Tintern Abbey

By: William Wordsworth Lecture 04

Nor perchance,If I were not thus taught, should I the moreSuffer my genial spirits to decay:

Poet wonders what would have happened to him if he didn’t recognize nature’s blessings!

For thou art with me here upon the banksOf this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,My dear, dear Friend

Dorothy is introduced here, as a friend.

and in thy voice I catchThe language of my former heart, and readmy former pleasures in the shooting Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little whileMay I behold in thee what I was once, My dear, dear Sister!

In her youth, Wordsworth finds his former pleasures.

and this prayer I make,Knowing that Nature never did betrayThe heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,Through all the years of this our life, to leadFrom joy to joy:

Because Nature never betrays, it always gives joy.Nature personified as guide.

for she can so informThe mind that is within us, so impressWith quietness and beauty, and so feedWith lofty thoughts,

Different roles of Nature: a teacher, a nurse and as an art.

that neither evil tongues,Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor allThe dreary intercourse of daily life,Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturbOur cheerful faith, that all which we beholdIs full of blessings.

Nature protects us from every mischief, and prevents our hearts from being polluted or corrupted.

Therefore let the moonShine on thee in thy solitary walk;And let the misty mountain-winds be freeTo blow against thee:

Wordsworth’s love for his sister.Tells her to seek Nature’s blessings, and experience

Nature like his former days.

and, in after years,When these wild ecstasies shall be maturedInto a sober pleasure; when thy mindShall be a mansion for all lovely forms, Thy memory be as a dwelling-placeFor all sweet sounds and harmonies;

He believes that later she too will find mature pleasures.‘mind a mansion for lovely forms’ – store house of beauteous

formsConnects the mind and the memory

oh! then,If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughtsOf tender joy wilt thou remember me,And these my exhortations!

These present joys will always give her strength

Nor, perchance — If I should be where I no more can hearThy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleamsOf past existence — wilt thou then forgetThat on the banks of this delightful stream We stood together;

Wordsworth asks her to remember him even when he is no more.

and that I, so longA worshipper of Nature, hither cameUnwearied in that service: rather sayWith warmer love —oh! with far deeper zealOf holier love.

Poet declares himself a ‘worshipper of Nature’ He came here in servitude and in knowledge of

Nature’s immense blessings.

Nor wilt thou then forget,That after many wanderings, many yearsOf absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,And this green pastoral landscape, were to meMore dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!

The scene was memorable for its own sake and herself.Previous memory was of the place alone, but now Dorothy has

become part of it.

Themes

• Poems explore the impact of passing time on his relationship with Nature.

• Wordsworth’s intellectual and spiritual transformation

• Wordsworth’s deepening relationship with nature- his mysticism & pantheism

panthism

• Idea of divinity of Nature – Nature is divine‘pan’= everything‘theos’ = God

• Irish writer, John Toland, first used the term in 1705, deriving it from Dutch philosopher Spinoza.

• Spinoza belived that everything that exists in Nature is ONE reality. For him God and Nature were two names for the same reality, God is the natural world and have no personality.

• Paulo Cohelo- modern writer uses the idea in his works

• Root of the philosophy is the ‘All is one and Interconnected’

• Harrison (1999): ‘In essence, pantheism holds that there is no divinity other than the universe.

• Different from Islamic view

Islamic pantheism

• Associated with Ibn e Arabi born in the year 560 A.H. (1165 A.D.)

• Islamic view of ‘wahdat al wujud’ says there is God and nothing else. For a sufi, there is only ONE reality or Haq – God.

• Islamic view is that this universe or nature and everything within it are manifestations of different attributes of God.

Wordsworth’s pantheism

• Wordsworth does not talk about the personal or biblical God,

• He talks about the Spirit of the universe that is everywhere.

• It is the result of his deep association with Nature, that he sees Nature as having influence in our lives.

Words worth’s relationship with Nature

• He describes the influences of Nature on individual rather than a simple observation of natural phenomena.

• In both the poem, when nature was described the main focus was the response of the poet himself to nature.

• In wordsworth’s philosophy man is inseparable from nature and shares a bond of unity with nature.