The Sublime in Tintern Abbey Essay

BibliographyAsbee, S. (2006) Approaching Poetry, Milton Keynes, The Open UniversityReid, N. (2006) Coleridge, Form and Symbol, Or the Ascertaining Vision, Aldershot, Ashgate PublishingWellek, R. (1963) The Concept of Romanticism in literary historyin Bygrave, S (2006) Romantic Writings London, The Open UniversityZuk, E. Coleridges Blank Verse [online], http://www.expansivepoetryonline.com/journal/cult072004.html (Accessed 28th April 2008)

Aestheticism was a popular dogma in the late 1800s that centered on the belief that art should exist for beauty alone. This doctrine is defined as an “exaggerated devotion to art, music, or poetry, with indifference to practical matters” and “the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard, ethical and other standards being secondary” (“Aestheticism,” def. 1 and 2). In Oscar Wilde’s sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, aestheticism is a fashionable belief accepted by society at the time. Oscar Wilde uses the moral deterioration and ultimate destruction of Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray to emphasize the negative effects of society’s preoccupation with aesthetics and offer a moral for the reader.

In the Meditations, Rene Descartes attempts to doubt everything that is possible to doubt. His uncertainty of things that existence ranges from God to himself. Then he goes on to start proving that things do exist by first proving that he exists. After he establishes himself he can go on to establish everything else in the world. Next he goes to prove that the mind is separate then the body. In order to do this he must first prove he has a mind, and then prove that bodily things exist. I do agree with Descartes that the mind is separate from the body. These are the arguments that I agree with Descartes.

William Wordsworth existed in a time when society and its functions were beginning to rapidly pick up. The poem that he 'Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye', gave him a chance to reflect upon his quick paced life by taking a moment to slow down and absorb the beauty of nature that allows one to 'see into the life of things'; (line 49). Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'; takes you on a series of emotional states by trying to sway 'readers and himself, that the loss of innocence and intensity over time is compensated by an accumulation of knowledge and insight.'; Wordsworth accomplishes to prove that although time was lost along with his innocence, he

The second and final work I am critiquing is from a book entitled, ‘The Life of William Wordsworth: A Critical Biography’ written by John Worthen. I have selected a chapter which pairs nicely with article mentioned above. The chapter features both Wordsworth and Coleridge as well. However, it is not as critical as the article, it is more biographical and informational which is to be expected in a biography. The chapter focuses on the years 1806 to 1807. It begins with the mention of the death of Wordsworth’s brother, John. According to Worthen, this deeply effected Wordsworth and he had little success with the poetry he was writing during this time. Worthen then, points to ‘Elegiac Stanzas’ which confronts his late brother’s death, displays a new sense of reality, and again redeems him as a poet. Worthen states, “The poem makes the narrator 's youthful state of ecstatic, thoughtless love for the natural world — ‘of lasting ease, / Elysian quiet, without toil or strife’ — utterly unreal, in contrast with the realities of life as he now knows them. A ‘fond delusion of my heart’ he calls that old love, ‘to be pitied’ not believed in” (328). The author implies that the death of his brother drastically changed his worldview. The bleak reality of a world without his brother led to Wordsworth becoming more mature and wise after experiencing loss. The author then shifts to discussing ‘Tintern Abbey’ and his reflections during a time of youth. I believe that the author mentions the

Staring from the definition found in the dictionary, the decadence is a literary movement especially of late 19th-century France and England characterized by refined aestheticism, artifice, and the quest for new sensations. [1]

Edward Taylor’s “Meditation Six” uses a coin-based conceit to explore the ambivalence of the persona; using the coin, Taylor describes his spiritual value to God in material terms. The first stanza reflects an uncertainty within Taylor about his worth to God. He equates himself to gold, asking if he is “thy gold” (1) or merely a vessel for God’s wealth—the congregation. The speaker worries he may only appear to be worthful to God, but he is worthless underneath and “brass in heart,” alluding to the Brazen Serpent of the Bible. Working through his ambivalence, the speaker compares the impression of the grace of God to the stamp on a coin, and he asks if God has left such an impression on him, stamping value onto worthless metal. Taylor writes that he is “a golden angel” in God’s hand, meaning he is valuable to God, which ends his ambivalence as he concludes that he is worthful as a man. In the final stanza, the speaker asks God to make his soul the plate, a blank coin, onto which God stamps value with his “superscription in a holy style” (16). The speaker then becomes a coin with value to God, part of God’s hoard, whereby Taylor acknowledges that he is one of many. A surrender ends the conceit and poem, the speaker asks if he may be an angel, period slang for an English coin, in God’s eyes and if God may be his Lord.

“From the sphere of my own experience I can bring to my recollection three persons of no every-day powers and acquirements, who had read the poems of others with more and more unallayed pleasure, and had thought more highly of their authors, as poets; who yet have confessed to me, that from no modern work had so many passages started up anew in their minds at different times, and as different occasions had awakened a meditative mood.” (2) (paragraph 31).

"The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt."

Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads were published in 1789, with no preface as an “advertisement.” Another Lyrical Ballads, this time with two volumes, a preface, and no poetic diction, was published in 1800. In 1802, another Lyrical Ballads was published with two volumes and a preface. Wordsworth’s Elegiac Stanzas are an internalization of epic. Nature, memory and imagination all play a huge role in the poem, as does imagination’s relationship with knowledge. Wordsworth talks about imagination as an absolute ideal, although that is dangerous because it divorces us from the rest of the world.

Burke’s examination of all seven qualities of the sublime relates to sight: terror, power, vastness, infinity, succession and uniformity relates to what can be seen, while obscurity relates to what cannot be seen. In addition to the content of his writing, Burke’s use of language and diction, for example, with words and phrases like “[l]ook” (Burke 5) and “[w]ithout all doubt” (3) (which implies clarity) also reinforces the element of ‘sight’ in his text. For Burke, the power of the sublime object or landscape lies in its ability to overwhelm the viewer’s mental faculties and impose upon them feelings of the sublime. Here, the viewer is positioned as a subject upon which the sublime landscape impresses its image and sublimity, rather than one that is actively participating in the creation of this sublime experience. This passivity is highlighted by Burke who states that the sublime requires some form of mediation of “distance” (4) and remoteness. Following the explication of the observer’s passive role in the sublime experience, this essay will move on to affirm the subordinate

“In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth fears the loss of his genial spirit and seems to be worried about his poetic ability. Similarly, Coleridge, in Dejection, admits that his poetic originality is at stake” (Magnuson 15). In the forth stanza, Wordsworth writes, “Nor perchance / If I were not thus taught, should I the more / Suffer my genial spirits to decay” (113-115). Likewise, Coleridge, in the third stanza, writes, “My genial spirits fail” (39). Actually, both Coleridge and Wordsworth admit that they have been facing problems with nature. In the beginning of the third stanza, one can feel the sad tone of Wordsworth’s poem. The poet tells us how he lost part of his feelings toward nature. His ideas become “dim” and “faint.” He writes, “And now with gleams of half extinguished thought, / With many recognitions dim and faint, / And somewhat of a sad perplexity” (59-61). He cannot feel nature the same way he used to do as a child. Describing the way he was as a child, the poet says, “I cannot paint / What I was then” (76-77). Similarly, Coleridge asserts that he used to view nature differently as a child. In the beginning of the sixth stanza, he says, “There was a time when, though my path was rough, / This joy within me dallied with distress, / And all misfortunes were but the stuff”

     Many people wonder if heaven exists, and if so, what it consists of. There are many theories that will tell you different stories of heaven. In the bible heaven it is named Eden, where man can walk and talk at the side of God. Heaven is an intangible place where only the true ideals of life can be realized. On earth there is no way to know the true meaning of life. People can never fully comprehend the reason behind existence. The human world is full of many outside sources, such as evil, corrupting many lives. There will never be peace on earth due to that corruption. Many people are envious of other lives and are bound by senseless ideals. They spend much of their life with the want for

Imagery has been one of the most pivotal movements in the cultural and intellectual history of English Literature. The comparison is not only among the works of their own rather it also includes the differences and traces of similarity with the works of others writers of different ages. The analysis is done by reading the actual text and interpreting the meaning by understanding the deep phrases hidden in the poetry. Different critics showed different aspects by their research. Some found out merits and some found out demerits in the works of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The merits includes uniqueness, healing power of poetry, and interpretation of their imagination for things whereas the demerits include slack of humour, lack of range and lyricism in their poetry. On a whole Wordsworth and Coleridge works have gained lot of interest and tempted many critics to write on their methods and strategies which they adopted in their work.

Again this piece by Coleridge is a demonstration of this principle. The lyrics flow up to a moment of clear recollection of the scenery, leaving the poem incomplete so that the faculty of imagination would not be diluted. Coleridge in the 3 stanzas which he relived captured the sublime, and the striking feature of this poem is in its deconstructed syntax which eagerly captured the scenery. “But oh! That deep romantic chasm which slanted/ Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! / A savage place!”. This is a scene that Coleridge experienced in a dream, and its recollection in reality must express the resplendence of what he felt. We can see that grammatical requirements were not fulfilled since they would merely limit the true