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
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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
Wordsworth talks about how nature is an escape, a teacher, a healer, a reminder, and so much more. Wordsworth explains his first time at the River Wye and that it was the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen and that the nature there is perfect. He also talks about his second trip in this poem to explain that the second time he went, he felt the nature there was more beautiful and tranquil. In “Tintern Abbey”, Wordsworth brings his sister, Dorothy his second time at the River Wye. Wordsworth says that he hopes the trip will be a reminder of how amazing nature truly is. Wordsworth talks about nature as a metaphor, saying nature is an anchor that holds him in place. Nature makes him calm, secure, and happy because he is in his favorite place. Wordsworth explains that nature makes him feel more alive than ever, and being back in the same beautiful spot five years later, makes it even better. The theme of “Tintern Abbey” shows that nature is many things like an escape for Wordsworth, which explains how much that nature has done for
Wordsworth, like other Romantic Poets, with his overwhelming mind observed life with greater suction and fundamentality; his partaking in the working of life was keen and so minute that when he did finally caught up with the philosophy of life his poems became more and more sublime and transcendental in feelings. In his Preface to the “Lyrical Ballads” republished in 1800 described a Poet and his working which in a way popularized self-expression connecting an object of little importance to the infinite vision of the Creator. His grew as a poet gradually with
The reason Wordsworth wrote this poem was to express the beauty of all nature and how we take its beauty for granted. He is wishing to convey that we should acknowledge nature because we are nature and nature is in all of use. Also that we should admire its beauty
Wordsworth stood on the cliff 'not only with the sense of 'present pleasure'; (63) but he joyfully anticipated the moments 'for future years'; (65). He came back to reality and began to analyze the situation after his reminiscing. Wordsworth realized that he had lost some guidance and was searching for the presence of nature when returning to the Wye. He remembered when he used to wander and roam as free as a roe but as he matured he felt content with tapping into his memories of his youth because as Wordsworth stated, 'That time is past? other gifts have allowed; for such loss, I would believe, abundant recompense'; (83-88). He realized that he was involved with more mature things in life because he had become more intelligent through the years and saw nature in the light of his intelligence. Yet, he insisted that he was 'still a lover of the meadows and the woods, and the mountains; and of all that we behold from this green earth'; (102-105) but indeed, in a more composed way.
William Wordsworth’s poem, “Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting The Banks Of The Wye During A Tour. July 13, 1798” (also known as simply, “Tintern Abbey”), was included in the book Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems. This was a joint effort between himself and author Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Tintern Abbey” remains one of Wadsworth’s most famous poems, and at its printing, the book was completely sold out in two years. The name of the poem reflects the inspiration Wadsworth felt upon visiting the ruins of an old church called Tintern Abbey, with his sister Dorothy.
Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This
With a prior appreciation of nature, Wordsworth took this appreciation to another level as he obtained a great interest in scenery and the countryside. Adding sensibility and imagery to his works, his reader could gain a dominant amount of culture from his writings. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau’s most famous and introductory works on the course of nature are allegedly owed to growing up on William Wordsworth's romantic approach and nature and the beauty of it all. “Nature” has said to have been the finishing product of Wordsworth’s beginning poems. Becoming more conservative as time went on, William Wordsworth only found tranquility in writing and nature as events in his life took a turn for the worse.
Throughout “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” William Wordsworth shows his relationship with nature through his choice of diction, fantastic descriptions, and shifting mood of his poem. There are also many words and phrases that Wordsworth included into his poem that shows how he feels about nature. These phrases are well written, extremely descriptive, and show how Wordsworth is influenced by the wild: “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, “When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils", “Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way, they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay: ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance”, “The waves beside them danced; but they out-did the sparkling waves in glee”, “I gazed—and gazed—but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought”, and “For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye [...] and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.” Another phrase, which indicates that the flowers were so beautiful that no true poet could be sad in their presence, also builds upon Wordsworth’s relationship with nature. These particular lines in “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” show how Wordsworth’s mood shifts from somber and lonely to joyous and content. The lines also show how the gorgeousness of nature sticks with
The Romantic period, an era bursting with art and literature, was home to many great writers, writers such as Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Mary Shelley. One can imagine that among the many topics that preoccupied the many different works and ideas of these Romantic poets and writers was the Romantic conception of sublime, or idea of being able to connect to one’s own experiences of awe and other emotions like those of terror or even danger. The writers and poets of the Romantic era would no doubt have been familiar with this concept. In fact, this the Romantic conception of sublime shows up repeatedly throughout Mary Shelley’s work, Frankenstein. Shelley is able to bring the idea of sublimity into her
The poems “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth and “Washing-Day” by Anna Letitia Barbauld are very similar, because they both reminisce on the beauty childhood. “Washing-Day” tells the story of a person who observes the chores being done in a household when she is older compared to when she was younger. The poem shows how that transition in age plays a large role in feelings towards daily activities. In “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” the speaker returns to a place where he had not been for five years and remembers how pure his thoughts towards nature were. In the present, he has matured and does not possess the same childish joys that he once did, but still appreciates the greatness surrounding him. Both speakers obviously come from very different backgrounds, one, a woman who has been raised in a family of household workers, and the
Previously in the commencement of my essay, I had posed a question along the lines of “How did Wordsworth and Muir come to this point of pure and utter infatuation with the nature that surrounds them?” Throughout the close analysis and investigation I have done studying the two, I have come to discover that these masters in their craft of writing have an interesting point-of-view that differs from the average individual; they simply have a deeper rooted connection to their environment whether that be due solely to the fact that they just love nature or that they approach life in a more literary manner to the point that even the most mere blade of grass can be surrounded by just the right words to be glorified in such a way that it sounds even
Compare: Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey and Frost at Midnight Reminiscing by an old, memorable river and cradling an infant child near a fire do not, initially, give anyone the idea that these activities are to some extent linked, however, reading Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s poems will help guide minds into an entirely different perspective. While reading further into these poet’s poems, parallels begin to become enormously noticeable. William Wordsworth’s and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poems, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” and “Frost at Midnight”, both have several distinct and hidden similarities and differences ranging from themes to form, and everything in between. As said before, Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s
William Wordsworth poem Tintern Abbey creates a focus on "his presentation of the "growth" of his mind to maturity, which
In "Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey", Wordsworth uses imagination to help him and others to live in the physical world peacefully. He recalls playing in Tintern Abbey, a forest nearby there and played in it when he was young. Now he comes back for different reasons. He escapes the world which is individualism and goes to the forest to get away from all the burden. He tells his young sister that she can always come here to get away from her problems as well. In the poem, Wordsworth uses nature to solve problems in life.
William Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" celebrates imagination and emotion over rationality and reason, and intuition over science. It is the beginning of English Romanticism in the 1800's and Wordsworth was one of the leading poets of that era. He introduced the readers to grasp nature and fully appreciate all aspects of it. "Tintern Abbey" focuses on Wordsworth's nostalgic experience on returning to the Abbey, but pays much attention to the poem's theme of emotional beauty and nature. In this poem, the reader finds Wordsworth's intense and loving memory of natural scenes.