Theme of William Wordsworth as a Prophet in Tintern Abbey

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

In concord to this, the Norton Anthology of English Literature characterises this poem as an inauguration of “[Wordsworth's] “myth of nature”: his presentation of the “growth” of his mind to maturity, a process unfolding through the interaction between the inner world of the mind and the shaping force of external nature” (Willliam Wordsworth 1770-1850, 271).” It is no wonder John Keats describes Wordsworth's poetry as “excessively self-centred” (“Egotistical Sublime”), thereby strengthening the argument of Wordsworth's focus on the individual.

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

William Wordsworth uses different groups of words in this poem to connect nature with human beings: the pattern of their

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

Wordsworth shows how beautiful nature is and how much joy it can bring to people in this poem. In the first stanza he describes how he felt lonely until he saw a group of daffodils, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, “When all at once I saw a crowd”. In the last stanza Wordsworth says that when he was at home lying on his couch he wasn’t in the best mood but all of a sudden the image of daffodils popped in his head and he was filled with joy, “For oft when on my couch I lie”, “And then my heart with pleasure

By distancing himself from society, Wordsworth can finally see nature at its finest. He believes

In the poem “The World is Too Much With Us,” Wordsworth implies that to find true happiness one must disconnect himself from the corrupted world; in fact, Wordsworth goes so far as to say true salvation lies in a reconnection to nature. Wordsworth speaks throughout the work about the discontinuity of modern society with nature in it’s never ending search for a distraction. An analysis of the work allows the reader a reflection on themselves and their own happiness and connection to nature, and what they would be willing to give up for that connection.

The way humans live is unnatural. He called it a “sordid boon”. By definition, sordid can mean morally ignoble. Therefore the poem is on the topic of the sins of human kind, but hat is only the beginning. There are deeper meaning scattered throughout the poem. He says “we lay waste to our power.” In which “powers” meaning humans ability of the senses. Instead of participating in Wordsworth’s ideology, we waste our natural abilities and time. We shove away our memories and friends. We avoid human interaction and just live life thinking about ourselves and the things we want. He believes we should spend more time absorbing the peace and respect of nature. Nature has lost it tie to our culture. “It moves us not.” He goes on to say that “little we see in nature is ours,” because people have abandoned nature and that there is nothing in nature we can posses. Nature belongs to no one. You can’t by the earth, the sea, the trees, the flowers, or the sky. The world has no dollar value, which the people at the time and even of this time don’t understand. The age of materialism and industrialism is what has taken society so far away from nature. “For this, for everything, we are out of tune.” People see nature for what they want instead of what it is. The environment suffered catastrophic damage during the

In Wordsworth’s Petrarchan sonnet “The World is Too Much With Us,” the poet expresses his antagonism toward humans’ dissociation from nature. The poem itself was born at the peak of romanticism, a movement during the 19th century that emphasized commonality, emotion, and nature. Through the multitude of literary devices, Wordsworth criticizes the industrial progress, the disruption of humans’ natural harmony with nature.

Through his poem, “The World Is Too Much with Us,” William Wordsworth exemplifies the major ideals of romanticism through his passionate criticism of society’s increasing materialism. Wordsworth rebels against the materialistic notions of society catalyzed by the increasing industrialization of the Western world, arguing that a society solely concentrating on worldly possessions and goods loses sight of the primordial beauty and importance of the natural world. Furthermore, he specifically emphasizes the romantic tenants of nature being alive and rebelling against society through the personification of nature and his criticism of society’s materialism. Moreover, by addressing these major tenants of romanticism, Wordsworth simultaneously rejects

Romanticism is a style of art or literature during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that emphasizes a love for nature, distrust of society, organized religion, celebration of the child or individual, and emotion over reason. In William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much with Us” Wordsworth speaks about how society is so materialistic while speaking on the significance of nature. Ironically the title of this sonnet exemplifies one of the Romantic ideas and expresses one of Wordsworth’s main points regarding nature. Wordsworth uses a connection to nature as well as religion to emphasize Romanticism in his work.

Unlike the Enlightenment era, the Romantic period had no order and turned away from given religions, like Christianity. Romantic expressivism is the creation of the poet’s, or expressivists, own meaning of truth and order, since they are turning away from all known religion. Similarly, they fill these holes by writing about non-religious ideas and making them religious instead. For example Early Wasserman in “Sources of the Self” says that “within itself the modern poem must both formulate its own cosmic [order] and shape the autonomous poetic reality that the cosmic [order] permits” (Wasserman and Taylor 31). Instead of having the uniformness he also explains that, “the Romantic poet has to articulate an original vision of the cosmos” (Wasserman and Taylor 31). This created the opportunities for Romantic expressivist, like William Wordsworth and John Keats, to start from a blank slate with everything that they turned away from, including religion. Wasserman’s emphasis on how the Romantic expressivist was placed with, not a burden, but a responsibility to create their own order and incorporate theoretical spirits or presence into their poems.

It is true that nature has forever been a source of inspiration for poets throughout history. Yet it has also come under observation that often nature in poetry has been associated with the idle mind as opposed to the idyllic. Not enough has been done to highlight and prove the healing power of nature through composing poetry. It is therefore hypothesized that despite the dismissal of the cathartic powers of nature in poetry, William Wordsworth has managed to successfully enhance the element of transcendentalism, nature and healing through his poetic works.

Where Wordsworth focused too on love and nature at first, he then took on more spiritual subjects. Further, if we assume that Wordsworth’s imitation of “The Retreat” was intentional, then Vaughan may have even been a poetic model (in some sense) for Wordsworth later in life. True, Wordsworth is not generally considered a religious poet; he would never have originally considered Vaughan a model because of the latter’s extreme religiosity. Yet if these two poems don’t echo in godly gestures per se, they do in a more spiritual sense—and perhaps Wordsworth, as a man confronted with his own mortality, found Vaughan’s treatise on the spirit’s immortality a sympathetic sentiment. Thus by comparing the two, we also might better understand Wordsworth’s poetic progression.