An Analysis of Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey
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Generally speaking, Wordsworth’s "Tintern Abbey" has been seen in relation to many an aspect of his poetic career. First of all, it is said to be a historical record of the different stages of the growth of his poetic imagination, and that is why some view it as a miniature epic that anticipates his epical endeavour with "The Prelude",
Wordsworth’s
Tintern Abbey inaugurated wonderfully the functional device, which he later
called “two consciousness”: a scene is revisited, and the remembered landscape,
“the picture of the mind” is superimposed on the picture before the eye. As the
two landscapes fail to match, they set a problem, “a sad perplexity”, which
compels the poet to the meditation. As Wordsworth now stands on the bank of the
river Wye, he comes to the final realization of his relation to Nature and of
his concept of the relation between man and Nature, in general, and above all
of his ontological standing, both as a human being and as a poet. That is why
he is found here thinking of nature not only as a painter, but as a philosopher
too. In his scheme of thought the human world is connected with the divine
world by the way of the world of Nature. In his Romantic vision the world of
man—pastoral forms and plots of cottage ground—merges and becomes one in the
spatial expansion with the world of Nature, which is finally connected with the
inorganic quite of the sky. The suggestion is made through an intensification
of the dominant aspect of the given landscape, its seclusion, which also
implies a deepening of the mood of seclusion in the poet’s mind. To Wordsworth,
the landscape of the Wye declares the unity of the universe. In this it appears
that his philosophy is essentially quietistic and almost like that propounded
in the Upanishdas . Again, in his indirect reference to the three planes of
being—the natural, the human and the divine—Wordsworth adumbrates the great
Romantic vision of cosmic unity. Thus Wordsworth also prepares the reader for
the similar progression of his attitudes to and understanding of Nature in his
own life.
Wordsworth
traces in this poem the history of his evolving attitude to Nature basically
for two reasons: on the surface, this is an autobiographical confession, and on
the higher level of thought he wants to give validity of experience to the kind
philosophical truths he seems to have found. This is, however, inextricably
related to the growth of his poetic career. It is found that in his earlier
poetry, Nature had no exotic significance. A humanitarian phase had followed
‘exemplified’ at its best in The
Ruined Cottage. After a brief period of disillusionment, he became convinced
that the universal human malady in mind and heart could be cured only by
Nature’s “holy plan”. So this poem may be said to illustrate a love, which is
almost religious in conception; “the sentiment of being spread over all that
moves and all that seemeth still”; the experience of communion with the
universal spirit; the moral influence of Nature even in absence. Furthermore,
Wordsworth’s philosophy is almost pantheistic as he alludes to the link a
pantheist sees between Nature and the lot of mankind, which he tries to
ameliorate.
Wordsworth expounds these views not in
isolation from experience but as organically related to his own experience in
the lap of Nature. When he had visited the Wye as a mere boy, he enjoyed the
abundance of Nature instinctively. A fuller commentary on this stage can be
found in the Book I and Book II of The Prelude. At that stage of life, enjoyment of Nature was coarse
and animalistc:
“…when first
I came along these hills; when like a roe
I bounded o’er the mountains…”
Wordsworth then describes his impressions
he got during his second visit in 1793. At this period of life his appreciation
of Nature had been largely emotional. At that time he ahd been
“…more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads than one
Who sought the thing he loved.”
Here speaks simultaneously of vision and
emotion because his perception of the natural objects brought immediate joy to
him. It had then for him no appeal that was “unborrowed from the eye”.
In the third stage Wordsworth find that the “aching
joys” and “dizzy raptures” are no more, but their place has been taken by other
gifts of Nature. As he looks on Nature now, he hears in it
“…the still and sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample
power
To chasten and subdue.”
He is satisfied now because he feels
the presence of the divine power in everything,
“Whose dwelling is the light of the setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.”
Wordworth seems to have emerged here as a
mystic in his all-pervading pantheism. But he differs from the conventional
mysticism because unlike a mystic he can communicate his experiences in Nature
to the readers. Now he understands that he is the lover of Nature, “Of all the
mighty world/ Of eye, and ear”. Now his soul is relieved
“ …to recognise
In nature …
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the
nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and
soul
Of all my moral.”