Nature and Childhood in Wordsworth and Fairuz: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study aims to illustrate how the Arabic romantic song, "Shadi and I," sung by the distinguished Lebanon's diva, Fairuz, exhibits a thematic parallelism and aesthetic affinities with William Wordsworth's romantic poem "Lucy Gray." Despite the historical and cultural boundaries between the two contexts, the romantic poetic tales of the two children, Lucy and Shadi, display common aesthetic elements related to the conception of nature and the celebration of childhood. Both the poem and the song exhibit conspicuous thematic analogous ideas based on imagination and inspirational communion with nature. In other words, the romanticism of Wordsworth's "Lucy Gray" and the romanticism of Fairuz's "Shadi and I," demonstrate a striking resemblance. The two poems are rich in allegory, vivid in imagery, simple in language, mysterious, and enchanting in their overall effect. Both are also characterized by subjectivity, individualism, love of nature, a sense of loss, amongst other tenets of Romanticism. They deal with the recurring profound themes of despair, child loss and the sinking into the beauty, grace and mysteries of nature.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s2p466