Nature is like most things; many of us take it for granted, and would only really notice it if it was taken away from us.  I know that this is true for me.  I rarely noticed the effects of natural surroundings on me until my sister went to college.  She went to Rice, which despite being in the middle of Houston has a very pretty campus.  Even jogging around the outskirts of Rice lends the positive effects of nature.  Since I began to feel my natural surroundings affecting me, I began to long for places with beautiful landscape architecture.

Verlyn Klinkenberg (nice name, by the way) has an interesting interpretation of Stevens' poem.  Klinkenberg says "he places the jar on the ground, and the wilderness arranges itself around its presence" (440B).  I completely disagree with this statement.  I think that when Stevens says that the jar "made the slovenly wilderness / Surround that hill" (440B), he is talking about the reflection of the wilderness as seen on the side of the round jar.  Whether Klinkenberg in his interpretation of Stevens or not, Klinkenberg (is Verlyn a masculine or feminine name?)is correct that one's perception of the wilderness is what defines it, not the wilderness itself (440B).

In Forster's story, we see that a person who claims his/herself to be a rational, scientific person is still capable of appreciating nature.  In Forster's heaven/Eden, the traveler loses "all pleasure in the grass, the sky, the trees...when [he realizes] that the place [is] but a prison" (450).  This assessment of nature is valid because it speaks of natures ability to surround people.  If one suddenly realizes the true potential of nature's beauty too quickly, one might become turned off by nature's awesome power.  Likewise, one may shut out the idea completely and try to find organization.   Similar to Stevens' view of what humans do to deal with the beauty of nature, Forster believes that we try to rationalize it instead of noticing it.