William Wordsworth's Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

While both poets Muir and Wordsworth wrote about the happy feelings that they have towards nature the beautiful outdoors or what some people may say Mother Nature, some of which the feelings are the same and some that are different as they speak of the different plants.

Thousands of flowers swaying in the wind, lined up like stars in the night sky. Just the thought of nature brings a smile to my face. The two authors, John Muir and William Wordsworth have two different styles of writing, but they share their love of nature to help us appreciate nature. We have two beautiful writings, written by two naturalistic authors, Williams Wordsworth and John Muir. Both authors have different ways of explaining what nature means to them, but at the end of the day both pieces of work are beautifully and creatively written. Wordsworth and Muir express their meaningful relationship with nature using descriptive words and witty writing.

Physicist Albert Einstein showed that fulfillment and understanding come from studying nature when he said, “Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better” Both William Wordsworth and John Meir show how their relationships with nature have led them to a deeper understanding of their lives and the world around them. In The Calypso Borealis, John Meir discovers a sense of freedom when he discovers the simple but beautiful Calypso Borealis. Whereas Wordsworth finds happiness by holding on to the memory of a beautiful field of daisies in I Wandered Lonely as a cloud. William Wordsworth and John Muir used imagery and diction to express their relationships with nature. Muir uses these literary devices to bring the reader on a journey filled with ups and downs. Wordsworth, on the other hand, uses these literary devices to paint a picture of a scene that lifts his spirit. Both authors use of imagery and diction explain their love of nature and how it has impacted their lives.

Albert Einstein spoke of nature and its value when he said, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” As Einstein pointed out, by looking into nature you could discover something new about yourself and the world around you. John Muir and William Wordsworth both discovered joy when they looked deep into nature. This joy gave them a new perspective on nature and life and they each expressed this joy through different works of writing. Both authors have a unique outlook on nature and its impact as well as different thoughts on how to share their relationships; Muir used diction and connotation to show his relationship in his essay “The Calypso Borealis” where Wordsworth used tone and syntax in his poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”.

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

Wordsworth questions the amount of recognition that nature gets from people in today society. He almost uses a guilt trip method to make his reader ask themselves if they have given nature the tribute it deserves. When I was assigned to read this text, I found myself so wound up in school and activities and busy work. So much so that I hadn’t had time to enjoy things around me and the things out the window or under my feet. “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” (page 790, line2) This text approached me at a perfect time to help me to step back and appreciate the small things that surround me each day. Senior year can be overwhelming more than once and it is always a refreshing breath to stop and smell the roses, metaphorically and literally. Therefore, I am thankful for the impact that this text had on me and the timing of its

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.

He talks about the fruit in the plots on the ground that will not become ripe, and as I can see in the painting the fruit is dead and not riping. He talks about the shrubs growing all over and I can see that in the painting. To me the words are showing sadness for the way it looks and I can feel the sadness just by looking at the painting. He talks about no animal life being around and in the painting there is no animals. He talks about the mountains and cliffs. Life, hills, rivers, and his love of nature is also mentioned and in Constables paintings there are hills, rivers, trees and animals , as Wordsworth has mentioned about nature. Wordsworth loves nature and all three paintings show nature at its finest and lowest of nature. In my opinion Wordswoth wanted to show how he felt about nature by showing how upset he feels about the abbey and his poem just happens to have some similarities to constables paintings also. I believe he did a wonderful job showing his view on

Unlike society, Wordsworth does not see nature as a commodity. The verse "Little we see in Nature that is ours" (3), shows that coexisting is the relationship envisioned. This relationship appears to be at the mercy of mankind because of the vulnerable way nature is described. The verse "This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon" (5), gives the vision of a woman exposed to the heavens. In addition, the phrase "sleeping flowers"(7) might also describe how nature is being overrun unknowingly.

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

William Wordsworth’s lyrical ballad, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” illustrates the connection between the speaker and an Abbey he visits frequently in his memory. Wordsworth’s ballad takes place during the Industrial Revolution, a time in which the speaker’s way of life is drastically changing from the nature-rich life he experienced before moving into the city. The Abbey is the one place that the speaker is able to relive his memories prior to his city-life. Therefore, the speaker finds himself reminiscing on his memory of the Abbey as a way to remember this significant chapter in his life.

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.

“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”

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.

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.