Excerpt from before a painting
james weldon johnson

i knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
what i beheld; nor by what laws of art
he had created life and love and heart
on canvas, from mere color, curve and line. 4
silent i stood and made no move or sign;
not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
but mutely gazed upon that face divine. 8

and over me the sense of beauty fell,
as music over a raptured listener to
the deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell, 12
there falls the aureate glory filtered through
the windows in some old cathedral dim.

what is the main purpose of the poem?
a) to show how museums are like cathedrals
b) to reveal how works of art can be religious
c) to try and put into words the power of a painting
d) to explore the relationship between art and worship

it d or c

Explanation:

a. the man as a ruler

wordsworth tends to see nature as 'out there'; a presence which surrounds humans, and contributes to human life, but is different from humans. if you look at a typical wordsworth poem (there was a boy, ye knew him well ye rocks) - wordsworth talks about nature as something that needs to be learned about and understood, nature is different from us.  

if you look at a byron poem (the isles of greece is a good one) - byron looks at nature mainly for what it already means to man. wordsworth will look at a landscape and see the mountains, trees, valleys, and rivers as almost spiritual presences - wordsworth wants to get to know nature.  

byron will look at the same landscape and he will want to know who lives there, what are the villages? are there any farms or mines, is there some history?  

wordsworth looks at nature for what it is; byron is forever asking what it means.  

wordsworth thinks that humans are part of nature; byron thinks that nature is part of being human