One of the things I noticed while reading Gilpin was his slight admonishing of the individual in picturesque nature as well as his pace. For Gilpin, it seems that Nature is something general and something quick.

With Bowles and his poetic interpretation of the picturesque, he not only includes a lot more detail, but also shows Nature slowly and much more figuratively. It seems as if Nature is a bit unknown, and mystic; that’s what makes it beautiful. There is a broader use of the senses; Nature is something not only to be seen, like in the pictures we viewed in class, but to be felt and sensed. Nature is not just a whole composed of pieces, but significant pieces that compose a whole. This sort of collecting is not so much about control and instead of an expansion of knowledge (like Gilpin), the picturesque is an expansion of imagination. And yet for Bowles, I feel there is still a little sense of control present, this time with Nature over man.

For Wordsworth (whose poems I absolutely adored), nature is not only expanded, but it expands the human individual. There is a balanced relationship where for the first time, there seems to be a balance of control and an exchange of expansion. Nature defines man and in some way, man defines Nature. Wordsworth further expands what I saw in Bowles’ sonnets; he sees the awe and individual pieces of Nature. Man was made to perceive Nature and Nature was made to be perceived.