Tintern Abbey Critical analysis of the poem by William Wordsworth

Characteristics of the romantic period in Tintern Abbey, style, themes and motifs
The poem was written by William Wordsworth (1770-1850), a British romantic poet. The full
title of this poem is: Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of
the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1789. Wordsworth visits Tintern Abbey in the Wye valley (Wye
is a river), after an absence of five years. Wordsworth is the greatest poet of nature. He is a lover
of natural scenery. The poet has written the poem when revisiting Tintern Abbey on the banks of
river Wye and this time he is accompanied by his sister.
The poem was written in July 1789. It was one of the nineteenth poems that Wordsworth
contributed to Lyrical Ballads. The eighteenth century had been the advocate of reason and
intellect and Romanticism was a literary movement which emphasized on the feelings, the heart.
Wordsworths poetry illustrates his philosophical beliefs which are: the immanence of the
universal spirit of God in all Nature making it alive; the existence of Gods soul in nature and of
Gods spirit in man and the restraining and moderating effect of this manifestation of God in
tranquilising and elevating the human spirit by means of putting it in tune with the infinite.
Throughout this poets work nature ultimately provides good influence on the human mind. All
manifestations of the natural world draw out noble, elevated thoughts and passionate emotions,
therefore seen in the people who observe them. One of the features or key themes of Romanticism
is romantic pantheism defined as nature, having its own spiritual essence that could be destroyed
by human society, but which also offered humanity a restorative power.
The subject of Tintern Abbey is memory, especially childhood memories of communion with
natural beauty, a subject very important in Wordsworths work. Many of this poets works and
Tintern Abbey too, deal with the subject of childhood and the memory of childhood in the mind
of the adult. Thus, childhoods connection with nature, which can later be lost, preserved only in
memory. These memories, encourage adults to re-cultivate as close a relationship with nature as
possible, as an antidote to sadness, loneliness and despair. The splendour of childhood where
childhood is a magical, magnificent time of innocence. Children form an intense bond with nature
and through the power of human mind, particularly memory, adults can recollect the connection
to the nature, of their youth.
Tintern Abbey is a monologue, imaginatively spoken by a single speaker to himself,
referencing the specific objects of its imaginary scene, and occasionally addressing others, once
the spirit of nature, occasionally the speakers sister. The language of the poem is striking for its
simplicity and forthrightness. The language of the poem is striking for its simplicity. In the preface
to Lyrical Ballads (1802) Wordsworth argues that poetry should be written in the natural language
of the common speech, rather than in the lofty and elaborate dictions that there were then
considered poetic. The style of this poet remains plain-spoken and easy to understand even
today, thought the idioms of common English has changed from that of the early nineteenth
century.
The central theme is nature and its influence on the poet. We are thought the beneficial
influence of nature, and throughout Wordsworths work nature provides good influence on the
human mind. The poet repeatedly emphasizes the importance of nature to the individuals
intellectual and spiritual development. All manifestations of the natural world from the highest
mountain to the simplest flower, induce elevated thoughts, passionate emotions in the people who
observe them. For Wordsworth the mind transforms the emotion of experience into poetry, and
this last, thus can give pleasure. This is the connection between creative mind and poetry.
 Summary and analysis
The poem falls into five parts: description of the scenery, the poets philosophy of nature
(made of three parts), and the address to his sister Dorothy.
The first section (lines 1-24), establishes the setting for the meditation. It emphasizes the
passing of time: five years have passed, five summers, five long winters... In these lines we find
the description of a detailed setting (the landscape), which is so personally relevant for the poet.
These images evoke not only a pure nature as one might expect, but they evoke a life of the
common people in harmony with nature. Wordsworth has been in this place five years ago, and
these years that have passed have been difficult personally for him. The scene is beautiful, all is
green, and it emphasizes how quiet, secluded it is there: thoughts of deep seclusion, Also
mentions the hermits solitude, who is living in this landscape, scenery all alone.
In the second section (lines 25-49), the poet talks about how this landscape has been very
important for him in the past and we find here again the central romantic values of nature and
solitude. This section begins with the meditation. The poet now realises that these beauteous
forms have always been with him, deep seated into his mind, wherever he went. This vision has
been Felt in the blood, and felt alone the heart. This vision has affected his whole being. They
were not absent from his mind like these forms in the man of a man born blind. In hours of
weariness, frustration and anxiety, these elements of nature have made him feel sensations in his
very blood. The poet studies nature with open eyes and imaginative mind. He has been the lover
of nature form the core of his heart, and with purer mind. He feels a sensation of love for nature
in his blood. He feels high pleasure and deep power of joy in natural objects. The beatings of his
heart are full of the fire of natures love. From this moment on Wordsworth begins to consider
the sublime of nature, his mystical awareness becomes clear. Therefore, when he is tired, worn
out by the city life, he lies down and imagines himself in this place, scenery, and it makes him
feel good, gives him pleasure, restores his tranquillity and it even makes him to become a better
person. He concentrates attention to Sylvan Wye a majestic and worth seeing river. He is
reminded of the pictures of the past visit and ponders over his future years. On his first visit to
this place he bounded over the mountains by the sides of the deep rivers and the lovely streams.
In the past the soundings haunted him like a passion. The tall rock, the mountain and the deep and
gloomy wood were then to him like an appetite. But that time is gone now. In nature he finds the
sad music of humanity. He could now look at Nature and he could hear the still sad music of
humanity and this music did not sound harsh or something that spoilt his joy, but it had a power
to make him sober and mature. The poet was now connecting Nature and human beings and in
Nature he could hear the sad music of the sufferings of men.
In lines 41-49 the poet is thinking about this special place how it is like an outer-body
experience for him. He can immediately access the truths of the Universe, not through but through
a sight by means of which: we see into the life of things. If the poem starts with the depiction
of the landscape, the conversation poem goes on to deal with the problems which the landscape
makes him recall.
The third section contains a kind of doubt; the poet is probably reflecting the readers possible
doubts so that he can go on to justify how he is right and what he means. He doubts, for just a
moment, whether this thought about the influence of the nature is vain, but he cant go on. He
exclaims: yet, oh! How often, amid the joyless daylight, fretful and unprofitable fever of the
world have I turned to thee (nature) for inspiration and peace of mind. He thanks the Sylvan
Wye for the everlasting influence it has imprinted on his mind; his spirit has very often turned to
this river for inspiration when he was losing the peace of mind or the path and meaning of life.
The river here becomes the symbol of spirituality.
 Though the poet has become serious and perplexed in the fourth section the nature gives
him courage and spirit enough to stand there with a sense of delight and pleasure. This is so typical
of Wordsworth that it seems he cant write poetry without recounting his personal experiences,
especially those of his childhood. Here also he begins from the earliest of his days. It was first the
coarse pleasures in his boyish days, which have all gone by now. That time is past, and all its
aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures. But the poet does not mourn for them;
he doesnt even grumble about their loss. Clearly, he has gained something in return: other gifts
have followed; for such loss for I have learnt to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless
youth; but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity. This is a philosophic statement
about maturing, about the development of personality, and of the poetic or philosophic mind as
well. So now the poet can feel a joy of elevated thought, a sense sublime, and far more deeply
interfused. He feels a sense of sublime and the working of a supreme power in the light of the
setting sun, in round oceans and in the blue sky. He is of opinion that a motion and a spirit impel
all thinking things. Therefore, Wordsworth claims that he is a lover of the meadows and of all
which we see form this green earth. Nature is a nurse, a guide and the guardian of his heart and
soul. The poet comes to one important conclusion: for all the formative influences, he is now
consciously in love with the nature. He has become a thoughtful lover of the meadows, the woods
and the mountains. Though his ears and eyes seem to create the other half of all these sensations,
the nature is the actual source of these sublime thoughts.
In lines 59-76, Wordsworth traces here two periods of his life: the early childhood, and after
adolescence. In these times nature had been for him everything: To me was all in all. These
lovely memories make him remember he has lost that connection with nature as he had it. And in
lines 84-93 the poet, at realising that he has grown older, he cant just feel joy at seeing nature but
he has now other things that make up for loosing that relationship with nature. Now when he
contemplates nature he sees The still sad music of humanity. Wordsworth certainly sings of the
joy in Nature, but there is gradual development in the apprehension of this feeling of joy. It grows
from a simple feeling undiluted by sadness to a feeling powerful to take into consideration the
still sad music of humanity and to transcend the miseries of this life.
The fifth and last section is the address to his sister, and it is depicted what his sister
symbolises to him. She is a symbol purity, and because she is still a child he can connect with
nature by means of her. Nature acts as a source of inspiration and peace even when he is away in
the city and he owes a lot to her. She brings peace and arouses feelings of kindness that lead one
to perform little nameless acts of helping others and he owes sweet sensations to her. Nature
impacts him in a way that he goes into a trance where his body seems to sleep while his spirit
meanings.
The fifth and last section continues with the same meditation from where the poet addresses
his young sister (Dorothy), whom he blesses and gives advice about what he has learnt. He says
that he can hear the voice of his own youth when he hears her speak, the language of his former
heart; he can also read my former pleasure in the soothing lights of thy wild eyes. He is excited
to look at his own youthful image in her. He says that nature has never betrayed his heart and that
is why they had been living from joy to joy.
Wordsworths advice to his sister is to expose her to the forces of nature, to let the moonlight
fall on her face when she is out walking alone. She should soak in all she can, because once she
is away, the memories of this day will stay with her. She is at the stage where she is overawed by
the beauty around her and doesnt feel the need for seeking beyond the world of eye and ear.
According to the poet, when she is in any kind of pain or misery, when she is away from him and
cannot talk to him, she will get solace from the memories of what she sees and stores in her mind.
He knows that the world outside nature can be cruel and vicious, but nature will give her the
strength to ignore the meanness and malice and criticism of people because he believes that.
 Nature can impress the mind with quietness and beauty, and feed it lofty thoughts, that no
evil tongues of the human society can corrupt their hearts with any amount of contact with it. The
poet then begins to address the moon in his reverie, and to ask the nature to bestow his sister with
their blessings. Let the moon shine on her solitary walk, and let the mountain winds blow their
breeze on her. When the present youthful ecstasies are over, as they did with him, let her mind
become the palace of the lovely forms and thought about the nature, so that she can enjoy and
understand life and overcome the vexations of living in a harsh human society. The conclusion to
the poem takes us almost cyclically, back to a physical view of the steep woods, lofty cliffs
and green pastoral landscape in which the meditation of the poem is happening.