William Wordsworth

and “Tintern Abbey”

William Wordsworth of England1770-1850

Influence of Early Life

•Both parents had died by the time Wordsworth was 13

• John Wordsworth, his father, was very educated and liberal and encouraged his children to be the same

•Wordsworth’s hometown was in the beautiful Lake District prompting his early love and appreciation of nature, along with imagination

Influence of Other Life Experiences

•Visit to France during the French Revolution

•Friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

•Affair with Annette Vallon while aboard that produced his first daughter

•Death of several of his children

Influence of Nature and Dorothy

• Believed all individuals have potential to reach a transcendental understanding of nature through his or her relationship with nature

• Believed nature was the glue that binds everything together

•Dorothy, Wordsworth’s sister, was very important to him

• She experienced nature at an early age and her thoughts and impressions influenced Wordsworth

“Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on

Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July

13,1798”“Tintern Abbey” is the

cumulative reactions of the narrator as he returns to a

place he has not seen in five years. The narrator reflects over the changes of the past

years and the changes to come.

Setting• 13 July 1798 on the

banks of the Wye above Tintern Abbey

• Tintern Abbey: Abbey left to decay in 1536 by Henry VII

•Wye River: 5th largest river in the UK forming the border between England and Wales

The Basics• Published as a lyrical

ballad in Lyrical Ballads

• Assumed the narrator is Wordsworth himself

•Dorothy is referred to as “Friend” rather than sister

•Does not actually take place within Tintern Abbey

Breaking It Down• Stanza 1 begins in the present as the speaker

describes the beauty around him

• Stanza 2 departs to the past as the speaker remembers how scenes of the place sustained him the past 5 years

• Stanza 3 returns to the present as the speaker contemplates his connection to nature

• Stanza 4 tells the reader the speaker’s joy at being back in such a wonderful place and his happiness at the new memories being formed

• Stanza 5 explains to the reader the connection the speaker feels between nature and his sister

Literary Devices• The tone of “Tintern Abbey” is nostalgic and of hope

of the future

• “to them [memories] I may have owed another gift...a blessed mood”

• “therefore am I still a lover of the meadows and the woods and mountains

• Imagery plays a vital part as Wordsworth paints vivd pictures of the scenery

• “waters rolling from their mountain springs”

• “the mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood”

More Devices•Symbolism is prevalent through the poem though

one stands out

• In a poem about maturity, unripe fruit symbolizes the young speaker’s transformation into a “ripened” speaker towards the end.

•Personification is used to bring the Wye River to life as the speaker’s spiritual place, a living place

• “O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer tho’ the woods, how often has my spirit turned to thee!’’

More Devices• There are multiple themes in “Tintern Abbey”, most

encompassing memories and their effects on life

• “felt in blood, and felt along the heart”

• “nor wilt thou then forget, that after many wanderings, many years of absence”

• The diction and form of the poem tend to hold the reader and impact him in a personal way

• blank verse or un-rhymed iambic pentameter

• Diction is forthright and spoken from the heart in a plain manner

Final Thoughts

“Tintern Abbey” focuses on memories, specifically childhood memories and

their effect on adulthood. It addresses the pure relationship with nature in childhood and how that relationship

gradually dissipates in adulthood, but maturity of the mind in adulthood

compensates for the loss of the purity.

Photos and artwork representing Tintern

Abbey• E 138 Wordsworth Tintern Abbey.pdf

Works Cited• http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/296

• http://kirjasto.sci.fi/wordwor.htm

• http://incompetech.com/authors/wordsworth/

• http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Literary/Wordsworth.htm

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jwordworth.htm

• http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.htm

• http://www.english.upen.edu/~jenglish/Courses/Spring2001/040/preface1802.html

• http://www.shmoop.com/wordsworth/family.html

• http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/audio/mp3/wordworth_tintern_abbey.mp3

• http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/tabbey.html

• http://www.gradesaver.com/wordsworth-poetical-works/study-guide/section5/