Tintern Abbey

By: William Wordsworth

Recap

• Analysis of the poem ‘Solitary Reaper’ • Poet draws on rustic life and common girl • Theme of lasting effect of natural surrounding• Theme of loneliness and isolation from the

world and its matters• Role of memory and power of recollection • Nature as source of peace and happiness• Simple language

About Tintern Abbey

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 four or five days, with my Sister. Not a line of it was altered, and not any part of it written down till I reached Bristol. It was published almost immediately after in the little volume of which so much has been said in these Notes. (William Wordsworth, 1798)

About Tintern Abbey

• The complete title that Wordsworth gave it was: Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798.

• It was published as the last poem of the Lyrical Ballads• At the age of 23, poet visited the abbey alone. In 1798, he

revisited with his sister Dorothy, referred as ‘friend’ throughout.

• Poem is a recollection of poet’s visit of 1793, which he visited alone.

• the abbey is not described in the poem; river Wye is described passionately.

About Tintern Abbey

• It is a complex poem addressing a lot of themes at the same time: memory, mortality, faith, nature, friendship and familial love.

• Employs a more intellectual & philosophical relationship with nature.

• Structure of the poem is complex: there’s no rhyme, no regular division of stanzas.

• Written in blank verse or iambic pentameter• Poetic devices: repetitions of sounds and words

Analysis of the poem

FIVE years have past; five summers, with the lengthOf five long winters! and again I hearThese waters, rolling from their mountain-springswith a sweet inland murmur.

Repetition is used to emphasize his separation and

sense of delight at being back.First natural object he describes is ‘water’ & its ‘sweet

inland murmur’

Once againDo I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,That on a wild secluded scene impressThoughts of more deep seclusion; and connectThe landscape with the quiet of the sky.

The next object of Nature are the cliffs.He describes the scene before him as ‘wild’ and

‘secluded’

The day is come when I again reposeHere, under this dark sycamore, and view These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves'Mid groves and copses

Poet describes the beauty of the River Wye area‘Plots of cottage-ground’ are the small gardens‘orchard tufts’ are groups of fruit tress‘woods and copses’ are forests and thickets of small trees or shrubs

Once again I seeThese hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little linesOf sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,Green to the very door;

The ‘hedge rows’ are guarding the sheep farms.

and wreaths of smokeSent up, in silence, from among the trees!With some uncertain notice, as might seemOf vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fireThe Hermit sits alone.

‘smoke’ is the sign of human life; of some vagabonds or hermit.‘hermit’ is someone who leaves the material world and dwells

among nature

These beauteous forms,Through a long absence, have not been to meAs is a landscape to a blind man's eye: (23-25)

The poet emphasizes his bond with nature that absence did not make him forget this beautiful scene.

But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the dinOf towns and cities, I have owed to themIn hours of weariness, sensations sweet,Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;And passing even into my purer mind,With tranquil restoration: —

Nature blessed the poet with two gifts after his first visit:First gift: recollection/memory of these beautiful scenes lead

to ‘sensations sweet’(pleasurable feelings) and tranquility.

feelings too Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,As have no slight or trivial influenceOn that best portion of a good man's life,His little, nameless, unremembered, actsOf kindness and of love.

Poet shows more gratitude for this memory - the joy of which caused him to be a good person.

Wordsworth gives his moral doctrine here: nature improves character

Nor less, I trust,To them I may have owed another gift,Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,In which the burthen of the mystery,In which the heavy and the weary weightOf all this unintelligible world,Is lightened: —

Second gift : ‘blessed mood’The world is ‘unintelligible’ for the poet (disappointment with

French Revolution)

that serene and blessed mood,In which the affections gently lead us on, — Until, the breath of this corporeal frameAnd even the motion of our human bloodAlmost suspended, we are laid asleepIn body, and become a living soul:

Poet’s throws light on his deep spiritual relationship with nature.Corporeal frame or physical body becomes dead or irrelevant

but the inner eye or soul awakens.

While with an eye made quiet by the powerOf harmony, and the deep power of joy,We see into the life of things.

‘eye made quite’ means that he is no longer aware of his surroundings

poet becomes a mystic through power of meditationcoupled with powers of ‘harmony’ with nature and ‘joy’

at this union with nature , he attains a spiritual status.

Yet oh, how oft,In darkness and amid the many shapesOf joyless daylight; when the fretful stirUnprofitable, and the fever of the world,Have hung upon the beatings of my heart —

‘fretful stir’ is disturbing noises of the world ‘unprofitable’ as there are no gains‘fever of the world’ are materialistic obsessions of this

world

How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,How often has my spirit turned to thee!

‘sylvan wye’ – calls it a spirit,He compares the ‘fever of the world’ with the

tranquility of the river Wye.Poet turned to Wye for inspiration and for meaning to

life.

And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,With many recognitions dim and faint,And somewhat of a sad perplexity, The picture of the mind revives again:

Upon this second visit, Wordsworth says that his memories are revived again.

While here I stand, not only with the senseOf present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughtsThat in this moment there is life and foodFor future years

Wordsworth’s belief that Nature is source of pleasure for all times to come.

And so I dare to hope,Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when firstI came among these hills; when like a roeI bounded o'er the mountains, by the sidesOf the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,Wherever nature led:

Wordsworth gives us flashback again.Like a ‘roe’ or deer, without thinking, he followed

nature.

more like a man Flying from something that he dreads, than oneWho sought the thing he loved.

Nature sometimes filled him with fear.

For nature then(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,And their glad animal movements all gone by)To me was all in all. —

‘all in all’- a passion and an appetite, filling up both his emotional and physical desires

I cannot paintWhat then I was. The sounding cataractHaunted me like a passion: the tall rock,The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,Their colours and their forms, were then to meAn appetite;

In the past, natural beauty attracted him.

a feeling and a love, That had no need of a remoter charm,By thought supplied, nor any interestUnborrowed from the eye. —

Poet then was only emotionally attached to Nature and had no relationship at deeper level of thought.

That time is past,And all its aching joys are now no more,And all its dizzy raptures.

The past with old feelings is no more.

Not for thisFaint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other giftsHave followed; for such loss, I would believe,Abundant recompense.

‘abundant recompense’- plenty of compensationPoet doesn’t regret the loss of his old relationship with

Nature.

For I have learnedTo look on nature, not as in the hourOf thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity,Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample powerTo chasten and subdue.

Wordsworth explains his new mature relationship with Nature: Nature connects him with fellow mankind

A philosophic statement.‘grating’- irritating, ‘chasten & subdue’ – make humble & calm

And I have feltA presence that disturbs me with the joyOf elevated thoughts; a sense sublimeOf something far more deeply interfused,Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,And the round ocean and the living air,And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;

Wordsworth’s Pantheism: a spiritual relationship with NatureNature is a Spirit, a Deity, and is Omnipresent.

A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought,And rolls through all things.

This spirit is everywhere, surrounding us , filling us, binding us, and the universe together.

It connects everything.

Therefore am I stillA lover of the meadows and the woods,And mountains; and of all that we beholdFrom this green earth; of all the mighty worldof eye, and ear, — both what they half create,And what perceive; well pleased to recogniseIn nature and the language of the sense

Poet moves from sensual pleasures to thoughtful relationship with Nature.

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being.

Wordsworth’s deepening relationship with Nature,His thoughtless relationship with Nature is now over

and he is now consciously in love with Nature as he knows its powers.

Nor perchance,If I were not thus taught, should I the moreSuffer my genial spirits to decay:

Poet wonders what would have happened to him if he didn’t recognize nature’s blessings!

For thou art with me here upon the banksOf this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,My dear, dear Friend

Dorothy is introduced here, as a friend.

and in thy voice I catchThe language of my former heart, and readmy former pleasures in the shooting Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little whileMay I behold in thee what I was once, My dear, dear Sister!

In her youth, Wordsworth finds his former pleasures.

and this prayer I make,Knowing that Nature never did betrayThe heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,Through all the years of this our life, to leadFrom joy to joy:

Because Nature never betrays, it always gives joy.Nature personified as guide.

for she can so informThe mind that is within us, so impressWith quietness and beauty, and so feedWith lofty thoughts,

Different roles of Nature: a teacher, a nurse and as an art.

that neither evil tongues,Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor allThe dreary intercourse of daily life,Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturbOur cheerful faith, that all which we beholdIs full of blessings.

Nature protects us from every mischief, and prevents our hearts from being polluted or corrupted.

Therefore let the moonShine on thee in thy solitary walk;And let the misty mountain-winds be freeTo blow against thee:

Wordsworth’s love for his sister.Tells her to seek Nature’s blessings, and experience

Nature like his former days.

and, in after years,When these wild ecstasies shall be maturedInto a sober pleasure; when thy mindShall be a mansion for all lovely forms, Thy memory be as a dwelling-placeFor all sweet sounds and harmonies;

He believes that later she too will find mature pleasures.‘mind a mansion for lovely forms’ – store house of beauteous

formsConnects the mind and the memory

oh! then,If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughtsOf tender joy wilt thou remember me,And these my exhortations!

These present joys will always give her strength

Nor, perchance — If I should be where I no more can hearThy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleamsOf past existence — wilt thou then forgetThat on the banks of this delightful stream We stood together;

Wordsworth asks her to remember him even when he is no more.

and that I, so longA worshipper of Nature, hither cameUnwearied in that service: rather sayWith warmer love —oh! with far deeper zealOf holier love.

Poet declares himself a ‘worshipper of Nature’ He came here in servitude and in knowledge of

Nature’s immense blessings.

Nor wilt thou then forget,That after many wanderings, many yearsOf absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,And this green pastoral landscape, were to meMore dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!

The scene was memorable for its own sake and herself.Previous memory was of the place alone, but now Dorothy has

become part of it.

Themes

• Poems explore the impact of passing time on his relationship with Nature.

• Wordsworth’s intellectual and spiritual transformation

• Wordsworth’s deepening relationship with nature- his pantheism

panthism

• Idea of divinity of Nature – Nature is divine‘pan’= everything‘theos’ = God

• Irish writer, John Toland, first used the term in 1705• Strictly, pantheism is not theism, it does not believe

in a transcendent or personal God who is the creator but in one universe

• Pantheism: belief that we find truth, solace and spiritual fulfilment when we establish connection with ONE universe

• Paulo Cohelo- modern writer uses the idea in his works

• Root of the philosophy is the ‘All is one and Interconnected’

• Harrison (1999): ‘In essence, pantheism holds that there is no divinity other than the universe.’

• Different from Islamic view: the sufi or mystic sees only the presence of God in every particle of nature

Islamic pantheism

• Associated with Ibn e Arabi born in the year 560 A.H. (1165 A.D.)