Write the introduction and explanation of the poem entitled Tintern Abbey.

Ans.

Introduction to the Poem

The poem, entitled Lines Composed a few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour was first published in Lyrical Ballads in 1799. Wordsworth, then, was at the pinnacle of his carcer. As we know through his other poems, the poet was upset by the result of the French Revolution. He found solace in Nature. He, therefore, visited Tintern Abbey in 1793. The Abbey is about ten miles away from the spot where River Wye joins Severn. Wye’s journey is through central Wales and South West England and through high hills. In the valley there are ruins of Tintern Abbey. It was this Abbey that the poet along with his sister visited in 1793. His sister and he were filled with great joy. Rocks, hills, woods fascinated him.

Five years later he again visited the River Wye with his sister, Dorothy, on 13th July, 1793. This time there came a sea change in Wordsworth’s attitude towards Nature. It became mystical. It was after his return from the Abbey that he composed this famous poem, “I began upon leaving Tintern after crossing the Wye, and concluded it just as I was entering Bristol in the evening, after a ramble of four or five days with my sister.” It is a poem of self-disclosures. The poet himself declares his change in his feelings and attitude towards Nature. Various stages of his outlook towards Nature are first seen in it. At places it is very difficult to understand it. The title of the poem, however, is not proper, declares the poet himself. It was composed not above but below the Tintern Abbey.

Explanations

(1) Nor less, I trust,

To them I may have owed another gift,

Of aspect more sublime; 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.

Reference to the Context: These lines come from Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey. He is standing on the banks of River Wye after a gap of five years and is enjoying the beauty of Nature whose memory has been going on giving joy to the poet.

Explanation: Wordsworth accepts that he is obliged to the scenes of Nature for a loftier aspect and that is his state of happiness. This temper of his mind comes forward to unburden the poet of the unintelligible mysteries of this universe. It, again, brings calm and brightness to the mind. His soul has shaken off and cast away the weight of the worldly secrets that have all along been vexing him. It is not a small gift of the Natural objects.

Notes: For Wordsworth, natural objects are not simple inanimate things. He feels an unseen presence in them that makes the poet feel very light so far as the worldly things are concerned.

(2) 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:

While with an eye made quiet by the power

Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

We see into the life of things.

Reference to the Context: As above. He comes here after a gap of five years but it has been compensated by the happiness and calm that the memories of these scenes have been bringing to him. He is obliged to it.

Explanation: In this way, throughout these five years, their memories created the mood that has always been very calm and full of blessings. This mood led the poet to a very high state of mind. At last he reaches that point where even the breathing system and blood circulation comes to a halt. The body, then, is motionless. The poet is quite oblivious of his physical self. It seems he is nothing but the soul. There he sees harmony in everything of Nature and is able to see the innerself of Nature, its real life i.e., the poet has so much concentration that there becomes a great harmony, communion, between Nature and the Soul of the poet.

Notes: 1. What a transformation Nature brings to her real lover is clear from these lines of Wordsworth. The burden of worldliness is shaken off by her.

2. Whenever a man is lost in the concentration of Nature, it seems that he has lost his body (so unburdened he is) and he remains only a ‘living soul’.

(3) The sounding cataract

Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock,

The mountains, and the deep and gloomy woods,

Their colours and their forms, were then to me

An appetite; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, or any interest

Unborrowed from the eye.

Reference to the Context: These famous lines occur in the poem entitled Tintern Abbey by W. Wordsworth. He is standing on the banks of River Wye, enjoying the Nature after a gap of five years, For the poet, then, Nature was all in all.

Explanation: Describing his condition seeing the Natural scenes, the poet says that five years ago, in 1793, the falling noisy waterfall came to his mind on and on. As the strong emotion overpowers a man so did the Nature. He was attracted by every Natural object-may it be a mountain, high hillock or the dense forest. They haunted the poet day and night. He could never do away with their colour and forms. They themselves were very attractive and charming. They needed no ulterior imagination. All the objects were beautiful. They, in their bodily forms, influenced the poet. In other words he drank the beauty of Natural objects through his eyes. That is, five years ago, Wordsworth’s love for Nature was purely sensuous.

Notes: It is the universal fact that a novice is always influenced by the beautiful things through his senses. It is later on that it enters into its soul. So was the case with William Wordsworth.

(4) That time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more;

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint 1, nor mourn, nor murmur, other gifts

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompense.

Reference to the Context: As above. He visited this place five years ago when Nature to him was ‘an appetite’ and natural scenes haunted him ‘like a passion’.

Explanation: The poet says that that stage of his love of Nature is over. When he used to have unbearable happiness from Nature is gone. Pleasures that would make the poet feel dizzy are no longer there. Still he is not feeling sorry for this loss (of deriving pleasure from Nature). He does not make any complaint for it. This loss has been compensated. Instead of youthful and sensuous pleasures the poet has got other types of pleasures. In place of sensuous pleasures the poet is getting spiritual pleasures. It is no minor achievement. Rather it is a nobler gift.

Note: For Wordsworth, as for any other youth, the pleasure was sensuous in the beginning. With the maturity of his age he has started seeing within the things. He now gets spiritual pleasure. It is no mean compensation.

(5) For I have learned

To look on Nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing often times

The still, sad music of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue.

Reference to the Context: As above. Standing on the banks of the River Wye, the poet is thinking of his past when he loved Nature passionately. That state is changed.

Explanation: Now the poet’s attitude towards Nature is not like his youthful one when he was loving her blindly. Now his attachment with her is calm and rational. He has started listening to the grave music of the people being crippled under poverty and injustice. This music of sufferings of humanity does not seem rough and harsh nor this music has any ill effect on his nerves. On the contrary the poet has been taught by these groanings of humanity to be thoughtful about them. ‘Sad music’ attracts the post all the more towards humanity. It is purifying and sober effect on the poet. His soul does not feel so much vehemence of sorrow now.

Notes: 1. These lines clearly show the change in the poet’s attitude towards Nature. In the beginning his love for her is of thoughtless youth’ which, with the passage of time has changed into a sober one.

2. It is said that the Romantic poet was quite unconscious of the tears of humanity. He sang the songs of his own self. These lines obviously declare quite the contrary.

(6) And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts: a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:

Reference to the Context: As above. The poet, along with his sister Dorothy, is standing on the banks of River Wye, thinking and comparing his attitude towards Nature of the present day with that of five years back. Then he looked at the surface of Nature. Now, with his advanced age, he looks at her soul.

Explanation: In these lines Wordsworth goes a step further. He is now feeling the presence of an invisible being that almost stirs him with joy of sublime thoughts. That Divine Presence seems to pervade everything. Its presence is found in the light of the sunsets, the ocean, ever moving air, sky and the mind of a man.

Notes: 1. Here we see quite a different attitude of Wordsworth towards Nature. He is completely changed now from what he was five years ago. Now he has become a mystic to see the Divine presence everywhere.

2. These lines are the example of Wordsworth’s Pantheism. Nature, for him, is an exhibition of Divine Spirit. This feeling he often expresses at other places as well.