William Wordsworth existed in a time when society and its functions were beginning to rapidly pick up. The poem, “A Few Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye…”, which is published in the Lyrical Ballads, 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 life in all things. Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” uses the dramatic monologue, a poem in which the poet or speaker is addressing a listener who never speaks but is referred to, in order to take you on a series of emotional states by trying to sway himself, his sister, and eventually his readers. The loss of innocence and intensity over time is compensated by gathering knowledge and insight. Wordsworth proves that although time was lost along with his innocence, he in turn was able to gain an appreciation for the aesthetics that consoled him by incorporating all together, the wonders of nature, his past experiences, and his present mature perception of life.
At the beginning of the poem, the reader gets a visual image of the pastoral settings that Wordsworth describes: “These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs/With a soft inland murmur”
. . .
He had found a way to comfort himself; he had found a basis for hope in “Tintern Abbey”. With adolescence comes sexual desire: “And all its aching joys are now no more, / And all its dizzy raptures” (Lines 83-84). God is in all things and has greatly influenced nature; therefore, nature is seen as the soul of Wordsworth’s moral being. As times goes on, and adolescence is taking place, he compares himself to a roe or a deer: “I came among these hills; when like a roe/ I bounded o’er the mountains, by the sides/Of the deep rives, and the lonely streams” (Lines 67-69). Also, elements of himself has been chasten or subdued just because he has reached adulthood, the age of experience. In the concluding lines Wordsworth gives Dorothy a benediction: “My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,/ Knowing Nature never did betray…/And this green pastoral landscape, were to me/ More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!” (Lines 125-145).
Part four raises an interesting concept of “Presence:” “A presence that disturbs me with the joy/Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime” (Lines 93-94). Also, Wordsworth compares himself to a man that is feeling from something, and in all actuality, he has fled from childhood and is about to enter adulthood. It can be said that the past represents his innocence and the present his experience. Now Wordsworth is starting to experience nature, but he really does not understand what it means. He had learned how to appreciate things and wanted to encourage those values in his sister. Nature is considered a nurse or a guide. Wordsworth had become more thoughtful and saw the abbey in a different way than in his youth. With this stage, a more melancholic attitude develops along with an extreme awareness: “The still, sad music of humanity, /Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power/To chasten and subdue (Lines 90-92). These beauteous forms/Through a long absence, have not been to me…/But oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din/Of towns and cities, I have owed to them” (Lines 21-26).
Approximate Word count =
1296
Approximate Pages =
5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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