Does the poem “Tintern Abbey” fulfill the expectations that Wordsworth sets up in his Preface to the collection? How do you connect the claims about poetry from the Preface to this particular poetic performance? If you don’t think the poem lives up to the expectations set in the Preface, explain why. Where, possible, include quotations from the poem.
You might focus on any of the following assertions from the Preface (or another assertion of your choosing):
“Poetry fits to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state of vivid sensation.”
“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling.”
Poetry expresses the “passions of men [as they] are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.”
“Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science.”
Tintern Abbey fulfills the expectations that Wordsworth sets up in his Preface to the collection as a poem about memory. Wordsworth is able to immortalize the beauty that he sees when he revisits the location by describing its beauty and is able “to illustrate the manner in which our feelings and ideas are associated in a state of excitement”.
Wordsworth illustrates the feelings of “tranquil restoration” the location has offered him throughout his 5 years of being away and relying on the memories while living in “the din/ Of towns and cities”. He recalls the ability of memories of the beauty of the location to dissolve “the heavy and the weary weight/ Of all this unintelligible world” and of the “serene and blessed mood” that it puts him in. Wordsworth temporarily changes from “I” to “we” in order to include and share with the reader nature’s ability to “see into the life of things”, which is a large part of what he believes a Poet does — share experiences with others.
Nice Work Rachel!
“Wordsworth illustrates the feelings of “tranquil restoration” the location has offered him throughout his 5 years of being away and relying on the memories while living in “the din/ Of towns and cities”. He recalls the ability of memories of the beauty of the location to dissolve “the heavy and the weary weight/ Of all this unintelligible world”
You are quite right. I like the way you have called attention to words expressive of emotion. One of the most difficult things about this poem is understanding the way that time works. The poem begins in the present and then moves to the speaker’s description of the solace the memory of the landscape has provided him in the past five years. He will go on to remember his interaction with nature even further back, in his “boyish days.” One of the things the speaker is trying to do is understand the way in which he has changed over time.