Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
Themes in Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey
Full Title: "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798.
Man and the Natural World
This is one of the most important ideas of "Tintern Abbey." The speaker of this poem has discovered, in his maturity, that his appreciation of natural beauty has allowed him to recognize a divine power in nature. Wordsworth comes up with this idea in "Tintern Abbey," and then really explores and develops it. Nature means several things in the context of this poem: it can mean 1) physical nature, or 2) it can mean the sense of unity or connection between everything, or 3) it can refer to a divine "presence" in Nature, like Mother Nature.
Memory and the Past
Memory's a funny thing in the world of "Tintern Abbey." It works like a portable scrapbook of all of your most amazing experiences with Nature. Having a bad day? Close your eyes and flip to page 44 of your mental scrapbook to call up the image of that visit to the banks of the river Wye! You'll feel better in a jiffy. Part of the process of maturing into the kind of person who can sense the divine "presence" in nature is knowing when and how to access your memory.
Awe and Amazement
In "Tintern Abbey," the speaker's reaction to nature is one of awe. He finds the view from the banks of the river Wye to be jaw-dropping-ly, breathtakingly, almost indescribably beautiful. His breath, at one point, is actually taken away. And once he has his epiphany about the divine "presence" in all of nature, his awe is turned to a kind of piety. He becomes a devout worshipper of Mother Nature.
Transformation
"Tintern Abbey" is a nature poem, and nature is always full of transformations: fruit ripens, seasons change...you get the picture. The poem describes the transformation between the young, boyish "William" and the more mature speaker of the poem; it also imagines the future transformation that will change the
Full Title: "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798.
Man and the Natural World
This is one of the most important ideas of "Tintern Abbey." The speaker of this poem has discovered, in his maturity, that his appreciation of natural beauty has allowed him to recognize a divine power in nature. Wordsworth comes up with this idea in "Tintern Abbey," and then really explores and develops it. Nature means several things in the context of this poem: it can mean 1) physical nature, or 2) it can mean the sense of unity or connection between everything, or 3) it can refer to a divine "presence" in Nature, like Mother Nature.
Memory and the Past
Memory's a funny thing in the world of "Tintern Abbey." It works like a portable scrapbook of all of your most amazing experiences with Nature. Having a bad day? Close your eyes and flip to page 44 of your mental scrapbook to call up the image of that visit to the banks of the river Wye! You'll feel better in a jiffy. Part of the process of maturing into the kind of person who can sense the divine "presence" in nature is knowing when and how to access your memory.
Awe and Amazement
In "Tintern Abbey," the speaker's reaction to nature is one of awe. He finds the view from the banks of the river Wye to be jaw-dropping-ly, breathtakingly, almost indescribably beautiful. His breath, at one point, is actually taken away. And once he has his epiphany about the divine "presence" in all of nature, his awe is turned to a kind of piety. He becomes a devout worshipper of Mother Nature.
Transformation
"Tintern Abbey" is a nature poem, and nature is always full of transformations: fruit ripens, seasons change...you get the picture. The poem describes the transformation between the young, boyish "William" and the more mature speaker of the poem; it also imagines the future transformation that will change the