ABSTRACT
Wordsworth's figuring of art in the domain of an eastern sultan both confirms and capitalizes upon the association between the Middle East and art, while at the same time reinforcing the disjunction between the Middle East and nature. Wordsworth gives several clues to the unnaturalness of this sultan, who becomes a pivotal figure in the poem's aesthetics. The scene in which he appears, for instance, is clearly meant to be indoors, whereas nature is presented as an outdoor phenomenon throughout the remainder of the poem. Further, the sultan's languor appears unnatural, especially by comparison with the wood nymph's recent exertion, or even with the more stately exercise of the "Lady" who is the poem's true object of admiration. Although the wood nymph's mythical identity might seem at first to place her too in the category of the unnatural, she is closely affiliated with the European literary tradition in which the presence of such mythical figures is understood (paradoxically) to enhance the naturalness of a scene. Her participation in this tradition allows the poem to call upon nature not only as environment (as in the first eleven lines) but also as the premier standard of moral lightness — a standard that the languid sultan would be unlikely to meet.2
