Everyone who knows me at all knows I am a hopeless Romantic. Here I consider Wordsworth's seminal piece, one which has been considered the paradigm of the sentiments expressed by English Romantics in general.
On “Tintern Abbey”
William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” creates a paragon for the Romantic view of nature and the aesthetic relationship that one can have with the divine through nature. “Tintern Abbey” is at the core of what are called the ‘Greater Romantic Lyrics,’ which has three main segments: First, the poet considers a scenic description which he finds especially moving. Then, he goes into a deeper, more extensive meditation of introspection. By the end of the ‘Greater Romantic Lyrics,’ the poet will generally make some sort of affirmation. Wordsworth is the father of this form, and no better example can be found than in “Tintern Abbey.”
Wordsworth begins this poem describing his return to the beautiful scenery at Tintern Abbey. Typical of Wordsworth, we do not have a separate persona distinct from him; to the contrary, it is fully and truly the poet himself speaking here, denoting the personal nature of his reflections. He places a great deal of emphasis on how long he has been away – five years, and he poignantly expresses how deeply pleased he is to be back again. Wordsworth’s imagery is stark, recounting the rivers and rivulets coming down off of the mountains, the beautiful landscape and the contrast of the sky on the horizon. He looks at this from beneath a tree, viewing the farms and cottages scattered between the woods and hedge-rows. The poet’s detailed description of the place suggests a sentimentality for Tintern Abbey that doubtless affected him for all of his life, as a man, a poet, and most importantly, as a Romantic, for it is scenery such as this which would be the hub of his inspiration, both poetically and religiously.
Looking upon this picturesque countryside, Wordsworth is moved to enter a broad rumination concerning the spiritual perception which it arouses for him, and the escape from a lower, less free reality it can provide. He tells us that Tintern Abbey is seen by him “As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye” (l. 24), unlike people who cannot see beyond the physical, because nature’s beauty is not for Wordsworth the end of the line, not quite the intrinsic value he is seeking. Instead, by his imagination, William is able to pass into a higher state, “even into my purer mind/With tranquil restoration” (ll. 29, 30). There are fond memories recalled, but also new pleasures, invoked by viewing the beauty before him. It is Wordsworth’s belief, and that of most of the Romantics, that looking at the world through imaginative eyes makes real to us profound truths and alleviates any pressures or concerns in “the heavy and the weary weight/Of all this unintelligible world” (ll. 39, 40). Ultimately, Wordsworth would intimate that the imagination can help you to understand that world, and give you great peace.
“While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.” (ll. 47 – 49)
Wordsworth’s faith is so absolute in this transforming imaginative power, that the moment he admits to any sort of trouble in the world, he points out something beautiful he sees in nature, and articulates that by looking at it, he, and any other, can overcome any difficulty. In the third stanza, for example, he brushes off the idea that his optimism is vain, or superfluous, by pondering the river of Wye. Truly, Wordsworth would say, that lovely river and its surrounding forests demonstrate unquestionably the purifying power of nature’s loveliness.
Throughout “Tintern Abbey,” Wordsworth catalogues a widespread assortment of sensations, a few troublesome, but most exciting and encouraging. He makes it clear that appreciation of natural beauty is not merely visual hedonism, but that by contemplating nature he is able to reach a higher state of being. The poet’s words perhaps reflect the rather ideal life he lead, but no one with a touch of Romanticism in their heart can deny the stirring strength within the central meditation in this poem:
“. . .For I have learned/
To look on nature . . .
. . .And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused.” (ll. 88 – 96)
For Wordsworth, communing with nature not only leads to the gratification of pleasure, but moves him to the depths of poetic and nobler thought. In fact, the loveliness of nature provides for Wordsworth a moral compass as convincing and powerful for him as the Bible would be for a devout Christian.
“Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; . . .
- Both What they half create,
And what perceive [is]
The anchor of my purest thoughts . . .
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.” (ll. 102 – 111)
With no inhibitions whatsoever, Wordsworth commits himself to the profession that when you look at nature with the imagination, it can make you not only a better person, but a more spiritual, more complete being.
This consideration of the potent marriage of nature and imagination leads Wordsworth to a striking, and even controversial, conclusion: that he is a ‘worshipper of nature’ (l. 152). The pastoral landscape is far beyond a pretty getaway for William Wordsworth: it is a kind of environmental church. It provides a paradigm from which he can draw the most profound of truths, that by pondering the magnificence of Creation, you can see the Creator with clarity, and that by the conduit of imagination, you can come to a higher, even deific reality.
“For she can so inform
The mind that is within us . . .
. . .That all which we behold
Is full of blessings.” (ll. 25 – 34)
The American word for Romanticism, namely, transcendentalism, is perhaps ultimately a better word for their ideologies, considering Wordsworth’s view of touching the divine through our environment. The truly appealing aspect of this poetic faith, though, is that it is not restricted to any single place or person; anyone, at any time, can walk outside and consider the beauty that surrounds us. And if we are willing to look at it with more than our senses, with imagination, the highest of senses, then we too, like Wordsworth, can see beyond this world and into the divine.
