Tintern Abbey (poem)

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Tintern Abbey, 1993
Tintern Abbey, 1993

"Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, July 13, 1798" (often abbreviated to Tintern Abbey or Lines) is a poem written by William Wordsworth. The poem's seeming emphasis on nature makes it a characteristic work of the Romantic movement but belies its true message of revolution and dark deeds from the mentioned anniversary date. Tintern Abbey is an abbey abandoned in 1536 and located in the Welsh county of Monmouthshire.The poem is of particular intrest in that Wordsworth's descriptions of the Banks of Wye outline his general philosiphies on nature.

The significance of this poem is that it is the last poem in Lyrical Ballads - it is a poem of re-visitation, both to the central themes of the Advertisement, and to nature itself. Wordsworth is revisiting this place after 5 years of absence, and we learn that he has changed since then ('I cannot paint what then I was'). He is revisiting a place where once he had no knowledge of the sublime, and no 'feeling' towards nature; now however he has.

The poem is written in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). Though Wordsworth wrote this poem in 1798, the subject is of what he remembers from 1793. This poem takes place in the poet's mind. Wordsworth's emphasis in the beginning of "five years have passed…" and constantly using the word "again" shows that time is important for this poem.

Contents

[edit] Structure

  • Lines 1-24: . Revisiting the natural beauty of the Wye area filled the poet with "tranquil restoration".
  • Line 37: By sublime, Wordsworth means a type of divine creativity/inspiration.
  • Lines 35-49: Here Wordsworth goes on to say that the gifts given to him by the abbey (the tranquil restoration, etc.) have in themselves given him another gift, one that is even more sublime. Nature itself has relieved Wordsworth of a giant burden. This burden is the questioning of God/religion/purpose of life.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

  • Woodring, Carl. "Wordsworth". Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.

[edit] External links

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