2 posts tagged “tintern abbey”
Wordsworth's note on the poem reads that, "No poem of mine was composed under circumstances more pleasant for me to remember than this. I began it upon leaving Tintern, after crossing the Wye, and concluded it just as I was entering Bristol in the evening, after a ramble of 4 or 5 days with my sister" (258).
Our note tells us that "Wordsworth had visited Tintern Abby [...] while on a solitary walking tour in August 1793, when he was twenty-three years old" (258).
The poem is a sort-of meditation on life, in which Wordsworth places his narrator at a moment in time and looks back to the past, and then ahead to the future through his sister. It begins with a reflection on the lovely pastoral setting, and the effects its memory has had upon Wordsworth throughout his life. He says:
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration: - feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love (259).
The idea that nature can have a lasting and profound "influence on that best portion of a good man's life, his [...] acts of kindness and of love" is an excellent example of the ideas of English romanticism. Romanticism was "a reaction against the rationalization of nature [...] In art and literature it stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublimity of nature" (Wikipedia).
When Wordsworth was a child he was given free-run of the countryside in the sparsely populated area near Esthwaite Lake, and here, according to our introduction, developed his love for the pastoral as well as for poetry. In the poem he reflects upon his passionate childhood communion with nature.
The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm (260).
By describing his youthful experience as "an appetite" Wordsworth sets up the contrast between his youth with a pure, unnamed appreciation of nature, and the mature, studied appreciation of adulthood.
I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue (260).
This "still, sad music of humanity", what you could almost call the equivalent of William Blake's concept of 'experience', subdues the wild fancies of youth and forces Wordsworth to view nature from a matured perspective. It is nature in the context of larger society and human concerns.
The "sister" in the poem is Dorothy, who in 1795 settled with Will in Dorsetshire and became his, quote: "confidant, inspirer, and secretary". Within the context of the poem she inspires the narrator to reflect upon his youth.
Thou art with me here upon the banks
Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart, and read
My former pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in thee what I was once,
My dear, dear Sister! (261)
Though time, age and experience have changed him, Wordsworth still remembers the "language of [his] former heart" - and sees in his sister's eyes the wild passion that has stayed with him and influenced him so greatly over the years. Through his sister he feels he can better appreciate and understand the inclinations of his youth by vicariously experiencing her "pure" communion with nature. He closes the poem saying,
After many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake! (261-2).
Tintern Abbey was written in blank verse, in the form of a reflective monologue.
Works
Cited:
Greenblatt, Stephen et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume Two, Eigth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Well, today at my 8am literature class I have to give a presentation on Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey. So far I have made several terrible mistakes as far as preparing for this speech go. First I procrastinated all day yesterday, except for re-reading the poem and doing some highlighting. Second, I let insomnia keep me up far too late. When I woke up at five this morning I was exhausted beyond usual, and couldn't (and still can't) concentrate. I hate giving presentations because I get ridiculously nervous and tend to choke and stutter. This used to concern me, since my chosen career path involves regular speaking before a crowd, but last year when I got the opportunity to teach a few classes I realized that it's the evaluation thing that throes me off. When I'm not being evaluated (by a professor) I am great at running a class, and only slightly nervous. Usually before orals I take a few shots of whiskey, but there is no liquor for me today, so we shall see how I fare. Hopefully I'll at least have this thing organized before class, and my head a little less clouded. On that note I'm back to work. I just needed a moment to complain to my blog because preparing a presentation is almost more stressful than giving one.
