape from his own concerns and become one with the universe, experiencing emotions and sensations that are difficult to express in words but impossible to hide. The poem reflects the Romantic era's emphasis on the sublime beauty of nature and the idea that a deep connection with the natural world can lead to profound emotional and spiritual experiences.
Reading these lines, I am reminded of Guru Nanak's beautiful poem Balhaari Kudrat Vaseya and his unforgettable lines: "My love lives amidst nature." Also, Pavan Guru Pani Pita:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
- By Lord George Gordon Byron, © 1813, All rights reserved.
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
- By Lord George Gordon Byron, © 1813, All rights reserved.
SHIVPREET SINGH
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