2. Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth

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An Analysis of Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey

Generally speaking, Wordsworths "Tintern Abbey" has been seen in relation to many an aspect of his poetic

career. First of all, it is said to be a historical record of the different stages of the growth of his poetic imagination, andthat is why some view it as a miniature epic that anticipates his epical endeavour with "The Prelude", in both thematic

and artistic designs. Tintern Abbey contains and expounds many of Wordsworths poetic and philosophical beliefs,which were intended to be the themes of his other poems like,Recluse, The Excursion and, of course, The

Prelude. Again the poem is unusual in examining the composition of the landscape, like his contemporary artist of hiscountry Constable, rather than expressing the spirit of the landscapeits topography, its arrangement of vegetation, itsplacement of the works of men and its colours and light and shade have been scrupulously described. These scenesultimately become the objective correlative for his philosophy of that period. The procedure and kind of poem weredetermined by Coleridges influence, for The Eolian Harp and Frost at Midnight were its immediate successors,with the 18

thcentury sublime odes in the farther background. But it must be admitted that "Tintern Abbey" has greater

dimension and intricacy and a more various verbal conversation than Coleridges poems.Wordsworths Tintern Abbey inaugurated wonderfully the functional device, which he later called two

consciousness: a scene is revisited, and the remembered landscape, the picture of the mind is superimposed on thepicture before the eye. As the two landscapes fail to match, they set a problem, a sad perplexity, which compels the

poet to the meditation. As Wordsworth now stands on the bank of the river Wye, he comes to the final realization ofhis relation to Nature and of his concept of the relation between man and Nature, in general, and above all of his

ontological standing, both as a human being and as a poet. That is why he is found here thinking of nature not only asa painter, but as a philosopher too. In his scheme of thought the human world is connected with the divine world bythe way of the world of Nature. In his Romantic vision the world of manpastoral forms and plots of cottagegroundmerges and becomes one in the spatial expansion with the world of Nature, which is finally connected withthe inorganic quite of the sky. The suggestion is made through an intensification of the dominant aspect of the givenlandscape, its seclusion, which also implies a deepening of the mood of seclusion in the poets mind. To Wordsworth,the landscape of the Wye declares the unity of the universe. In this it appears that his philosophy is essentiallyquietistic and almost like that propounded in the Upanishdas . Again, in his indirect reference to the three planes ofbeingthe natural, the human and the divineWordsworth adumbrates the great Romantic vision of cosmic unity.Thus Wordsworth also prepares the reader for the similar progression of his attitudes to and understanding of Naturein his own life.

Wordsworth traces in this poem the history of his evolving attitude to Nature basically for two reasons: on the

surface, this is an autobiographical confession, and on the higher level of thought he wants to give validity ofexperience to the kind philosophical truths he seems to have found. This is, however, inextricably related to thegrowth of his poetic career. It is found that in his earlier poetry, Nature had no exotic significance. A humanitarianphase had followed exemplified at its best inThe Ruined Cottage . After a brief period of disillusionment, he

became convinced that the universal human malady in mind and heart could be cured only by Natures holy plan. Sothis poem may be said to illustrate a love, which is almost religious in conception; the sentiment of being spread over

all that moves and all that seemeth still; the experience of communion with the universal spirit; the moral influence ofNature even in absence. Furthermore, Wordsworths philosophy is almost pantheistic as he alludes to the link apantheist sees between Nature and the lot of mankind, which he tries to ameliorate.

Wordsworth expounds these views not in isolation from experience but as organically related to his ownexperience in the lap of Nature. When he had visited the Wye as a mere boy, he enjoyed the abundance of Nature

instinctively. A fuller commentary on this stage can be found in the Book I and Book II ofThe Prelude.Wordsworth then describes his impressions he got during his second visit in 1793. At this period of life hisappreciation of Nature had been largely emotional. At that time he had been more like a man, Flying fromsomething that he dreads than one, Who sought the thing he loved.Here speaks simultaneously of vision and emotion because his perception of the natural objects brought immediate joy

to him. It had then for him no appeal that was unborrowed from the eye.In the third stage Wordsworth find that the aching joys and dizzy raptures are no more, but their place has been

taken by other gifts of Nature.Wordsworth seems to have emerged here as a mystic in his all-pervading pantheism. But he differs from theconventional mysticism because unlike a mystic he can communicate his experiences in Nature to the readers. Now heunderstands that he is the lover of Nature, Of all the mighty world/ Of eye, and ear.
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Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth - Summary and Critical Analysis

In the poem Tintern Abbey the poet has expressed his tender feeling towards nature. He has specially recollectedhis poetic idea of Tintern Abbey where he had gone first time in 1793. This is his second visit to this place.Wordsworth has expressed his intense faith in nature.

The poem is in five sections. The first section establishes the setting for the meditation. But it emphasizes thepassage of time: five years have passed, five summers, five long winters But when the poet is back to this place of

natural beauty and serenity, it is still essentially the same. The poem opens with a slow, dragging rhythm and therepetition of the word five all designed to emphasize the weight of time which has separated the poet form thisscene. The following lines develop a clear, visual picture of the scent. The view presented is a blend of wildness andorder. He can see the entirely natural cliffs and waterfalls; he can see the hedges around the fields of the people; and

he can see wreaths of smoke probably coming from some hermits making fire in their cave hermitages. These imagesevoke not only a pure nature as one might expect, they evoke a life of the common people in harmony with the nature.

The second section begins with the meditation. The poet now realizes that these beauteous forms have alwaysbeen with him, deep-seated in his mind, wherever he went. This vision has been Felt in the blood, and felt alone theheart that is. It has affected his whole being. They were not absent from his mind like form the mind of a man bornblind. In hours of weariness, frustration and anxiety, these things of nature used to make him feel sweet sensations inhis very blood, and he used to feel it at the level of the impulse (heart) rather than in his waking consciousness and

through reasoning. From this point onward Wordsworth begins to consider the sublime of nature, and his mystical

awareness becomes clear. Wordsworths idea was that human beings are naturally uncorrupted.The poet studies nature with open eyes and imaginative mind. He has been the lover of nature form the core of his

heart, and with purer mind. He feels a sensation of love for nature in his blood. He feels high pleasure and deep powerof joy in natural objects. The beatings of his heart are full of the fire of natures love. He concentrates attention toSylvan Wyea majestic and worth seeing river. He is reminded of the pictures of the past visit and ponders over hisfuture years. On his first visit to this place he bounded over the mountains by the sides of the deep rivers and thelovely streams. In the past the soundings haunted him like a passion. The tall rock, the mountain and the deep andgloomy wood were then to him like an appetite. But that time is gone now. In nature he finds the sad music ofhumanity.

The third section contains a kind of doubt; the poet is probably reflecting the readers possible doubts so that hecan go on to justify how he is right and what he means. He doubt, for just a moment, whether this thought about theinfluence of the nature is vain, but he cant go on. He exclaims: yet, oh! How often, amid the joyless daylight, fretful

and unprofitable fever of the world have I turned to thee (nature) for inspiration and peace of mind. He thanks theSylvan Wye for the everlasting influence it has imprinted on his mind; his spirit has very often turned to this riverforinspiration when he was losing the peace of mind or the path and meaning of life. The river here becomes the symbolof spirituality.

Though the poet has become serious and perplexed in the fourth section the nature gives him courage and spirit

enough to stand there with a sense of delight and pleasure. This is so typical of Wordsworth that it seems he cantwrite poetry without recounting his personal experiences, especially those of his childhood. Here also he begins fromthe earliest of his days! It was first the coarse pleasures in his boyish days, which have all gone by now. That timeis past and all its aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures. But the poet does not mourn for them; hedoesnt even grumble about their loss. Clearly, he has gained something in return: other gifts have followed; for such

loss for I have learnt to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes the still, sadmusic of humanity. This is a philosophic statement about maturing, about the development of personality, and of the

poetic or philosophic mind as well. So now the poet is able to feel a joy of elevated thought, a sense sublime, and farmore deeply interfused. He feels a sense of sublime and the working of a supreme power in the light of the setting sun,in round oceans and in the blue sky. He is of opinion that a motion and a spirit impel all thinking things. ThereforeWordsworth claims that he is a lover of the meadows and of all which we see form this green earth. Nature is a nurse,a guide and the guardian of his heart and soul. The poet comes to one important conclusion: for all the formativeinfluences, he is now consciously in love with the nature. He has become a thoughtful lover of the meadows, thewoods and the mountains. Though his ears and eyes seem to create the other half of all these sensations, the nature is

the actual source of these sublime thoughts.The fifth and last section continues with the same meditation from where the poet addresses his young sister

Dorothy, whom he blesses and gives advice about what he has learnt. He says that he can hear the voice of his ownyouth when he hears her speak, the language of his former heart; he can also read my former pleasure in the soothing

lights of thy wild eyes. He is excited to look at his own youthful image in her. He says that nature has never betrayedhis heart and that is why they had been living from joy to joy. Nature can impress the mind with quietness and beauty,and feed it lofty thoughts, that no evil tongues of the human society can corrupt their hearts with any amount ofcontact with it.

The poet then begins to address the moon in his reverie, and to ask the nature to bestow his sister with their


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blessings. Let the moon shine on her solitary walk, and let the mountain winds blow their breeze on her. When thepresent youthful ecstasies are over, as they did with him, let her mind become the palace of the lovely forms andthought about the nature, so that she can enjoy and understand life and overcome the vexations of living in a harshhuman society. The conclusion to the poem takes us almost cyclically, back to a physical view of the steep woods,lofty cliffs and green pastoral landscape in which the meditation of the poem is happening.

The poet has expressed his honest and natural feelings to Natures Superiority. The language is so simple and lucidthat one is not tire of reading it again and again. The sweetness of style touches the heart of a reader. This is the beauty

of Wordsworths language.

Characteristics of the Romantic Period in William Wordsworths poem Tintern Abbey.

Tintern Abbey is a poem written by William Wordsworth, a British romantic poet born in 1770 and died in1850. The full title of this poem is Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of

the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798. (p. 190) The poem evokes nature, memory and basically all the characteristicsof the romantic period. Throughout Wordsworths work nature ultimately provides good influence on the humanmind. All manifestations of the natural world elicit noble, elevated thoughts and passionate emotions that are seen in

the people who observe them. Wordsworth repeatedly emphasizes the importance of nature to an individualsintellectual and spiritual development. A good relationship with nature helps individuals connect to both the spiritual

and the social worlds. Thus in Tintern Abbey, the subject of this essay, one finds the characteristics described above.The poem opens with the statement that five years have passed since Wordsworth last visited this location, the

Banks of the Wye, encountered its tranquil, rustic scenery, and heard the murmuring waters of the river.Wordsworth recites the objects he sees again, and describes their effect upon him: the steep and lofty cliffs impressupon him thoughts of more deep seclusion; he leans against the dark sycamore tree and looks at the cottage-groundsand the orchard trees, whose fruit is still unripe.(p.190, lines 5,6,7)) He sees the wreaths of smoke rising up fromcottage chimneys between the trees, and imagines that they might rise from vagrant dwellers in the houselesswoods, or from the cave of a hermit in the deep forest. Wordsworths poem Tintern Abbey is generally read as adescriptive poem of the physical landscape as well as the poets life. This essay will show how Tintern Abbeyexhibits the key romantic themes of, romantic pantheism, individual subjectivity and the historical period.One of the key themes of Romanticism is romantic pantheism that is defined as nature, having its own spiritualessence that could be destroyed by human society, but which also offered humanity a restorative power.[and] The

belief that God is present as a spiritual power within nature rather than separate from it(Dixon 2). The poem startswith a description of the scene, that is what at first the poem appears to solely be about, but at the same time keeps thereader at a distance and dose not involves them. Then by the description of orchards reduced to tufts and hedgerowsto little lines of sportive wood run wild, the focus is no longer the landscape but his memory and the connection andfeelings of his previous visit to the area.

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2. Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth