Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
To be able to fully grasp the essence of the Romantic period, it is crucial to understand the historical context in which it bloomed. We can begin by saying that the eighteenth and nineteenth century were tempestuous eras of changes. Between 1755 and 1815 was what historians call the “second Hundred Years’ War” where the two European superpowers, France and England, fought for the domination of colonial and commercial territories in America, Asia, Africa and pretty much for the domination of the entire world. William Wordsworth actually fathered an illegitimate child with the French Annette Vallon and even lived in France for a short period of time. Whenever the tensions between the two countries subsided, he would return there. Also, England, who was ruled at this time by the Hanoverian kings, kings of German descent whose reigns spanned from 1714 to 1837 (the word “Hanover” comes from the German city of Hanover) was in fact a major colonial empire which consequently lead to a flourishing industry. Great Britain was therefore a social, economic and political superpower. Furthermore, it is important to note that the social and economic changes between 1780 and 1850 lead to the development of a truly modern industry (the industrial revolution had in fact a huge impact on the rise of Romanticism). Concurrently, the British fought against French expansionism notably in the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). We can therefore say that the birth of Romanticism was marked by the emergence of British economic power. But, even though Romanticism was particularly strong in Britain, it is also important to note that this literary movement was a European phenomenon.
When Romanticism gradually came to life, it was not only the birth of a new artistic movement, but the birth of a new mindset: as William Blake affirmed in 1793, “A new heaven is begun”. But what is Romanticism? What are its principal traits that characterize it? Well, first, as we can tell in Tintern Abbey, there is a strong emphasis on the significance of self-expression, particularly in terms of emotions. Romantic poets are on a quest to be able to understand the depths of their hearts, and the heart of mankind in general. In relation to this, individuality is also a Romantic topos: once again, in Tintern Abbey the preponderance of the first-person singular “I” underlines this desire to show that the poet is in fact his own person. This aspiration that the Romantic poets have to prove that they are in fact unique could also come from the fact that the latter were usually misunderstood outcasts from society. Consequently, the poets who adhered to this movement commonly wrote about pariahs like them. Moreover, the theme of pantheism and of the general fact that a divine spirit resides in nature is present, is recurrent (for example, this can even be seen in Danish Romanticism with Hans Christian Andersen’s short story, The Bell). The Romantics were also very widely inspired by Rousseau’s (1712-1778, a Francophone Swiss philosopher from the Enlightenment period) notions of the child. For example, Rousseau, contrarily to Hobbes (1588-1679, English philosopher), thought that children were of nature good and that they were later on corrupted by society. Furthermore, mythology, especially Greek mythology, was also an important theme of Romanticism as we can see for example in the poem, The World Is Too Much With Us (also by Wordsworth), where Poseidon and Triton are mentioned. Since the Romantics were preoccupied with the idea of what the definition of beautiful and aesthetic was, it is not surprising that they would refer to art from the Classical period. During this period, the Greek gods were the paragons of beauty itself. Yet, this definition of beauty is also linked with awe, which is a sensation that can be felt when confronted with the greatness and wildness of nature.
Now, to begin with this review, it is interesting to know that William Wordsworth, along with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) decided to work together on the collection of poems called Lyrical Ballads (1798) where the poem Tintern Abbey figures. This anthology of poems is widely acknowledged to be what had brought literary Romanticism to England. So, to dive into this poem, here is its first stanza: (if you prefer, here is a reading of the poem that I found on the YouTube channel named SpokenVerse)
Five years have past; five summers, with the length
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Of five long winters! and again I hear
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These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
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With a sweet inland murmur.—Once again
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Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
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Which on a wild secluded scene impress
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Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
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The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
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The day is come when I again repose
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Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
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These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
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Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits,
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Among the woods and copses lose themselves,
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Nor, with their green and simple hue, disturb
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The wild green landscape. Once again I see
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These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
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Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms,
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Green to the very door; and wreathes of smoke
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Sent up, in silence, from among the trees,
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With some uncertain notice, as might seem,
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Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,
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Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire
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The hermit sits alone.
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In terms of storyline, this poem is quite simple: it concerns a poet who addresses himself with the first-person singular (“I”) and who, five years after having been to the banks of the river Wye, comes back. Yet, his return provokes a surge of emotions and of existential questioning that he strives to make us, the reader, also feel: which also corresponds with a major concern in Romanticism: empathy. In the Preface of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth even says that this compassion is “in some degree mechanical” and that it is “the wish of the Poet to bring his feelings near to those of the persons whose feelings he describes, nay, for short spaces of time, perhaps, to let himself slip into an entire delusion, and even confound and identify his own feelings with theirs”.
First and foremost, we can notice in terms of scansion that this poem is solely written in blank verse (unrhyming iambic pentameter) which is the most habitual metrical pattern in English verse since the 16th century. It is probably used so extensively due to its flexibility and range. That said, after John Milton (for more information about John Milton, go read my review and analysis of one of his most famous poems: When I Consider How My Light Is Spent), its use subsided. Nevertheless, the Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth, revived this form of poetry.
In the first stanza, an important theme is, in general, time that is presented in different ways by the poet. We can notice that the poet endeavors to emphasize time that has passed since he last came to the banks of the river Wye by the repetition of the word “five” three times in the space of two verses, which is specifically “five years”. Yet, the latter also desires to highlight the repetition of his visit to this picturesque setting notably with the repeating of the word “again” (v.2,4,9,14) four times throughout the stanza. Moreover, references to the seasons, and the overall presence of its lexical field, manifest the manner in which time affects nature. I find that the verse “Which at this season, with their unripe fruit” (v.13) particularly demonstrates this since it explicitly links “the unripe fruit” with the word “season” which itself is affiliated with time. We will also see later in this poem that “the unripe fruit” could also be a metaphor in absentia for William Wordsworth’s younger self.
A feature that I found particularly captivating in this stanza is the concept of the unity of nature. If this poem would have been a painting, I personally would imagine it to be painted in the same range of colors that would create a harmonious setting. The verses that distinctly evoke this notion would be:
“These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
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Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits,
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Among the woods and copses lose themselves,
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Nor, with their green and simple hue, disturb
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The wild green landscape.”
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And particularly the words “lose themselves” and “simple hue” and “[…] these pastoral farms / Green to the very door” as if the green color of nature tints and engulfs everything that surrounds it. Continuing on the thread of nature, the fact that nature is presented by the poet as active even though it is inanimate, especially through the bias of the figure of speech called the personification, is a theme in this poem. For example, the “mountain springs” (v.4) “murmur” and the “wreathes of smoke” are “sent up”. Also, something that caught my attention in the sixth verse was the word “impress” since it is stressed due to its place in the verse (“wild secluded scene impress”). The fact that Nature is spelled with a capital N also stresses this. In my opinion, it also is a sort of personification since it is in fact that “wild secluded scene” that “impress(es)”. Nature can also not be tamed as we can tell by the reflexive pronoun “themselves” in “lose themselves” which highlights a certain independence. Notwithstanding this, the poet makes it clear that nature may be alive, but it is active in a different way than humans are. There are different reasons for why I say this but the first one is that verbs describing the poet’s senses and elucidating that last-mentioned’s sensations are strikingly present during the entire poem yet are not attributed to the greenery (e.g. “I hear” v.2, “I see” v.14…). Thus, this creates a distinction between the narrator and the presented setting: nature might be alive, but in its own way. Additionally, the proper pronoun “I” underlines the poet’s own entity, a shy, small, human observer disparate from Nature’s greatness.
Though absent long,
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These forms of beauty have not been to me,
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As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
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But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din
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Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
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In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
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Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,
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And passing even into my purer mind
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With tranquil restoration:—feelings too
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Of unremembered pleasure; such, perhaps,
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As may have had no trivial influence
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On that best portion of a good man's life;
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His little, nameless, unremembered acts
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Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,
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To them I may have owed another gift,
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Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
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In which the burthen of the mystery,
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In which the heavy and the weary weight
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Of all this unintelligible world
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Is lighten'd:—that serene and blessed mood,
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Until, the breath of this corporeal frame,
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And even the motion of our human blood
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Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
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In body, and become a living soul:
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While with an eye made quiet by the power
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Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
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We see into the life of things.
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If this
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Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft,
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In darkness, and amid the many shapes
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Of joyless day-light; when the fretful stir
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Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
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Have hung upon the beatings of my heart,
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How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee
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O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the wood
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How often has my spirit turned to thee!
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In these two stanzas, a theme that particularly struck me was how powerfully nature can affect the poet. First, this greenery awakens a multitude of pleasant and calm emotions as we can tell by the abundance of the lexical field of feelings: “kindness and love” (v.35), “pleasure”(v.31), “blessed mood” (v.37,41) and “tranquil”(v.30), “serene”(v.41). Also, the first three stanzas are focused on what the poet sees and feels, and how, in some way, nature has the ability to synchronize his sensations and feelings. Further, as I said beforehand, Lyrical Ballads marks the birth of the English Romantic movement, yet is also marks the emergence of a new concept in literature called the “inner self”. The term “inner self” can be interpreted in many different ways but I personally consider it to be a synonym of the word “soul”. The reason why I am saying this is because we can explicitly find this abstract notion where nature awakes a certain “inner” consciousness in us in these two particular stanzas: the words “soul”, “spirit”, “mind” and essentially the expression “corporeal frame”(v.43) express this. Yet, what does this truly mean? Perhaps it indicates that when we are confronted with the natural world and bathed in it, the primitive nature of humanity, this “soul” that is stronger and that surpasses our “corporeal frame” is awakened. This can also be paralleled with Rousseau’s idea that our innate nature is good but what brought evil was the impact civilization had on us… Over and above that, William Wordsworth grants nature a much more powerful power than just being able to waken senses: he grants nature the power to make us think and reconsider the world surrounding us. The banks of the river Wye permit him to understand the complex world surrounding him and helps him illuminate existential questions through the bias of purifying his mind. This reasoning might seem implausible due to its convolution, yet if we carefully look at the verse, it is stated. For example, the entire second stanza culminates to verse 49: “We see into the life of things.”. The punctuation underlines this apotheosis since it’s a period and abruptly ends the sentence and then, the beginning of the third stanza, which is the disyllabic “If this” (v.50), also highlights the importance of the statement said beforehand. Moreover, verse 38-40 especially highlight this aspect.
Additionally, due to the succor nature provides him with, the poet feels that he is beholden to nature (“I have owed to them” v.26, “To them I may have owed another gift” v.36…) since he often turns to his memory of nature in order to clear his mind and spirit when he is in distress among the bustle of the city.
Also, a facet of this writing that I found particularly interesting is the way this poem, and particularly these two stanzas, are structured upon, on the one hand, contrast in order to highlight certain features and on the other hand. For instance, we can notice an explicit opposition concerning “towns and cities” (v.26) and nature: the metropolis is associated for example with the hypallage “fretful stir” (v.52), with the sort of oxymoron “joyless daylight” (which again, through means of a rhetoric device expressing contrast), with “lonely rooms” (v.25) … We can also see with these two stanzas:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din
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Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
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that the poet is in fact surrounded by noise and by people but that he somehow feels “lonely”, as the (again) hypallage “lonely rooms” indicates. In addition, “the fever of the world”, reveals in fact a diseased world: since Nature is not associated with this notion, perhaps Nature is considered by the poet as being surreal. Meanwhile, Nature is, as I said before, qualified with expressions and words denoting tranquility and happiness. Perhaps this recurrent theme of opposition could be hiding and underlining the difference between the poet’s “inner self” and his physical self since he lives most of the year in these “towns and cities” that seem to be the exact antithesis of what he emotionally identifies with.
The use of the personification is still present at this point in the oeuvre: the river Wye is addressed with the vocative expression (and rhetoric device called the apostrophe): “O sylvan Wye”(v.36) , and it is also addressed with the archaic (though in the early eighteenth century, you overtook all of the functions of thee and thou) pronouns “thee” and “thou”.
And now, with gleams of half-extinguish'd though[t,]
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With many recognitions dim and faint,
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And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
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The picture of the mind revives again:
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While here I stand, not only with the sense
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Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
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That in this moment there is life and food
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For future years. And so I dare to hope
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Though changed, no doubt, from what I was, when first
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I came among these hills; when like a roe
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I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
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Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
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Wherever nature led; more like a man
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Flying from something that he dreads, than one
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Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
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(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
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And their glad animal movements all gone by,)
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To me was all in all.—I cannot paint
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What then I was. The sounding cataract
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Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,
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The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
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Their colours and their forms, were then to me
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An appetite: a feeling and a love,
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That had no need of a remoter charm,
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By thought supplied, or any interest
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Unborrowed from the eye.—That time is past,
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And all its aching joys are now no more,
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And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
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Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts
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Have followed, for such loss, I would believe,
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Abundant recompence. For I have learned
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To look on nature, not as in the hour
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Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
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The still, sad music of humanity,
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Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
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To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
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A presence that disturbs me with the joy
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Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
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Of something far more deeply interfused,
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Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
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And the round ocean, and the living air,
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And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,
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A motion and a spirit, that impels
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All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
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And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
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A lover of the meadows and the woods,
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And mountains; and of all that we behold
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From this green earth; of all the mighty world
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Of eye and ear, both what they half-create,
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And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
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In nature and the language of the sense,
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The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
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The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
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Of all my moral being.
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Personally, I find this stanza to be the most profound in meaning, verging on the philosophical since William Wordsworth here does not only reflect on himself or on nature, but on humanity itself. First, there is the theme that nature can mirror humanity. We can see this in the verse 91: “still sad music of humanity” that we hear if we “look on nature”. Thus, if we gaze at the natural world, we will discern the monotonous nature of the human species.
Moreover, in this stanza, William Wordsworth clearly says that beforehand, he would come to Nature not because he particularly appreciated it, but consequently to fleeing somewhere else. But five years later, he observes that he has matured: he has gone from passion to contemplation and he now comes to nature to not merely look upon its “colours” and “forms” (v.79), but to think (about it, himself, life…If they aren’t all the same in the end…). We can see that, when the poet describes the landscape in the eyes of his younger self, that it is depicted in a much more dramatic manner (“deep rivers” (v.70), “mountains”(v.69), “lonely streams”(v.70)…). He also says that this love didn’t come from anything “unborrowed from the eye”(v.83). Therefore, perhaps we can say that William Wordsworth thought that thinking, and precisely thinking about what we see, is an essential component of maturity. Another fact that would support this argument would be the lexical field of light that is recurrent throughout this stanza which could possibly mean that nature “enlightens us” (“half-extinguished”, “gleams”, “dim”, “faint”…). Furthermore, we can also notice that youth is qualified with animal-related adjectives: “flying”(v.71), “glad animal movements”(v.75), his former passion for nature is described as an “appetite” which is an animal instinct in us for survival. Following this thread, the poet had therefore an inherent inclination to be in complete communion with Nature, but he now has the ability and maturity to overlook it. Also, “to chasten and subdue” (v.94) proves that before, Nature was feeding the young poet’s passions but now he is humbled by its great power (and is ashamed at the perverse impact humans have had on it). Accordingly, it seems plausible to say that Wordsworth also thought that thinking about what we see not only characterizes maturity, but also humanity.
Additionally, we can also notice that the use of rhetorical devices that denote an opposition has subdued. Yet now we can notice the use of the alliteration (for example: in /f/; “life and food for future years” (v.65), or in the plosive /p/; “Of present pleasure but with pleasing thoughts”; in /ð/ (and in the repetition of the word “all” and consequently the repetition of the sound /ɔl/): “All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts”(v.101-102) which, through the bias of creating harmony, reinforces the agreeable and peaceful sensations that nature arouses.
Nor, perchance,
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If I were not thus taught, should I the more
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Suffer my genial spirits to decay:
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For thou art with me, here, upon the banks
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Of this fair river; thou, my dearest Friend,
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My dear, dear Friend, and in thy voice I catch
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The language of my former heart, and read
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My former pleasures in the shooting lights
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Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while
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May I behold in thee what I was once,
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My dear, dear Sister! And this prayer I make,
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Knowing that Nature never did betray
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The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
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Through all the years of this our life, to lead
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From joy to joy: for she can so inform
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The mind that is within us, so impress
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With quietness and beauty, and so feed
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With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
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Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
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Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
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The dreary intercourse of daily life,
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Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
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Our cheerful faith that all which we behold
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Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
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Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
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And let the misty mountain winds be free
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To blow against thee: and in after years,
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When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
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Into a sober pleasure, when thy mind
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Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
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Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
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For all sweet sounds and harmonies; Oh! then,
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If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
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Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
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Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
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And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance,
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If I should be, where I no more can hear
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Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
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Of past existence, wilt thou then forget
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That on the banks of this delightful stream
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We stood together; and that I, so long
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A worshipper of Nature, hither came,
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Unwearied in that service: rather say
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With warmer love, oh! with far deeper zeal
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Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
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That after many wanderings, many years
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Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
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And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
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More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake.
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So, this is the last stanza of Tintern Abbey, which leaves us on a completely different tone than the other stanzas. First, a new character is introduced: “My dear, dear sister” (v.122) where Wordsworth addresses his younger sister, Dorothy Wordsworth. The two siblings were very close during the entirety of their lives and here the poet seems to express that he can see his juvenile attitude in regards to nature in his sister: we can notice nominal groups and words related to the past: “the language of my former heart” (v.118), “my former pleasures”(v.119), “what I was once” (v.121) but the word “wild”(v.120), “past existence”(v.150), which has animal connotations, can also remind us of what I said in the overview of stanza four where youth, and in particular the poet’s own youth, is characterized as an undomesticated animal. The poet is in this stanza telling and teaching his Dorothy about the healing factors (“healing thoughts” v.146) of Nature and how, when in distress, it will always be there for her, either physically or at least in her memory.
Additionally, we can also notice the hallmarks of pantheism (“A doctrine which identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God”-Oxford Dictionaries) which would signify that God is in fact present in nature. First, we can notice the two “let’s” in verse 134 and 136: the first person plural imperative employed could remind us of a benediction. Also, at verse 153, Wordsworth describes himself as a “worshipper of Nature” and describes his love for Nature at verse 156 as “holier”, which has strong religious overtones. Finally, similarly to God, Nature has the power to “chasten and subdue” (v. 94): Harold Bloom (a sterling professor at Yale, 1958-), in his anthology named The Best Poems of the English Language comments that Wordsworth seeks in Nature what in religion is called salvation.
“Knowing that Nature never did betray/ The heart that loved her”- if this isn’t poetry, what is? There is truly something special about Wordsworth- the way he manipulates and layers imagery, to create in the end a complex, yet approachable abstract ideal. He has the extraordinary capacity to find links between two concepts where, in everyday life we wouldn’t imagine but once mentioned, seem obvious. This not only proves a very large and vivid imagination but also the capacity of making us, the reader, understand through the bias of perfectly measured and assembled words a notion that he has created- that is for me the definition of a true poet. The first poem that I read by Wordsworth is I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (also called Daffodils) and I was particularly touched by the way he contemplates nature and makes every single one of its tremble seem poetic and important. I personally do think that reading his poetry along with other Romantic poets, have changed in some way my perception and attentiveness in regard to nature. He underlines the simplicity and sincerity of nature using what we could call a rigorous, yet simple writing style (since, as I said beforehand, Tintern Abbey is in fact written in blank verse). This is actually exactly what he says in the Preface of Lyrical Ballads: Wordsworth says that he describes “incidents and situations from common life” in a “plainer and more emphatic language” because he says that “our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated”. Nonetheless, I sometimes cannot help but find the subject of some of his poems a bit banal compared to the poetry that has been created since. Nevertheless, we must remember that for the time, Romanticism was adventurous and new and not at all considered to be dull- Percy Bysshe Shelley (one of the major Romantic poets (1792-1822) even said that “The world’s great age begins anew” apropos of the birth of Romanticism. We must still admit Wordsworth’s incredible mastery of the art of poetry and the fact that he was, still is and probably always will be a quintessential figure of English poetry.
So that is it for today’s review! I hope that I have made you enjoy Tintern Abbey and its intricacies and that you now have a deeper understanding of the poem. If you appreciate Romanticism in general, I strongly urge you to read other Romantic poets such as Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake and to of course, read more of Wordsworth’s work! See you soon for another review! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
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© 2017 Margaux Emmanuel
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