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Critical Analysis Of Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

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Unlike any other poem of its time, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” depicts the struggle that the speaker faces between actual reality and the reality of a memory. Based on his real life experience of returning to the Wye after five years, William Wordsworth attempts to come to terms with how much he has changed and grown as a man in the poem ("Lines Composed" 248). Through the use of careful diction, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth describes the strong connection between nature and the development of man.
The seemingly whimsical way in which Wordsworth presents the structure and meter of the poem allows for the enhanced spontaneity that Wordsworth appears to aim for. Wanting the poem …show more content…

The importance of his discovery is seen in “how deliberately the lines are set forth, with measured phrasing and frequent pauses, and how the ‘music’ is carefully qualified” (Furr 257). This struggle to grip reality is first apparent when it is noticed that Wordsworth’s depiction of the valley is not accurate (Furr 257). “It becomes clear that ‘Tintern Abbey’ is not so much about the landscape of the Wye valley in 1798 as it is about the landscape of memory . . . and that landscape is natural and harmonious” (Furr 257). In the poem, Wordsworth describes the valley as a beautiful place, perhaps the place he remembers as a child. However, this can no longer be true as the valley has been a victim of the rough conditions of the Industrial Revolution. It is clear that in this moment, Wordsworth is seeing only what he wants to see, and not what is actually before him (Furr 257). As he looks on at the “changed valley,” he “waxes melancholy as he recalls how enthusiastic and engaged he was with nature on his previous visit to the Wye” (Furr 257). He continues to establish “a contrast … between the pure emotion of youth and the rarefied contemplativeness of adulthood” (Furr 257). Wordsworth expresses his “crisis of faith upon being presented with two different versions of the same reality at once” (Kelly 258). This crisis becomes a dilemma as Wordsworth “can see the value of both forms of reality, and … he

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