Analysis of William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth poem, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey…July 13, 1798, is about a man returning, after fives years, to the beautiful scenery near the ruins of Tintern Abbey in Wales. He recalls how he once had such innocent views of nature when he was younger and how now that he had grown he 'd lost such sight. Near the end of the poem the speaker mentions his sister, Dorothy, only to make himself appear to be this wise man who takes his sister under his wings. He ensures her that when he is gone she can be comforted and protected memories of him and their love for nature. Dorothy 's ideas are disregarded and replaced with those of her brother, as if her own are unworthy of mentioning or possessing. Wordsworth may perhaps believe that he is doing his sister a favor by passing on to her his love for nature. The speaker views Dorothy as this innocent being whom doesn 't understand the depth of nature as he has grown to understand it. After five years the speaker no longer has the same perception of the world, unlike Dorothy he has grown and learned to look at nature from a more mature point of view. Dorothy unfortunately possesses this innocent mind which still captures nature with the joy a child may have. He completely seems to underestimate her because she is a woman. Wordsworth writes, in lines 112-120: "Nor perchance, If I were not thus taught, should I the more Suffer my genial spirits to decay: For thou art with me here upon the banks Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch The language of my former heart, and read My former pleasures in the shooting lights Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while May I behold in thee what I was once,"

In other words he is no longer capable of thinking in such a childlike manner he has to turn to his sister, with her "wild eyes" and hope to relive this pleasure. This implies that he

Cited: Wordsworth, William. The Complete Poetical Works. London: Macmillan and Co., 1888; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/145/ .9/22/2007