Past, Present, and Future: Finding Life Through Nature William Wordsworth poem
“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” was included as the last
item in his Lyrical Ballads. The general meaning of the poem relates to his
having lost the inspiration nature provided him in childhood. Nature seems to
have made Wordsworth human.The significance of the abbey is Wordsworth’s love
of nature. Tintern Abbey representes a safe haven for Wordsworth that perhaps
symbolizes a everlasting connection that man will share with it’s
surroundings. Wordsworth would also remember it for bringing out the part of him
that makes him a “A worshipper of Nature” (Line 153). Five different
situations are suggested in "Lines" each divided into separate
sections. The first section details the landscape around the abbey, as
Wordsworth remembers it from five years ago. The second section describes the
five-year lapse between visits to the abbey, during which he has thought often
of his experience there. The third section specifies Wordsworth’s attempt to
use nature to see inside his inner self. The fourth section shows Wordsworth
exerting his efforts from the preceding stanza to the landscape, discovering and
remembering the refined state of mind the abbey provided him with. In the final
section, Wordsworth searches for a means by which he can carry the experiences
with him and maintain himself and his love for nature. . Diamantis 2 In the
first stanza, Wordsworth lets you know he is seeing the abbey for a second time
by using phrases such as "again I hear," "again do I
behold," and "again I see. He describes the natural landscape as
unchanged and he describes it in descending order of importance beginning with
with the “lofty cliffs” (Line 5) dominantly overlooking the abbey. After the
cliffs comes the river, , then the forests, and hedgerows of the cottages that
once surrounded the abbey but have since been abandoned. After the cottages, is
the vagrant hermit who sits alone in his cave, perhaps symbolizing the effects
being away from the abbey has had on Wordsworth. Wordsworth professes to
"sensations sweet / Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart"
(lines 28-29) which the memories of nature can inspire when he is lonely, just
as the hermit is lonely. Wordsworth desires nature only because of his
separateness, and the more isolated he feels the more he desires it. This is
described in “Lines” : As that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the
mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible
world Is lightened:- that serene and blessed mood, In which the affections
gently lead us on, Until, the breath of this corporeal frame And even the motion
of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body, and become a
living soul. (Lines38-47) In the second stanza, Wordsworth parallels his
experience upon returning to Tintern Abbey five years later to his previous
visit. He has changed from thinking of the present to the past. He describes
using the abbey as a consolation whenever he felt overrun by the dismal,
uniform, urban landscapes he had become accustomed to. However, after his first
visit he began to forget the details of the abbey and what it meant to him:
"as gleams of half-extinguished thought, with many recollections dim and
faint, and somewhat of a sad perplexity" (Line 57-60) Diamantis 3 In the
third stanza, Wordsworth begins a transition back to the present moment. He
enjoys the pleasure of this time and also anticipates that he will enjoy it
again in future memories. In the fourth stanza, however, he starts to
recapitulate his life as a series of stages in the development of a relationship
with nature. At first he roamed as freely as an animal, but as he grew he felt
joy and rapture and passionate involvement with his own youth. Now he is
involved with human concerns. He has become more thoughtful and sees nature in
the light of those thoughts. He still loves nature, but in a more mature and
more emotionally subdued way. Can he salvage the meaning of the abbey and take
it with him as an inspiration? In the second stanza he relates how in the five
intermediate years he would often attempt to remember Tintern Abbey, to
recapture that harmony of mind and environment. He has spent some time away from
the region and has forgotten the experience, he becomes doubtful and feels
isolated from nature. He recapture the feeling, however, when he refers to these
lines in the fourth stanza: The picture of the mind revives again: While here I
stand, not only with the sense Of pleasant pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food For future years. (Line 62-66) In
these lines he has stopped circling around the past and present, and has begun
to hope for a solution for the future. There follows a comparison of his present
and past selves, how they have changed and remained the same. At first he
possessed a childlike wonder, but as he grew he became more involved with human
concerns. He has become more thoughtful and sees nature in the light of those
thoughts. He has traded the boundless energy for maturity and the "still,
sad music of humanity" (line 92). Wordsworth ends the poem with the fifth
stanza, a farewell to the abbey and the inspiration it has given him. He
realizes that there may come a time when he may no longer be able to inspire
himself with life-changing situations, and that he will not be able to run back
to Tintern Abbey to find himself again. He does what he can, though. He will
also be able to rely on his sister, who shared these experiences with him and in
whose voice "I catch the language of my former heart, and read my former
pleasures in the shooting lights of thy wild eyes" (lines 117-120).
Eventually even these may fail him, and in the closing lines of the poem he
consoles himself that he and his sister will be able to look back fondly and at
least remember their shared time together.