Lines Composed Above Tintern Abbey
by
William Wordsworth
(Summary)
William Wordsworth was the poet of ‘the age of
Wordswoth’ (the renaissance of wonder). The general characteristics of this age
are:
· Mystery
· Interest
in the past
· Love
of nature
· Interest
in inhumanity
· Love
for the elemental simplicities of life
· Freedom
of imagination
· Subjectivity
and spontaneity
· Speculative
and inquisitive tendency and
· The
revival of poetic style.
William
Wordsworth was born in 1770 at Cocker mouth in England. He loved the nature as
a boy and graduated from Cambridge University in 1791. He loved his sister
Dorothy very much and after the failure of his hopes and plans, he settled in
Dorset with her. In Tennyson’s words Wordsworth uttered nothing base. His
poetic career could be divided into 4 periods. In the first period he spent his
time in solitude among hills and wrote the prelude, then followed the period of
senses, when he drank the beauty of nature with the passion of a lover. The
third stage of his poetic career witnessed the end of aching raptures and he
started feeling human sorrows and sufferings. The final stage was the period of
the soul when the poet’s love for the nature becomes reflective, mystical and
spiritual.
‘Lines
composed above Tintern Abbey’ is a long poem of Words Worth. It contains all
the three pleasures which he takes in nature. The poem reflects the animal
pleasure, physical pleasure and the spiritual pleasure. The poem is written in a
circular form which starts from the animal pleasures of the poet and ends with
the same pleasure of his sister, Dorothy. In this poem, the poet gradually
matures his animal pleasure into a sober kind of pleasure i.e., spiritual
pleasure through physical pleasure.
Wordsworth
visits Tintern Abbey again after five years. He again beholds the lofty cliffs,
the landscape, the shapes of sky, the plots of cottage ground, the
orchard-tufts with their unripe fruits, the sportive hedge rows, pastoral farms
and the wreaths of smoke. He also hears the water rolling from their mountain
springs. According to the poet, these beauteous forms of nature had been a
tranquil restoration to him. In this long absence of 5 years, feeling of
unremembered pleasures also overwhelmed him, during this period. Their memory
lightens all the mysterious burden of this unintelligible world. The poet
becomes one with nature in soul, when he remembers the beautiful forms of
nature.
Wordsworth
is not ready to accept, that his belief in nature is vain because the remembrances
of the beautiful shapes of nature had often given him consolations during the
adverse conditions.
“While
here I stand not only with the sense of present pleasure, but with pleasing
thoughts that in this moment there is life and food for future years”.
These
lines show Wordsworth’s deep and sincere belief and dependence on nature.
The
poet further describes his former pleasures of childhood. Then, he used to
bound over the mountains, beside the lonely streams etc. He used to run after
the nature like a man who runs after those things, which he loves the most. He,
then, describes how his animal passions for nature mature into a sober kind of
pleasures and he starts listening the still sad music of humanity, which is
neither harsh nor grating. According to the poet, he now feels a kind of
presence in nature. This presence dwells in the light of the setting sun,
ocean, living air, blue sky and in the mind of man. The PRESENCE rolls through
all the objects of nature. The worshipper of nature says that nature is not
only the anchor of his purest thoughts but also the nurse, the guide, the
guardian and the soul.
To
her sister Dorothy, he says, that in her language and eyes he receives his
former pleasures of his heart and his body. He says that nature never betrays
those, who love her and she leads her followers from one pleasure to another.
The nature feeds us those lofty thoughts, which guide us in our adverse
conditions. Therefore, he asks his sister to enjoy each and every situation in the
company of nature, so that in after years her memory will be the dwelling place
for all sweet sounds and harmonies.
The
poet ends his poem by asking his sister, that after his death, will she
remember him and his exhortations. He asks her to remember that he, with her,
enjoyed the company of nature and also that her brother was the worshipper of
nature. He says that the nature was dear to him: “both for them and for thy
sake”.
William
Wordsworth could be said the true representative of his age. The poem is a
superb example of the characteristic qualities of the age. In this poem the
poet posed himself a true worshipper of nature. He expresses all his three
kinds of pleasures which he gets through nature and in nature.
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