Poetry Explication: Tintern Abbey
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Poetry Explication: Tintern Abbey
William Wordsworth’s idyll poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” is an expository poem, illustrating Wordsworth’s return to the banks of Wye after spending years living in the city.Upon his return, he meditates on how we change as we age. “Tintern Abbey” describes his experience as he returns to nature after he has developed a new appreciation for it, exalting it’s beauty unscathed by man and the spiritual tranquility of it. Through reverential and contemplative tones, poem proffers the value that nature inspires the purest thought.
The poem’s diction is marked by formal yet conversational diction, connotative language, vivid, descriptive imagery, and frequent use of periodic sentences, which contribute to the poem’s reverential and contemplative tone. The use of periodic sentences in the text, as seen in lines 35 – 41, are especially helpful in the creation of the feeling of contemplation. Wordsworth is describing the lightening of “that blessed mood” (line 37), however, he takes a moment between the start or the sentence and the end to explore exactly what that mood entails; to contemplate the humanity of it. In the second stanza of the poem, we see an example of conversational diction as he addresses the actual river Wye. “How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee” (line 35) is his exclamation, as he explains how he longed for the river during his time living in the city. Descriptive imagery is apparent throughout the poem, but one good example is found in the third stanza, where he speaks of his childhood along the river, explaining how he “bounded o’er the mountains, by the sides of deeps rivers, and the lonely streams.” (line 68 – 69). This creates a larger than life image of a child exploring nature.
The poem’s texture is further marked similes and apostrophe, which communicate the overall theme of the truth and understanding of humanity that is revealed through the peace and beauty found in nature. Wordsworth uses similes to help make his points more relatable and communicate his themes more clearly. In Lines 23 – 24, he creates a beautiful comparison of his absences from the nature to “a landscape to a blind man’s eye” (line 24). He has not been able to see the “beauteous forms” (line 22) along the river Wye. In Lines 67 – 70, the descriptive imagery which helped create the tone