20. Wordsworth's Poems
(Tintern Abbey & Immortality Ode)
- for TSPSC JL/DL
Biography:
Wordsworth (1770-1850)
He was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland
in Lake District on 7th April, 1770. The democratic ideals of French
Revolution inspired him. He fell in love with a French girl Annette Vallone,
and had a daughter. He had a sister named Dorothy, with whom he lived at
Grasmere. In 1802 he married his cousin Mary Hutchinson. He was made Poet
Laureate in 1843.
According to Keats “His Poetry is
Egoistic Sublime”. He was abused and criticized by Jeffery of the
Edinburgh Review. He died of a chill on April 23, 1850 at Rydal Mount at his
home and was buried in the Grasmere Churchyard. He was the “highest priest
of Nature” and regarded as “Patriarch of Letters”. He was universally esteemed as the “Grand Old Man
of English letters”.Mathew Arnold
says, “His poetry is the reality, his philosophy is the illusion”
1. Descriptive Sketches
2.
An Evening Walk – both were his early poems published
in the university.
3.
Lyrical Ballads (1798) – Regarded as “Romantic Manifesto”
there were 23 poems in this book. Coleridge contributed 4 poems. The first poem
is Coleridge’s : “The Rime of Ancient Mariner” and the
last poem is Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”.
4.
Preface to
Lyrical Ballads (1800) – prose work,
which is considered a piece of criticism. In his “Theory of Poetic Diction”
he advocated to use common language in poetry. He says “Poet is a man speaking to men”. ‘Poetry is the
breath and finer spirit of all knowledge’.; ‘Poetry is the first and last of
all knowledge’; ‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings taking its origin from emotions recollected on tranquility’
5. The Prelude(1805)– Subtitle is “Growth of a Poet’s
Mind”. It is an autobiographical poem of 14 books. It is a complete record of
his development from his childhood days to the period of maturity. It was
published in 1850 after his death. He
coined the term “Spots of Time” (i.e., Ordinary events described as
extraordinary.)Famous lines: “Bliss was it
in that dawn to be alive”(about the early years of French Revolution).
6.
Recluse – the Prelude was intended to form a
part of this work, which was never completed.
7.
The Excursion – part of recluse, unfinished poem
runs in 9 books. It is based on the poet’s love for nature.
8.
Two Volumes of
Poems(1807) – his remarkable
lyrics included in these two volumes are:
1. The Solitary Reaper, - melodious
song sung by a Scottish girl while reaping.
2. I Wandered Lonely asa Cloud. -Known as Daffodils
3. Ode on the Intimations of Immortality
-from Recollection of Early Childhood,
4. Resolution and Independence
5. Ode to Duty.
Other Great Poems
1.
The Sparrow’s
Nest
2.
My Heart Leaps Up-
Also known as
‘Rainbow’. Famous line in it:“The
child is the father of the man”
3.
To the Cuckoo
4.
The Affliction of
Margaret or Ruined Cottage
5.
Laodamia - based on
Trojan War.
6.
Michael
7.
Character of
Happy Warrior
8.
The
Cumberland Begger
9.
Leech-gatherer
10. It is a beauteous evening calm and
free -sea side walk with his illegitimate daughter Caroline.
Sonnets of Wordsworth: He wrote 523 sonnets. In his sonnets he mainly
follows the Petrarchan Form.
1. Upon Westminster Bridge
2. On Milton
3. The world is too much with us.
Play: “Borderers(1795-97)”– his only
verse drama(tragedy)William
Wordsworth, along with Robert Southey and Samuel Coleridge, is one of the
"Lakeland Poets," a group that is widely credited with beginning the
English Romantic Movement. The movement was characterized by a rejection of the
Enlightenment, which focused on reason, logic, and structure. Romanticism, on
the other hand, focuses on emotion and imagination. Often the poets are called
"nature poets" because of their emphasis on man's connection to
nature. Wordsworth addressed this connection in poems such as "Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,""Ode; Intimations of
Immortality," and "I wandered lonely as a cloud." The stress
placed on the importance of imagination and the sublime in the English Romantic
Movement subsequently inspired the American Romantic Movement, which was headed
by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and followed up by Herman
Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, among others. The most famous poets of the
English Romantic Movement are William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, William
Blake, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats.
Wordsworth's
poetry is distinguished by his straightforward use of language and meter and
his natural and often colloquial themes and imagery. This is not to say,
however, that Wordsworth's ideas are simple. He weaves several ideas throughout
his poetic works, including the importance of the natural world,
transcendentalism and interconnectedness, religion, morality, mortality, memory
and the power of the human mind.
Wordsworth began
publishing in 1793, at the age of 23, with a collection of poetry about a tour
he took in the Swiss Alps - Descriptive Sketches. In 1798 Wordsworth and
Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems anonymously. In
1800 the two published another edition of Lyrical Ballads that included
Wordsworth's famous preface highlighting several of the key ideas of the
Romantic Movement. Wordsworth published Elegiac Stanzas and Poems in two
volumes in 1803 and 1805 respectively, followed by The Excursion in 1812,
Collected Poems in 1815, and Peter Bell and The Waggoner in 1819. Wordsworth
published Ecclesiastical Sketches in 1822. After Wordsworth's death, his wife
published Preface, which was previously known only as "Poem for
Coleridge." At the time of his death, Wordsworth was known in England as
the best poet in the world.
Wordsworth's Poetical Works Summary
"A slumber
did my spirit seal"- One
of Wordsworth's Lucy Poems, this piece examines the unpredictable nature of
death. Because Lucy seemed so powerful and full of life, the speaker did not
think she would ever die.
"Composed
upon Westminster Bridge" - This sonnet is unusual in Wordsworth's collection, because it
is about the beauty of a city rather than the beauty of nature.
"I wandered
lonely as a cloud"- The
speaker comes across a gorgeous field of daffodils, and is glad to know that he
will have this memory to look back on during less happy times.
"It is a
beauteous evening" -
The speaker and the daughter he has not seen in ten years take a walk along the
ocean. Even though she doesn't experience nature in the same way he does, the
speaker considers her divine.
"Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" - The speaker and his sister
visit a natural spot that he had visited five years previously, and the speaker
realizes that he experiences nature in a more mature way now. He comments on
how much the memory of his first visit heartened him in his darker moments over
the last five years, and looks forward to bringing this new memory with him
into the future. The speaker is also glad to know that his sister will remember
him after he has died.
"Lines
Written in Early Spring"- In this poem the speaker sits in the middle of nature, and yet
is saddened at the thought of the division between the rest of humanity and
nature.
"London,
1802"- The speaker
asks John Milton to save humanity from itself. He feels that humanity is losing
its connection to nature, and especially its virtues and morality.
"My heart
leaps up when I behold" - In
this very short poem, the speaker suggests that children are actually above adults
because of their close proximity to God and heaven, having recently lived
there. Because of this connection, children are also closer to nature.
"The
Solitary Reaper"- The
speaker comes across a woman working alone on the plains of Scotland. She is singing,
but the speaker can only guess at what she is singing about because he cannot
understand her language. At the end of the poem he is glad to take this new
memory with him.
"The Tables
Turned" - In this poem
the speaker tells his friend to stop reading books and instead go outside and
be a part of nature.
"The world
is too much with us" - In
this rather angry poem, the speaker is disgusted by people who prefer
manufactured goods to the joys of nature. In the end Wordsworth chooses a state
of disillusionment over disconnection from nature.
"Three years
she grew" - This poem
describes the life and death of Lucy. Nature becomes enamored of Lucy and
creates a contract with her: in exchange for enjoyment of the natural world's
gifts, Lucy must die upon reaching maturity.
"We Are
Seven"- The speaker
meets a young girl who had six brothers and sisters before two of them died.
She now lives at home with her mother. When the speaker asks her how many
siblings she has, she repeatedly tells him, "We are Seven," confusing
the speaker, who counts only five.
Wordsworth's Poetical Works Character List
Dorothy
Wordsworth
William
Wordsworth's sister, with whom the poet was very close
John Milton
A great poet who
lived from 1608-1674; most famous for writing Paradise Lost
Lucy
The focus of a
group of poems commonly known as "The Lucy Poems," her true identity
(if she even actually existed) is unknown
Proteus
A sea god who
takes on different forms
The speaker
The common term
used for the narrator of a poem
Triton
A sea god who is
half god, half man
Wordsworth's Poetical Works Themes
Nature
"Come forth
into the light of things, / Let Nature be your Teacher." No discussion on
Wordsworth would be complete without mention of nature. Nature and its
connection to humanity makes an appearance in the vast majority of Wordsworth's
poetry, often holding a poem's focus, and has become the cornerstone of the
Romantic Movement primarily because of him. For Wordsworth, nature is a kind of
religion in which he has the utmost faith. Nature fills two major roles in
Wordsworth's poetry:
1. Even though it
is intensely beautiful and peaceful, nature often causes Wordsworth to feel
melancholy or sad. This is usually because, even as he relishes in his
connection with nature, he worries about the rest of humanity, most of who live
in cites completely apart from nature. Wordsworth wonders how they could
possibly revive their spirits. In the end, however, he often decides that it is
wrong to be sad while in nature: "A poet could not but be gay, / In such
jocund company."
2. Nature also
gives Wordsworth hope for the future. Form past experience Wordsworth knows
that spending time in nature is a gift to his future self, because later, when
he is alone, tired and frustrated in the busy, dirty city, he will be able to
look back on a field of daffodils he once spent time in and be happy again.
Memory
For Wordsworth,
the power of the human mind is extremely important. In several of his poems he
begins in a negative or depressed mood, and then slowly becomes more positive.
The most important use of memory, however, is to maintain connections. For
instance, in poems like "Line Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern
Abbey" and "I wandered lonely as a cloud" Wordsworth is in
nature (his favorite place to be) and he is happy, but he becomes even happier
when he realizes that he never actually has to leave his memories behind. Once
he has returned to the daily gloom of the city, he will be able to remember the
time he spent among nature and make himself happy again: "And then my
heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils."
As Wordsworth
begins to consider his own mortality memory is again a huge comfort, because he
realizes that even after he has died he will be able to live on in the memory
of his family and friends, just as those who have passed on before him are in
his memory. Wordsworth is especially heartened to know that his sister Dorothy,
with whom he spent countless hours, will remember him fondly, carrying him with
her wherever she goes.
Mortality
Wordsworth's
fascination with death frequently shows up in his poetry. The Lucy Poems, for
instance, are a series of poems about a young girl who may or may not have been
a figment of Wordsworth's imagination, and who ultimately dies. Wordsworth
looks at the event from several angles. In "She dwelt among the untrodden
ways" he focuses on the unexpectedness of her death, and the
unpredictability of life and death in general. In "Three years she
grew" Wordsworth creates a fanciful rationale for her death: Nature became
entranced by her and promised to give her an incredible life, but once all of
her promises were fulfilled Lucy had to die. In "We are Seven"
Wordsworth looks at a young girl who had six siblings but now lives at home
with only her mother, because two of her siblings have died and the others have
moved away. The little girl seems not to understand death throughout the poem,
but in the end the reader learns that she may have a clearer understanding than
the speaker. In "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"
Wordsworth is comforted by the thought that he will live on after his death,
because his sister Dorothy will remember him lovingly.
Humanity
One of
Wordsworth's greatest worries is the descent of humanity. As man moves further
and further away from humanity he seems to be losing more and more of his soul.
Often when Wordsworth is in nature he is saddened because he is forced to think
about the people trapped in cities, unable or unwilling to commune with nature.
In "London, 1802," for instance, Wordsworth makes a plea to the poet
John Milton to return and teach humanity how to regain the morality and virtue
it once had. Similarly, in "The world is too much with us" Wordsworth
worries that the world is too full of people who have lost their connection to
divinity, and more importantly, to nature: "Getting and spending we lay
waste our powers, / Little we see in Nature that is ours."
Transcendence and
Connectivity
The idea of
transcendence did not gain full speed until the Romantic Movement moved to
America, but Wordsworth was certainly a fan of the idea long before then.
"Transcendence" simply means "being without boundaries."
For Wordsworth, this means being able to connect with people and things outside
of oneself, especially in terms of nature. It was Wordsworth's supreme
aspiration to metaphorically transcend the limitations of his body and connect
completely with nature. Mankind's difficulty accepting the beauty that nature
has to offer saddened Wordsworth; he found the loss of such a gift difficult to
accept.
Morality
In Wordsworth's
poems, morality doesn't necessarily stem directly from religion, but rather
from doing what is right by oneself, by humanity, and by nature. In
"London, 1802" Wordsworth complains that man's morals are in a state
of constant decline, but the morals he is talking about have more to do with
following the natural process of life - being free and powerful, not tied down
by city living or common thoughts. The most important lesson a person can
learn, according to Wordsworth, is to be true to his own impulses and desires,
but not greedy. A person should be available to help his fellow man, but should
not be consumed by other peoples' needs. He should be in communion with nature,
with humanity, and with himself.
Religion
Religion, while
not as prevalent as in the poetry of the Enlightenment, does have a place in
much of Wordsworth's poetry. Often religion is included simply to help
Wordsworth's more pious readers understand the level of his commitment to and
faith in nature. Wordsworth uses religious imagery and language in his poems in
order to convey his ideas about the power of nature, the human mind, and global
interconnectivity.
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Poem1: Tintern Abbey
Wordsworth's Poetical Works Summary and Analysis of "Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"
Full Title: "Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey; On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye
During a Tour, July 13, 1798"
Often the poem is
simply called "Tintern Abbey." The abbreviated title is effective for
clarity's sake, but it is also misleading, as the poem does not actually take
place in the abbey. Wordsworth begins his poem by telling the reader that it
has been five years since he has been to this place a few miles from the abbey.
He describes the "Steep and lofty cliffs," the "wild secluded
scene," the "quiet of the sky," the "dark sycamore" he
sits under, the trees of the orchard, and the "pastoral farms" with
"wreaths of smoke" billowing from their chimneys.
In the second
stanza Wordsworth tells
his readers that his first visit to this place gave him "sensations
sweet" when he was in the "lonely rooms" of the city. He
intimates that these "feelings... / Of unremembered pleasure" may
have helped him to be a better person, perhaps simply by putting him in a
better mood than he would have been in otherwise:
As have no slight
or trivial influence
On that best
portion of a good man's life,
His little,
nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and
of love. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may
have owed another gift,
Of aspect more
sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the
burthen of the mystery,
In which the
heavy and the weary weight
Of all this
unintelligible world,
Is lightened
Wordsworth goes
on to suggest his spiritual relationship with nature, which he believes will be
a part of him until he dies:
Until, the breath
of this corporeal frame,
And even the
motion of our human blood
Almost suspended,
we are laid sleep
In body, and
become a living soul:
While with an eye
made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and
the deep power of joy,
We see into the
life of things.
In the third
stanza, he begins to
consider what it would mean if his belief in his connection to nature were
misguided, but stops short. Seeming not to care whether the connection is valid
or not, he describes the many benefits that his memories nature give him. At
the end of the stanza he addresses the Wye River: "How oft, in spirit,
have I returned to thee / O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the woods, / How
often has my spirit returned to thee!"
In the fourth
stanza, Wordsworth
begins by explaining the pleasure he feels at being back in the place that has
given him so much joy over the years. He is also glad because he knows that
this new memory will give him future happiness: "in this moment there is
life and food / for future years." He goes on to explain how differently
he experienced nature five years ago, when he first came to explore the area.
During his first visit he was full of energy:
like a roe
I bounded o'er
the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep
rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature
led: more like a man
Flying from
something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the
thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser
pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad
animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in
all.--I cannot paint
What then I was.
The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a
passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and
the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and
their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a
feeling and a love,
That had no need
of a remoter charm,
By thought
supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from
the eye.
Wordsworth
quickly sets his current self apart from the way he was five years ago, saying,
"That time is past." At first, however, he seems almost melancholy
about the change: "And all its aching joys are now no more, / And all its
dizzy raptures." Over the past five years, he has developed a new approach
to nature:
For I have
learned
To look on
nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless
youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad
music of humanity.
As a more
sophisticated and wiser person with a better understanding of the sad
disconnection of humanity, Wordsworth feels a deeper and more intelligent
relationship with nature:
And I have felt
A presence that
disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated
thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far
more deeply interfused...
Wordsworth is
"still / A lover of the meadows and the woods," but has lost some of
his gleeful exuberance. Instead, he views nature as the "anchor of [his]
purest thoughts, the nurse, / The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul /
of all my moral being."
In the fifth and
last stanza, Wordsworth
addresses his sister Dorothy, calling her both "Sister" and
"dear Friend." Through her eyes, Wordsworth can see the wild vitality
he had when he first visited this place, and this image of himself gives him
new life. It is apparent at this point in the poem that Wordsworth has been
speaking to his sister throughout. Dorothy serves the same role as nature,
reminding Wordsworth of what he once was:
...in thy voice I
catch
The language of
my former heart, and read
My former
pleasure in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes.
Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in
thee what I was once,
My dear, dear
Sister!
Wordsworth then
shares his deepest hope: that in the future, the power of nature and the
memories of himself will stay with Dorothy. He is implying that he will die
before she does (even though she is only a year younger), and hopes that in her
memory he will be kept alive:
If solitude, or
fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy
portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy
wilt thou remember me,
And these my
exhortations!
Even as
Wordsworth thinks about dying, he is given new strength and vitality at the
thought that his sister will remember him. He describes the setting vigorously:
Nor, perchance,
If I should be,
where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor
catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past
existence, wilt thou then forget
That on the banks
of this delightful stream
We stood
together; and that I, so long
A worshipper of
Nature, hither came...
At the end of the
poem, Wordsworth combines their current setting with his sister's future memory
of the moment. He is satisfied knowing that she will also carry the place, the
moment, and the memory with her:
Nor wilt thou
then forget,
That after many
wanderings, many years
Of absence, these
steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green
pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both
for themselves, and for thy sake.
Analysis
Published in 1798
in Lyrical Ballads, this poem is widely considered to be one of Wordsworth's
masterpieces. It is a complex poem, addressing memory, mortality, faith in
nature, and familial love. The poem's structure is similarly complex, making
use of the freedom of blank verse (no rhyming) as well as the measured rhythm
of iambic pentameter (with a few notable exceptions). The flow of the writing
has been described as that of waves, accelerating only to stop in the middle of
a line (caesura). The repetition of sounds and words adds to the ebb and flow
of the language, appropriately speaking to the ebb and flow of the poet's
memories.
Divided into five
stanzas of different lengths, the poem begins in the present moment, describing
the natural setting. Wordsworth emphasizes the act of returning by making
extensive use of repetition: "Five years have passed; five summers, with
the length / Of five long winters! and again I hear / These waters..." He
also uses the phrase "once again" twice, both times in the middle of
a line, breaking the flow of the text. It is in this manner that the reader is
introduced to the natural beauty of the Wye River area.
In the second
stanza, Wordsworth
departs from the present moment to describe how his memories of the scene
inspired and sustained him over the past five years. Life away from nature is
described as being "in lonely rooms, and mid the din / Of towns and
cities." Meanwhile, nature is described with almost religious fervor:
Wordsworth uses words such as "sublime,""blessed," and
"serene." Wordsworth refers to a "blessed mood" twice, emphasizing
his spiritual relationship with nature. Interestingly, while Wordsworth uses
many words related to spirituality and religion in this poem, he never refers
to God or Christianity. It seems that nature is playing that role in this poem,
especially at the end of the second stanza, when Wordsworth describes a sort of
transcendent moment:
Until, the breath
of this corporeal frame,
And even the
motion of our human blood
Almost suspended,
we are laid asleep
In body, and
become a living soul:
While with an eye
made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and
the deep power of joy,
We see into the
life of things.
Nature, it seems,
offers humankind ("we") a kind of insight ("We see into the life
of things") in the face of mortality ("we are laid asleep").
Wordsworth lays emphasis on the last line by making it only eight syllables
(four iambs) long, as opposed to ten.
In the third
stanza, Wordsworth
returns to the present and acknowledges that his faith might be in
"vain," but reiterates how important his memories of this landscape
have been to him, addressing the river directly: "O sylvan Wye!" As
in many of his other poems, Wordsworth personifies natural forms or nature as a
whole by addressing them directly (apostrophe).
Wordsworth seems
to value this period of his life, and remembers it with a somewhat nostalgic
air, although he admits that in this simpler time ("The coarser pleasures
of my boyish days"), he was not so sophisticated as he is now. In the
present, he is weighed down by more serious thoughts. He alludes to a loss of
faith and a sense of disheartenment. This transition is widely believed to
refer to Wordsworth's changing attitude towards the French Revolution. Having
visited France at the height of the Revolution, Wordsworth was inspired by the
ideals of the Republican movement. Their emphasis on the value of the
individual, imagination, and liberty inspired him and filled him with a sense
of optimism. By 1798, however, Wordsworth was already losing faith in the
movement, as it had by then degenerated into widespread violence. Meanwhile, as
France and Britain entered the conflict, Wordsworth was prevented from seeing
his family in France and lost his faith in humanity's capacity for harmony.
Wordsworth turns to nature to find the peace he cannot find in civilization.
Wordsworth goes
on to describe a spirit or a being connected with nature that elevates his
understanding of the world:
And I have felt a
presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated
thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far
more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is
the light of setting suns,
And the round
ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky,
and in the mind of man,
A motion and a
spirit, that impels
All thinking
things, all objects of thought,
And rolls through
all things.
This
"presence" could refer to God or some spiritual consciousness, or it
could simply refer to the unified presence of the natural world. In the
interconnectedness of nature, Wordsworth finds the sublime harmony that he
cannot find in humankind, and for this reason he approaches nature with an
almost religious fervor:
Therefore am I
still
A lover of the
meadows and the woods,
And mountains;
and of all that we behold
From this green
earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye and ear,
both what they half-create,
And what
perceive; well pleased to recognize
In nature and the
language of the sense,
The anchor of my
purest thoughts...
In this key
passage, Wordsworth outlines his understanding of consciousness. Like other
Romantic poets, Wordsworth imagines that consciousness is built out of
subjective, sensory experience. What he hears and sees ("of all that we
behold... / of all the mighty world/ Of eye and ear") creates his
perceptions and his consciousness ("both what they half-create, / And what
perceive"). The "language of the sense"--his sensory
experiences--are the building blocks of this consciousness ("The anchor of
my purest thoughts"). Thus, he relies on his experience of nature for both
consciousness and "all [his] moral being."
In the last
stanza, Wordsworth
returns to the present to address his sister Dorothy, and explains that like
his memory of this natural place, her presence offers a kind of continuity in
his life. Although he experiences anxiety about his own mortality, the idea
that Dorothy will remember him and remember this moment after his death
comforts him. Dorothy offers continuity because Wordsworth sees himself in her
(Dorothy was also a poet and the two spent a great deal of time together),
literally seeing his "former pleasures in the shooting lights / Of thy
wild eyes." Wordsworth sees that Dorothy experiences the Wye with the same
enthusiasm as he did five years earlier. Moving into a discussion of the
future, he hopes that Dorothy's memories of this landscape will sustain her in
sad times the way they sustained him, and offers up a "prayer" that
this will be the case:
And this prayer I
make,
Knowing that
Nature never did betray
The heart that
loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the
years of this our life, to lead
From joy to
joy...
Again, Wordsworth
addresses nature with a sort of spiritual faith without actually citing God or
religion. Instead, he focuses entirely on nature and on Dorothy.
In the last lines
of the poem, Wordsworth creates a sort of pact between Dorothy, the natural
environment, and himself, as if trying to establish and capture the memory of
this precise moment forever:
Nor wilt though
then forget,
That after many
wanderings, many years
Of absence, these
steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green
pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both
for themselves, and for thy sake.
With these words,
Wordsworth creates a beautiful illustration of the mechanics of memory. Not
only does he want to remember this moment in this beautiful landscape, but he
also wants Dorothy to remember how much he loved it, and how much more he loved
it because he knew that she would remember it too. Thus, nature is not only an
object of beauty and the subject of memories, but also the catalyst for a
beautiful, harmonious relationship between two people, and their memories of
that relationship. This falls in line with Wordsworth's belief that nature is a
source of inspiration and harmony that can elevate human existence to the level
of the sublime in a way that civilization cannot.
Although the poem
is often referred to simply as "Tintern Abbey," this is misleading
because the poem is actually located "a few miles" away! At the time
the poem was written, Tintern Abbey was already just the ruins of a gothic
cathedral--a stone shell with no roof, carpeted with grass. Although it is a
romantic image, it is not the subject of the poem.
STANZA 1, LINES 1-22 SUMMARY
Lines 1-2
FIVE years have
past; five summers, with the length
Of five long
winters!
The speaker
doesn't open with a description of the view or even an explanation of where he
is, he starts by telling us how much time has passed since he was last here
(and we know from the title that "here" is "a Few Miles above
Tintern Abbey," on the "Banks of the Wye").
And boy does he
tell us. He doesn't just say "five years have past," he really emphasizes
that five years is a super long time by adding up the seasons. Especially the
"five long winters."
Lines 2-4
and again I hear
These waters,
rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft
inland murmur. – Once again
But now he's
there again! So, "once again," the speaker can hear and see all the
beautiful stuff that he remembers from his first visit.
This is where he
starts to describe those impressions, and he starts with what he can hear: the
sound of the "mountain-springs."
Lines 5-8
Do I behold these
steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild
secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more
deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape
with the quiet of the sky.
The speaker
describes the "steep and lofty cliffs." They're just as he
remembered, too.
He uses the word
"again" in these lines, as well, possibly to reinforce the idea that
he's been here before.
Those mountain
cliffs "impress/ Thoughts" of "seclusion," or self-imposed
solitude on the speaker.
"Impress"
seems like a funny word choice. It's a more active verb than you'd expect for
something inanimate, like a cliff. It makes it seem as though the cliffs he's
looking at have some kind of will or volition of their own. Or maybe it just
seems that way to the speaker.
Those cliffs
reach from the landscape below and beyond them up to the sky,
"connect[ing]" everything he's looking at, so the cliffs help to
create a sense of unity to the view he's admiring.
Lines 9-14
The day is come
when I again repose
Here, under this
dark sycamore, and view
These plots of
cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this
season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one
green hue, and lose themselves
'Mid groves and
copses.
Here's that word,
"again," again. We get the picture: you've been here before!
The speaker
"reposes," or relaxes in the shade under a "sycamore" (10)
and lists all of the specific parts of the view that he remembers from the last
trip to the River Wye: the small gardens around the cottages and the groups of
fruit trees which, in the distance, look like "tufts" instead of
individual trees. Because it's still early in the summer, the fruit isn't ripe
yet, so the fruit trees are all the same shade of green as the surrounding
clusters ("groves and copses") of wild trees.
Lines 14-18
These hedge-rows,
hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood
run wild: these pastoral farms,
Green to the very
door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in
silence, from among the trees!
"Once
again," again. He sure wants to emphasize the fact that he's seen all this
before.
The "hedge-rows,"
or planted rows of shrubbery, used to mark property lines or the edge of a
field, look like "little lines" (15) from his vantage point.
He also describes
the hedge-rows as "sportive wood run wild" (16), which seems odd,
given that hedges are planted to keep things in order, so that the fields won't
"run wild."
The speaker then
points out all the farm houses he can see, and then the little "wreaths of
smoke" appearing here and there from the woods.
Hm, so it's not
just a wild landscape. There are signs of human life here, too.
But no sounds of
human life: the smoke goes up "in silence." Apparently the only
sounds he can hear from his vantage point come from the
"mountain-springs" he describes in line 3.
The farms he
describes are "pastoral," which is interesting because the word
"pastoral" can refer either to shepherds (so these are probably sheep
farms), the countryside where shepherds are likely to live (like the
"Banks of the Wye"), or to poetry about shepherds.
Lines 19-22
With some
uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant
dwellers in the houseless woods,
Or of some
Hermit's cave, where by his fire
The Hermit sits
alone.
The "wreaths
of smoke" from line 18 are a bit of a mystery. The speaker imagines that
the smoke could come from the fire of a "vagrant" or wandering person
who's camping out in the "houseless woods."
Or maybe the
smoke is coming from a cave where a "Hermit," or solitary religious
person, has chosen to live.
STANZA 2, LINES 22-49 SUMMARY
Lines 22-24
These beauteous
forms,
Through a long
absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape
to a blind man's eye:
This stanza goes
into a kind of flashback, describing the way the speaker felt during the
"five years" that had passed.
Since his last
visit, the memory of the "beauteous forms," or the awesome view he's
just described, has been so present to him that he could practically see it –
not like the description of a "landscape to a blind man," who
wouldn't be able to imagine it fully.
Lines 25-30
But oft, in
lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and
cities, I have owed to them
In hours of
weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the
blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even
into my purer mind,
With tranquil
restoration:
The speaker often
felt comforted by his memory of those "beauteous forms" when he was
"lonely" or cooped up in the "din" (noise), of "towns
and cities" (25-6).
When he was
feeling totally fried by a long day in the big bad city, he felt the
"beauteous forms" somewhere in his "blood," and then in his
"heart," before it finally went into his "purer mind"
(don't ask us to explain how that works anatomically).
But, however the
"beauteous forms" got into his "blood," he found that the
memory of this view along the Wye could "restore" him to
"tranquility," or calmness (30).
Lines 30-35
– feelings too
Of unremembered
pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight
or trivial influence
On that best
portion of a good man's life,
His little,
nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and
of love.
Remembering the
"beauteous forms" also brought up "feelings" of
"unremembered pleasure," or pleasant things that seemed insignificant
at the time, but are actually really important.
It's the memory
of having done nice things for people, even if each individual act of kindness
was "little, nameless, [or] unremembered" by the person (34).
Lines 35-37
Nor less, I
trust,
To them I may
have owed another gift,
Of aspect more
sublime;
The speaker
thinks that he "may have owed" even more to "them" (i.e.,
the "beauteous forms" that he remembers from his trip to the Wye).
So, besides
acting as a pick-me-up when the speaker was feeling totally run down from
living in the city, the memory of the "beauteous forms" gave him
another "gift" that was even more "sublime," so lofty,
grand, and exalted as to be almost life-changingly spiritual.
Lines 37-41
that blessed
mood,
In which the
burthen of the mystery,
In which the
heavy and the weary weight
Of all this
unintelligible world,
Is lightened:
The
"sublime" gift that the "beauteous forms" gave him was a
"blessed mood" that made the weight of the world seem lighter.
The sentence
structure gets pretty difficult to follow, here: both the "burthen"
(or burden) of the "mystery" and the "heavy and weary weight/ Of
all this unintelligible world" are being "lightened" by the
"blessed mood."
That's an awfully
powerful mood, right there. Suddenly, just by recalling the "beauteous
forms" of the landscape from the banks of the Wye, all of the
"unintelligible," incomprehensible, and "myster[ious]"
aspects of the "world" stop bothering him.
Lines 41-46
– that serene and
blessed mood,
In which the
affections gently lead us on, –
Until, the breath
of this corporeal frame
And even the
motion of our human blood
Almost suspended,
we are laid asleep
In body, and
become a living soul:
The speaker tells
us more about the "blessed mood" created by recalling the
"beauteous forms." He's already in a state in which the "weary
weight" of the "world" has been "lightened," and then
his "affections" take him a step further.
It's not clear
whether the "affections" that he's talking about (42) describe his
feeling for his friends and family or for nature in general, or some
combination of both.
The next step is
that the "affections lead" him to a place where his physical body
(the "corporeal frame") is almost irrelevant. Even his blood has
almost stopped moving in his veins.
So, the physical
body is now irrelevant, or "asleep" (45), so that only the
"soul" (46) matters.
Hm, this seems
kind of like the experience some people describe when they meditate. Only, the
speaker is able to experience that kind of meditative trance just from
recalling the "beauteous forms" of nature.
Notice how
there's a sudden switch in line 42 from the first person singular that he's
been using up until now ("I", "me,""my," etc.) to
the first person plural ("us", "we,""our", etc.).
It's as though the speaker wants us (the reader) to be included in the
meditative trance he's describing.
Lines 47-49
While with an eye
made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and
the deep power of joy,
We see into the
life of things.
The
"eye" is now "quiet," or, to put it another way, the
speaker is no longer aware of his immediate, physical surroundings because of
his meditative, trance-like state.
Now that we're
not distracted by our surroundings, we're able to "see into the life of
things," or, we're able to see things as they really are and figure out
how everything is interconnected in ways that we can't always put into words.
STANZA 3, LINES 49-57 SUMMARY
Lines 49-57
If this
Be but a vain
belief, yet, oh! how oft –
In darkness and
amid the many shapes
Of joyless
daylight; when the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and
the fever of the world,
Have hung upon
the beatings of my heart –
How oft, in
spirit, have I turned to thee,
sylvan Wye! thou
wanderer thro' the woods,
How often has my
spirit turned to thee!
At eight lines,
this is the shortest stanza in the poem, but it's all one long, complicated
sentence. But never fear, Shmoop is here to parse it out with you…
The sentence has
a big, almost parenthetical chunk in the middle, dividing it up (between the
dashes at the end of line 50 and at the end of line 54). Try reading the
sentence leaving out the middle section between the dashes, and then go back
and read the middle part.
The speaker
starts with the hypothetical worry that his whole theory (about how it's
possible for the memories of beautiful things to lead you to a state where you
understand important truths about the world) is totally bogus – a "vain
belief."
Looking to the
last few lines of the stanza, the speaker says that, even if it is bogus, who
cares? Whether it is true or not, he still often ("oft") called out
to the "sylvan," or wooded, river Wye "in spirit."
Back to the
middle section: the speaker describes when, or under what circumstances, he
used to cry out to the river Wye "in spirit." It was when everything
seemed dark and "joyless," even in the "daylight," and when
the "fretful stir," or anxious bustle, of the world was really
getting him down.
So the speaker
seems to be saying that it doesn't matter how bogus the whole "we see into
the life of things" idea really is. It worked for him when he was
depressed, and that's what matters.
STANZA 4, LINES 58-99 SUMMARY
Lines 58-61
And now, with
gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many
recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a
sad perplexity,
The picture of
the mind revives again:
The flashback is
over. The speaker is back to talking about his impressions in his present visit
to the river Wye. This is marked in the poem by the "And now" that
opens the stanza.
The poet's
memories of his first visit are being "revive[d]" by seeing
everything again.
In the process,
though, he's experiencing "somewhat of a sad perplexity." In other
words, he's very "perplex[ed]," or confused, about how his present
impressions match up with his "dim and faint" recollections.
Even though it's
frustratingly "perplex[ing]," he finally manages to
"revive," or reconstruct, the "picture of the mind," and
remember his earlier impressions.
Lines 62-65
While here I
stand, not only with the sense
Of present
pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this
moment there is life and food
For future years.
The speaker looks
out and takes in the view.
He's pleased for
two reasons at the same time. First, because that view is pretty spectacular in
the here and now. Second, because he's already thinking about how, sometime in
the future, he's going to look back on the memory of his present experience
with enjoyment.
Lines 65-67
And so I dare to
hope,
Though changed,
no doubt, from what I was when first
I came among
these hills;
The speaker
"hope[s]" that he'll live to look back on this moment with pleasure.
Then he starts
reflecting on how much he's changed since his first visit (five years before).
Lines 67-70
when like a roe
I bounded o'er
the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep
rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature
led:
It's another
flashback: the speaker is describing himself from five years ago.
(To avoid
confusion, we refer to the speaker's past self as "William," and his
present, speaking self as "the speaker").
Back then,
William leaped and "bounded" (68) all over the place like a
"roe" (67), or deer – just going "wherever nature led"
(70).
Lines 70-72
more like a man
Flying from
something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the
thing he loved.
The speaker says
that William, with all the "bound[ing]" around, seemed to be running
away from something, rather than chasing something "he loved" (72).
The thing
"he loved" is probably nature, but it's not clear who or what the
speaker thinks William was running from.
Lines 72-75
For nature then
(The coarser
pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad
animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in
all.
Here's another of
those sentences divided up by a long parenthetical comment. The speaker says
nature meant everything to William.
The parenthetical
comment that breaks it up is somewhat ambiguous. The speaker says that the
"coarser" (73), less refined or sophisticated "pleasures"
that William enjoyed as a boy, and his "glad animal movements" (i.e.,
the innocent and unreflecting "bound[ing]" through the mountains) are
all over. But it's unclear whether the speaker is saying this about William, or
about his present self. It could be a combination of both.
Lines 75-76
– I cannot paint
What then I was.
The speaker
interrupts himself with a dash to claim that he can't describe his past self in
words. This is kind of ironic, given that that's exactly what he's doing, and
what he's going to continue to do.
Lines 76-83
The sounding
cataract
Haunted me like a
passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and
the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and
their forms, were then to me
An appetite; a
feeling and a love,
That had no need
of a remoter charm,
By thought
supplied, nor any interest
Unborrowed from
the eye.
The speaker has
just said that nature was everything to William, and he does mean everything.
The "sounding cataract" (76), or waterfall, took the place of his
"passion," and the "colours and […] forms" (79) of the
"mountain" and the "wood" were his appetite.
Nature supplied
his "feeling" and "love," too – and without the need for
intellectual "thought," since nature had enough "charm" and
"interest" on its own.
So nature, it
seems, took the place of all of William's physical and emotional desires.
Interesting.
Lines 83-88
– That time is
past,
And all its
aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy
raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor
mourn nor murmur, other gifts
Have followed;
for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant
recompence.
The speaker can
no longer experience the same "aching joys" (84) and "dizzy
raptures" (85) that William could; he can just remember them.
The speaker isn't
going to sweat it, though. He might not experience the "aching joys,"
but he has "other gifts" (86) now that "recompence" (88),
or make up for it.
Lines 88-93
For I have
learned
To look on
nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless
youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad
music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor
grating, though of ample power
To chasten and
subdue.
But all that is
now past.
The speaker has
matured beyond William's unreflecting, un-intellectual, "thoughtless"
appreciation of nature.
Now, when he
looks at nature, he's able to hear "the still, sad music of humanity,"
which seems to mean that he can sense some universal, timeless connection
between nature and all of humanity.
Wait. The speaker
is looking at nature, but looking allows him to hear? Weird. The speaker's
senses are getting all mixed up.
This "still,
sad music," we're told, isn't "harsh" or "grating." It
must be kind of pleasant, actually.
The music is
"power[ful]," though. It can "chasten and subdue" the
speaker, or, in other words, it can make him feel both humbled and calm.
Lines 93-99
And I have felt
A presence that
disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated
thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far
more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is
the light of setting suns,
And the round
ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky,
and in the mind of man;
When he hears the
"still, sad music of humanity," the speaker says that he feels some
kind of "presence" – of what, we're not sure. Nature with a capital
"N"? God? Some indefinable force of good? See the "Themes"
section for more on this.
The
"presence" (whatever it is) "disturbs" the speaker, but in
a good way. The "presence" makes the speaker lift his
"thoughts" to higher things.
The
"presence" also gives the speaker a sense that there's
"something" like a divine presence that exists "deeply
interfused," or blended in with everything around it.
This
"something" lives in "the light of setting suns" (97), in
"the round ocean and the living air" (98), in "the blue
sky" (99), and even "in the mind of man" (99).
This
"something" sounds an awful lot like the "Force" in Star
Wars. It exists in everything in nature, surrounding us, filling us, and
binding the universe together. Only we're not sure that Wordsworth's
"something" has a dark side.
STANZA 5, LINES 100-111 SUMMARY
Lines 100-102
A motion and a
spirit, that impels
All thinking
things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through
all things.
The speaker
defines the "something" with a little more detail. It's "a
motion and a spirit," that "impels," or animates, all things
that think, and that "rolls through all things" (102).
He repeats the
word "all" four times in two lines. He really wants to emphasize that
this "spirit" connects everything.
The more we read,
the more we're convinced that George Lucas read "Tintern Abbey"
before writing Star Wars.
Lines 102-107
Therefore am I
still
A lover of the
meadows and the woods,
And mountains;
and of all that we behold
From this green
earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear,
– both what they half create,
And what
perceive;
This is why the
speaker still considers himself a "lover" of nature. It's because
he's figured out that the "presence" (a.k.a. the
"something" or the "motion" or the "spirit")
connects everything.
So the speaker
loves everything "that we behold/ From this green earth" (104-5),
everything that you can sense with "eye, and ear" (106).
"They,"
in line 106 refers back to the "eye and ear" from earlier in the
line.
So the speaker is
saying that he loves what his "eyes and ears""half create"
(106) as well as "what [they] perceive" (107).
This is odd. We
usually think of our sensory perception of the world – our vision and hearing –
as giving us hard facts about the world around us. But here, the speaker
suggests that our "eyes and ears" somehow "half create" the
things that we see and hear.
Lines 107-111
well pleased to
recognise
In nature and the
language of the sense,
The anchor of my
purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the
guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral
being.
The speaker is
happy to see the "presence" (a.k.a. the "something" or the
"spirit") "in nature and the language of the sense" (in
other words, in his own sense perceptions).
Only this time,
the speaker comes up with yet more ways of referring to the
"presence": he calls it "the anchor of my purest thoughts, the
nurse,/ The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/ Of all my moral
being" (109-111).
The speaker seems
to find it difficult to describe the "presence" he feels in nature.
Up to this point, he's described it as: "a presence" (94),
"something" (96), "a motion and a spirit" (100), "the
anchor of my purest thoughts" (109), "the nurse, the guide, the
guardian of my heart" (109-110), and the "soul of all my moral
being" (111).
Clearly, this
"presence" is very important to the speaker's spirituality if it's
the "anchor" that keeps his "thoughts" pure, as well as the
"guardian of [his] heart" and the "soul" of his "moral
being."
STANZA 6, LINES 111-159 SUMMARY
Lines 111-113
Nor perchance,
If I were not
thus taught, should I the more
Suffer my genial
spirits to decay:
The final stanza
opens with another gearshift. The speaker says that even if he weren't
"thus taught" – even if he hadn't learned about the
"presence" in nature – he still wouldn't "suffer his genial
spirits to decay." In other words, he wouldn't allow his natural sympathy
and kindness to go to waste.
Lines 114-121
For thou art with
me here upon the banks
Of this fair
river; thou my dearest Friend,
My dear, dear
Friend; and in thy voice I catch
The language of
my former heart, and read
My former
pleasures in the shooting lights
Of thy wild eyes.
Oh! yet a little while
May I behold in
thee what I was once,
My dear, dear
Sister!
And here's the
reason why he won't let his "genial spirits" go to waste. It's
because "thou art" with him on the banks of the river Wye.
What? The speaker
isn't alone? He's been wandering around the banks of the river for how long,
and without mentioning his companion?
He calls her his
"dearest Friend" (115), his "dear, dear Friend" (116), and
his "dear, dear Sister" (121). Wordsworth's sister was named Dorothy.
From these lines we can tell that he really likes her.
He says that her
"voice" (116) reminds him of the way he used to feel ("the
language of my former heart"), and her "wild eyes" (119) remind
him of his "former pleasures" (118).
So the speaker
seems to be saying that present-day Dorothy reacts to nature in the same way
that William did when he was here five years ago.
He says that he
can see his past self (a.k.a. "William") in her.
Lines 121-134
and this prayer I
make,
Knowing that
Nature never did betray
The heart that
loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the
years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy:
for she can so inform
The mind that is
within us, so impress
With quietness
and beauty, and so feed
With lofty
thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments,
nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings
where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary
intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er
prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful
faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.
The speaker
"pray[s]" that he can continue to see his former self in his sister.
Wait, who's he
going to pray to? The "presence" (94)? Kind of, but he calls it by
yet another name: "Nature" with a capital "N" (122).
This is one of
the most famous lines of the poem: "Nature never did betray/ The heart
that loved her" (122-3). So, "Nature" will answer the speaker's
prayer because he's a Nature-lover.
"Her
privilege," in line 123, refers to "Nature's privilege."
Nature will
always "lead" (124) us "from joy to joy" (125) through all
our lives. Sounds good to us!
Nature will make
sure that we only have "lofty thoughts" (128), and will keep our
minds full of "quietness and beauty" (127). This is important,
because there's plenty to distract us from the "quietness and
beauty."
The speaker lists
some of the possible distractions: "evil tongues" (128), or mean
gossipy people who talk smack; "rash judgment" (129), or people who
misjudge you; the "sneers of selfish men" (129), or the self-centered
folks who look down on you; and "the dreary intercourse" (131), or
the boring, mind-numbing interactions of "daily life" (131). Phew.
That's a lot of stuff "Nature" needs to protect us from!
But none of those
bad things the speaker lists for us will get the better of us ("prevail
against us," line 132) or take away our "simple faith" that
everything we see is "full of blessings" (134).
Lines 134-142
Therefore let the
moon
Shine on thee in
thy solitary walk;
And let the misty
mountain-winds be free
To blow against
thee: and, in after years,
When these wild
ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober
pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a
mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as
a dwelling-place
For all sweet
sounds and harmonies;
The speaker is so
confident that Nature will answer his "prayer" (from way back in line
121) that he utters what sounds like a blessing or benediction on Dorothy:
"let the moon/ Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;/ And let the misty
mountain-winds be free/ To blow against thee" (134-6).
The speaker wants
Dorothy to experience nature the way that William experienced it five years
ago. He wants her to have the same "wild ecstasies" (138) that
William did.
That way, when
Dorothy "mature[s]" (138) the way he did, her "pleasure" in
nature will become "sober" (139), too – just like the speaker!
Just as the
"beauteous forms" (22) stayed alive in the speaker's memory after
William's boyish "bound[ing]" (68), so too will Dorothy's
"mind" (139) become a "mansion for all lovely forms" (140).
In other words, Dorothy's
memory will be like a huge scrapbook of this visit, just as the speaker's
memory was a scrapbook of his past visit five years ago.
Lines 142-146
oh! then,
If solitude, or
fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy
portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy
wilt thou remember me,
And these my
exhortations!
If all this
happens – if Dorothy's mind gets turned into a scrapbook of her current
impressions – then, later on, "if solitude, or fear, or pain, or
grief" (143) should bother her, she'll be able to look into the scrapbook
of her memory and have "healing thoughts" (144) that will make her
feel better.
Specifically, the
"thoughts" that will "heal" her will be her memories of how
her brother, the speaker, stood next to her with his "exhortations"
(146), or encouragements.The speaker imagines that Dorothy's memories of these
"beauteous forms" (22) will work to soothe her in the future, just as
his memories of them soothed him in the past.
Lines 146-159
Nor, perchance –
If I should be
where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor
catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past existence
– wilt thou then forget
That on the banks
of this delightful stream
We stood
together; and that I, so long
A worshipper of
Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that
service: rather say
With warmer love
– oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love.
Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many
wanderings, many years
Of absence, these
steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green
pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both
for themselves and for thy sake!
The "gleams/
Of past existence" (148-9) that the speaker is seeing in Dorothy's
"wild eyes" are his recollections of the way William reacted to
things, because Dorothy's present reactions are so similar (like in lines
116-120).
Now the speaker
imagines a future after he has died, after he is "where [he] no more can
hear/ Thy voice" (147-8). This could just mean that he's imagining a
future when they're not together anymore, but it seems more dramatic to imagine
that it's after he's dead and she's still alive.He asks Dorothy if she'll
forget having "stood together" (151) on the banks of the Wye after
he's gone.
The question
continues in line 151. He asks if she'll forget that her brother
("I," line 151), who has loved Nature for "so long" (151),
had come back "hither" (152) to the banks of the Wye with an even
deeper love of nature than he felt before.The speaker doesn't need an answer to
his question; of course she won't forget!He seems to forget that he had started
out by phrasing it as a question. The sentence beginning on line 155, "Nor
wilt thou then forget" means "and you won't forget this either!"
She won't forget,
he says, that after all of his "wanderings" and the "many years/
Of absence" (156-7), the view from the banks of the Wye are even more
precious to him than they were before – both for its own sake (because it's
pretty) and for her sake.
Poem2: Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood (1807)
The
child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
(Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up")
I
There was a time when meadow, grove,
and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of
yore;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day.
The things which I have seen I now can
see no more.
II
The Rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the Rose,
The Moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are
bare,
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from
the earth.
III
Now, while the birds thus sing a
joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound,
To me alone there came a thought of
grief:
A timely utterance gave that thought
relief,
And I again am strong:
The cataracts blow their trumpets from
the steep;
No more shall grief of mine the season
wrong;
I hear the Echoes through the
mountains throng,
The Winds come to me from the fields
of sleep,
And all the earth is gay;
Land and sea
Give themselves up to jollity,
And with the heart of May
Doth every Beast keep holiday;—
Thou Child of Joy,
Shout round me, let me hear thy
shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy.
IV
Ye blessèd creatures, I have heard the
call
Ye to each other make; I see
The heavens laugh with you in your
jubilee;
My heart is at your festival,
My head hath its coronal,
The fulness of your bliss, I feel—I
feel it all.
Oh evil day! if I were sullen
While Earth herself is adorning,
This sweet May-morning,
And the Children are culling
On every side,
In a thousand valleys far and wide,
Fresh flowers; while the sun shines
warm,
And the Babe leaps up on his Mother's
arm:—
I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!
—But there's a Tree, of many, one,
A single field which I have looked
upon,
Both of them speak of something that
is gone;
The Pansy at my feet
Doth the same tale repeat:
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the
dream?
V
Our birth is but a sleep and a
forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our
life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we
come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to
close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence
it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the
east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die
away,
And fade into the light of common day.
VI
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of
her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural
kind,
And, even with something of a Mother's
mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely Nurse doth all she can
To make her Foster-child, her Inmate
Man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he
came.
VII
Behold the Child among his new-born
blisses,
A six years' Darling of a pigmy size!
See, where 'mid work of his own hand
he lies,
Fretted by sallies of his mother's
kisses,
With light upon him from his father's
eyes!
See, at his feet, some little plan or
chart,
Some fragment from his dream of human
life,
Shaped by himself with newly-learn{e}d
art
A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral;
And this hath now his heart,
And unto this he frames his song:
Then will he fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love, or
strife;
But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,
And with new joy and pride
The little Actor cons another part;
Filling from time to time his
"humorous stage"
With all the Persons, down to palsied
Age,
That Life brings with her in her
equipage;
As if his whole vocation
Were endless imitation.
VIII
Thou, whose exterior semblance doth
belie
Thy Soul's immensity;
Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost
keep
Thy heritage, thou Eye among the
blind,
That, deaf and silent, read'st the
eternal deep,
Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,—
Mighty Prophet! Seer blest!
On whom those truths do rest,
Which we are toiling all our lives to
find,
In darkness lost, the darkness of the
grave;
Thou, over whom thy Immortality
Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a
Slave,
A Presence which is not to be put by;
Thou little Child, yet glorious in the
might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's
height,
Why with such earnest pains dost thou
provoke
The years to bring the inevitable
yoke,
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at
strife?
Full soon thy Soul shall have her
earthly freight,
And custom lie upon thee with a
weight,
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as
life!
IX
O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live,
That Nature yet remembers
What was so fugitive!
The thought of our past years in me
doth breed
Perpetual benediction: not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be
blest;
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering
in his breast:—
Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;
Blank misgivings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not realised,
High instincts before which our mortal
Nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing
surprised:
But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may
Are yet the fountain-light of all our
day,
Are yet a master-light of all our
seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to
make
Our noisy years seem moments in the
being
Of the eternal Silence: truths that
wake,
To perish never;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy!
Hence in a season of calm weather
Though inland far we be,
Our Souls have sight of that immortal
sea
Which brought us hither,
Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the Children sport upon the
shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling
evermore.
X
Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a
joyous song!
And let the young Lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound!
We in thought will join your throng,
Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day
Feel the gladness of the May!
What though the radiance which was
once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in
the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic
mind.
XI
And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills,
and Groves,
Forebode not any severing of our
loves!
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your
might;
I only have relinquished one delight
To live beneath your more habitual
sway.
I love the Brooks which down their
channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly
as they;
The innocent brightness of a new-born
Day
Is lovely yet;
The Clouds that gather round the
setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's
mortality;
Another race hath been, and other
palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we
live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys,
and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows
can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep
for tears.
Introduction
William Wordsworth is an influential writer belonging
to the Romantic period in the history of literature. Throughout his life, he
received numerous recognitions in honor of his poetry and his writings are
still appreciated after his death. For this reason, he has been described as
“our great nature poet” with his nature poems, such as The Daffodils or the famous
Ode: Intimations of Immorality from Recollections of Early Childhood, being
read with respect by scholars even today (Beach 635). However, although his
popularity has allowed his poems to be interpreted in many different ways, the
spiritual aspect of them still needs more attention. For instance, his poem Ode: Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood has been reviwed as “altogether ‘natural’
[. . .] not founded in any visionary or eschatological intimation”, despite its
spiritual character (Fry 152). This example of interpretation is supported by
critics who claim that “Wordsworth moves into an account of the forces in
nature that helped reconcile him to the outer world and bring him to adult
stability,” and that the “Soul that rises” is “an accurate description of the
birth process” (Beer 111). As a result, Taylor indicates that “a recent
reader”, who is influenced by similar views, “takes no notice of transcendent
implications” (633). In contrast, she believes that the reader focuses on the
poem’s theme of childhood and its complications, which has been studied
extensively by literary scholars in relation to the development of
psychological sciences (Anya 633-634).
Predictably,
these studies have focused and are still focusing designedly on the child as a
subject in literature, because of the numerous works of art that have been
written about it. In general terms though, as far as research has been
conducted, a significant amount of emphasis has been added to the discussion
about childhood as a young stage of being or existence, a developmental level
towards adolescence, or a microcosm of what is to be, as Taylor suggests (633).
However, according to previous studies as of Linda M. Austin, childhood can be
considered retrospectively as a romantic invention in English literature (75).
For example, in romantic poetry the child is portrayed as an autonomous,
mythic, and innocent subject of nature; or as in Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood as a subject closer to God, heaven, and
sanctification. On the contrary, during adolescence it appears that this
childhood being is overwhelmed by the burdens of life and changes identity
(Austin 75). Hence, both of these examples reveal the chasm between the
generations and provoke emotions of sadness, distance, and a longing for a lost
childhood, or Eden, in the poet.
More analytically, this phenomenon, namely nostalgia
in psychological terms, is a preRomantic iconology of the child used as a
literary device to produce sentimental effects both on the poet and the reader
(Hoerner 631-661). That said, the reader of such poems finds himself “locked up
in the irrationality of thoughts the image of the child brings”, and finally,
he becomes aware of his mortality, but without any transcendental effect
(Taylor 632). This type of psychological and naturalistic analysis agrees with
Trilling’s dominant naturalistic view. Trilling assumes that all biblical
references are simply figurative and excludes any possibility that they could
be considered contributing to meaning (130-158). Consequently, the literal and
biblical meanings of immortality and the divine related to the child have been
ignored, which I believe leads to the conclusion that the poem has been
deprived of its contextual meaning; the one that “Wordsworth’s own full title
precisely and deliberately indicates” (Taylor 633).
In other words, further study is required to shed
light on the biblical allusions and symbolism present in Wordsworth’s poem. For
this reason, the purpose of this paper is to illuminate and extend the
exploration of the hidden truths about childhood and immortality, and to
illustrate the significance of spirituality in the poem. More specifically, I
will attempt to answer the following research questions: (a) What does
childhood represent in
Wordsworth’s poem Ode: Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood? (b) How is immortality related to
childhood? (c)What is the use of biblical allusions in relation to the poem’s
themes?
In order to provide answers to the questions above, I
have decided to divide my research into sections, critically studying each
theme and their relation, by means of the chosen method and theories. These are
depth psychoanalysis, cognitive development, teleology, ontology, and basic
theology.
To begin with, the first
section is a general introduction to the Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood with a
focus on the theme of childhood studied in light of naturalistic theories and
psychoanalysis, which have been used in previous research. Clearly, both
naturalism and psychoanalysis are secular ideas that perceive childhood and the
past as a set of fixed choices influenced and guided by experience that creates
one’s memories, which in turn gives birth to further experiences that guide the
person’s future choices, and the cycle is continually replicated (Shengold
27-29). However, when dealing with
agnostic theories, there is no reference to the divine or God’s existence. As a
result, these theories suggest possible limitations, since immortality cannot
be studied from a spiritual perspective. Therefore, while secondary sources
regarding psychoanalysis and similar theories can assist in providing a wider
understanding of childhood as the majority view it, this approach is used only
to create a contrast between this naturalistic view and the biblical aspect I
aim to discuss.
Moving on, the following
section concerns a discussion of immortality and an explanation of the child’s
immortal attributes through basic theological theories. In other words, this
second part of the close-reading-process takes advantage of psychoanalysis,
ontology, and teleology, which show parallels between literature as a felt
experience and spirituality, the divine, and faith in God (Hillman, 1975: 180).
Thus, I will use these principles to analyze childhood through the eyes of
immortality that concerns the child’s biblical characteristics.
Finally, the third section
is a biblical reading of the poem, or a discussion of the symbolism and
biblical truths that childhood prophetically represents in the poem. Simply
put, the purpose of this last part is to exemplify and shed light to the use of
biblical allusions in the poem, which Wordsworth portrays through the themes of
childhood and immortality.
To sum up, by using the
theories and methods described to analyze the themes of childhood and
immortality, I hope to find answers to my questions that will support the
existence of a spiritual aspect in the poem. Moreover, I trust that this
research could be used to expand our understanding of immortality as
contributing to meaning, not just figuratively, which would add a
transcendental effect to the reading of the poem.
1.
Childhood
The Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
is a poem revolving mainly around the theme of childhood and the journey towards
maturity. To explain the child’s progression, as well as the poem’s, Wordsworth
uses characteristics referring to different chronological periods in the life
of the child. For example, flashbacks are utilized in terms of the memories
recollected in early childhood, when he describes the adult man’s past.
Additionally, present and future references, which are a tool to delineate the
intimations of immortality, also have a role to play in the child’s development
towards adolescence. Nevertheless, although it can be concluded that Wordsworth
exploits space and time to illustrate adultness, commentary on his poetical
child has been often limited to its relationship to three-dimensional nature,
avoiding referring to spirituality. In other words, there have been only a few
attempts to synthesize the poet’s depiction into one organic vision of
childhood. Hiers indicates that when one focuses mainly on the child’s
responses to nature's stimuli, one forgets to consider the child's
transcendental mind: “A comprehensive examination, however, reveals the
child's” four-dimensional transcendental mind and that is, “his innate powers
to unify the world of natural mutability and to envision the eternal beauty of
all life” (Hiers 8). Given these points,
this section will analyze the concept of childhood in chronological order,
while discussing the discrepancy between a naturalistic and a spiritual view.
To begin with, although
the poem indicates the existence of the child’s soul prior to birth, the
earliest stage of being mentioned after birth is known as infancy. During this
period, infants can respond to a wide range of environmental stimuli,
especially through the sense of touch, but vision is not richly developed
(Piaget online, n.pg.). Oddly, Wordsworth’s poetic spirit, or the ability to
experience visions, seems to develop at this time, when newborns explore the
world and create bonds with nature through playing. Hiers, however, suggests
that nature cannot be the sole or “ultimate source of the child’s intuitive wisdom”
(8) that Wordsworth mentions when he refers to the child as ‘a prophet’ (115).
Rather, Heirs states that “the child enters the world with the ability to
create and unify” (8). Additionally, Jean Piaget, who is a pioneer in the study
of children’s thinking following the ideas of Freudian psychoanalysis, explains
this scientifically in terms of cognitive development. His belief is based on
two dynamic processes that every behavioral act requires: assimilation and
accommodation (Piaget online, n.pg.). The first is a description of the process
of acquiring new information about the world that is perceived through the
child’s senses, and positioning it in parallel lines, or in unity with already
existing information in the brain. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the
intimation of the happiness of childhood is the reminiscence of blessedness in
a former state that the prophetic child has recollected in his memory (Piaget
online, n.pg.). This would then lead to the consideration of “the doctrine of
pre-existence” (Hiers 10), which will be discussed in a later section, or to
the conclusion that the child’s
“transcendental mind not
only unifies”, as Hiers claims, “but it also inwardly envisions the eternality
of all existence” (10). More specifically, Rader explains that “the child's
intellect functions on another level - an innate vision into absolute, eternal
beauty” (qtd. in Hiers 9).
He states that in the poem
the child deserves the title of ‘best philosopher’ not “by virtue of
intellectual penetration, but by reason of those powers which inject sensation
with absolute beauty, a possession inborn” (qtd. in Hiers 9). Piaget names
these powers as accommodation and describes them as a process of creating
concepts that are able to bear new information, and thus allow the child to
grow (online, n.pg.).
However, although growing
is an inevitable experience in the poem, it is definitely not a pleasant one
according to Wordsworth. As approaching adolescence, the once ‘joyful child’ is
weighed down by the troubles of this world and the perplexity of daily life,
that remembering his youth’s blessedness is feasible only through visions of
memory which appear dimmer by the passing of time. More specifically, the child
cannot escape the natural maturation that follows childhood; he cannot avoid
what is called “the paradox of the child’s causing his own vision” (Hiers 8).
Moreover, he cannot keep away from suffering the loss of “his primitivistic,
intuitive powers of natural morality” that finally leads to “detrimental
complexity of vision, understanding, and moral judgment” (Hiers 8). This
retrospective phenomenon of a yearning for the past is nostalgia and is clearly
evident in Wordsworth’s description of a lost childhood. His child of nature
becomes in the middle of the poem “one from whom the subject felt sadly
distant” (Austin 76). However, what is of greater value to Wordsworth is the
fact that the vivid visionary perception of an exalted childhood fades with age
and thus “severs the being of the child from that of the adult” (Austin 83).
Childhood is shown to be the “one period in which everyone’s genius seems to
have glimmered”; a period filled with “endless emotional spontaneity and endless
potential”, while the latter is “an image of all mature estranged minds”
(Austin 83). Either way, the poet implies that “the quality or affect of early
experiences does not much matter: “be they what they may,” they become “a
master-light of all our seeing” (Austin 84). What is more, Austin suggests that
Wordsworth’s greatest argument lies in that “the passing of infancy and early
childhood brings a loss of extraordinariness; even a prosaic existence mourns
this passing because, as the poem implies, the existence of everyone beyond
such a childhood is prosaic” (84). Hence, the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood illustrates
by means of the child’s journey towards maturity the type of unromantic memory
which nostalgia represents, that is, “inorganic, unconducive to maintaining a
sense of self and impersonal despite its significant private application”
(Austin 84).
In conclusion, if the poem
is read based on a naturalistic view that excludes spirituality, it is deprived
of the intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood. “The
extraordinariness of the ordinary childhood” with all its jollity, festive
spirit, and bliss is nothing but a bittersweet memory to him who views the poem
merely as one that “treats the loss, awe, and estrangement framing the adult's
sense of childhood as features of a common psychological profile” (Austin 83).
For instance, Austin names childhood as “one contained in the adult's
perceptual and memorative field and best summarized as a lost sense of
potential”, conveying to the reader the “unrecoverability of the condition of
childhood” and “the inevitable forgetting of the remoteness of the condition of
childhood” (Austin 83). Notwithstanding that this naturalistic perspective of childhood
has been dominant, it is important to consider the spiritual aspects of
childhood that attach to it eternal value. Joseph W. Beach for example, who
believes that life on earth is a short shaping journey towards eternity, when
referring to the poem emphasizes “the importance of spiritual legacies upon the
child's imagination, with indifferent concern for the soul's literal existence
before birth” (152). His theory states that “whether or not the individual soul
has had an existence before the human birth, a man comes into this life endowed
with a spiritual essence which is not from nature but from God. And it is this
divine faculty which bestows upon natural objects the glory with which they
shine to a child's imagination” (Beach 152). More clearly, as Hiers notes “the
child enters this world with innate spiritual qualities bestowed on his mind by
God” (10). Piaget explains the function of these qualities, which are the
imaginative powers of the child's mind, when presenting his theories of
assimilation and accommodation, as mentioned previously. Hence, “it is these
qualities of the transcendental mind which allow the child to rise above the
objective world of nature and which in turn provide the man with visions into
the eternal beauties of life and the overall unity of his environment” (Hiers
10).
More analytically, the
eternality of childhood visions is rooted in the origin of the child’s soul.
Wordsworth claims that it comes from ‘elsewhere’ or ‘heaven’, another ‘home’,
which is ‘God’:
Our birth
is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with
us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar:
Not in
entire forgetfulness,
And not
in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory
do we come From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in
our infancy! (59-67)
In addition, the poet
implies that it specifies the child’s life for as long as he retains the memory
of it, until the vision is overwhelmed by adult duties and roles: “Shades of
the prison-house begin to close / Upon the growing Boy” (68-69), “A wedding or
a festival, / A mourning or a funeral; / And this hath now his heart, / And
unto this he frames his song: / Then will he fit his tongue / To dialogues of
business, love, or strife;” (94-99). During adolescence, “the growing child
finds himself distant from the glory of heaven as inexorably as the sun lies
distant from the dawn and levels all in a uniform clarity, ‘the light of common
day’” (Taylor 634). Wordsworth illustrates this when he writes that “The Youth,
who daily farther from the east / Must travel, still is Nature's priest, / And
by the vision splendid / Is on his way attended; / At length the Man perceives
it die away, / And fade into the light of common day.” (72-77). In fact, the
man “travels in the sea of his immortal ‘elsewhere’ until the moment he is
interrupted by the voices of a new generation of children far on the shore,
which reminds him of heavenly blessedness” (Taylor 634). The poet states that
“Our souls have sight of that immortal sea / Which brought us hither, / Can in a moment travel thither, / And see the
children sport upon the shore, / And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.”
(168-172). Thus, his hope remains in that since he came from ‘elsewhere’, this
place will await him at the end of his life; and with new eyes he will see the
image of this ‘home’ he has collected in his memory: “We will grieve not,
rather find / Strength in what remains behind; / In the primal sympathy / Which
having been must ever be; / In the soothing thoughts that spring / Out of human
suffering; / In the faith that looks through death,” (184-190). In this passage
Wordsworth emphasizes even more that faith in immortality “that looks through
death” is the only source of strength founded in the recollections of memory,
and hence the only source of hope to return ‘home’.
Furthermore, the reason for longing of ‘home’
is not only due to the recollections of early childhood memories, but also
because of the hostility the child’s soul feels as it is alien to this
earth:
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
And, even with something
of a mother's mind,
And no
unworthy aim,
The homely
nurse doth all she can
To make her foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget the
glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace
whence he came. (78-85)
Simply put, according to
this argument, the soul never becomes acclimated to the earthly world that is
time-limited, because it was designed to exist in eternity. Instead, this world
is a temporary home that shapes or prepares the soul for eternity. Wordsworth
calls the earth “the nurse” (82), or “the foster-mother” (80), who tries in vain
to solace the child that yearns for his only mother, eternity.
To sum up, in this chapter
I have discussed the different stages of contentment a person can experience
throughout the course of life as the theme of childhood in the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood depicts. At first, as a soul existing in
eternity he is filled with God’s life and joy until the moment he is born and
is forced to grow. Subsequently, as he matures he becomes engaged to the
troubles of earthly life, and the glory he once beheld is gradually lost as he
departs further from the source of contentment, God. His life then is
transformed into a continual circle of longing for the former ‘home’ and early
childhood, or the nostalgic memories of it. Last but not least, the adult man’s
desire is the redemption of the soul by returning to ‘home’, heaven, and God,
where he comes from.
2.
Immortality
The following equally
crucial theme in the Ode: Intimations of
Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood that has been neglected in the past is that of
immortality (Hiers 8). Taylor best exemplifies the reason why immortality has
been overshadowed by the theme of childhood, by explaining that interpreters of
Wordsworth’s poem “often avoid its religious
references, choosing to see it as a description of individual growth to
maturity, as a process of loss and wise acceptance of loss, of growing up and
growing old” (633). Although the validity of their readings is not questioned,
Taylor insists that “Wordsworth's own full title precisely and deliberately
indicates that he has immortality in mind, and that he plans to argue for it
from some aspect of the recollected memories of early childhood, either their
content, their promise, or the unease which their loss arouses” (633).
Consequently, she suggests that “the ode is transcendent, but that, in
addition, it provides a more complex argument for immortality than one resting
only on memory's promise” (Taylor 634), which I aim to examine. However,
immortality and childhood are strongly interrelated; therefore, in order to
analyze either of them, one must study one in light of the other. This section
will thus discuss the spiritual aspects of immortality in the poem, in
correspondence with the previous chapter analyzing childhood.
Initially, when searching
for commentary on Wordsworth’s Immortality, one can notice that while reading
former scholars’ skepticism reversely into the Ode, a valuable part of its meaning and of its reverberations of
afterlife is neglected. Yet, the argument for immortality lies in a simple
fact: “since children remember the eternity they come from, the same place may
await for them once they have grown old and are released from the body” (Taylor
633). Hence, the idea of a ‘home’ resting in the memories of earliest childhood
based on the theory of pre-existence in theology informs the poem’s underlying
themes:
The soul that rises with us, our life’s
Star, Hath
had elsewhere is setting, And cometh from afar:
Not in
entire forgetfulness,
And not in
utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory we come From
God who is our home:
Heaven lies
about us in our infancy! (60-67)
Why is it so important to
discuss immortality in the Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood? What does immortality add to our understanding of
the poem? The answer lies in the words of the poet himself. In the first
stanza, Wordsworth states that he can fully perceive the beauty of nature shown
in celestial light only through the eyes of the child that has not yet lost the
memory of ‘home’. As a boy he can still see a reflection of the dream of heaven
in nature, but when he reaches adolescence, the light fades away. At this
point, he can be partially charmed by nature, as the second stanza implies,
“And I again am strong: / The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; /
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong; / I hear the echoes through the
mountains throng. / The winds come to me from the fields of sleep, / And all
the earth is gay; / Land and sea” (24-30); but the glory through which he used
to intensely experience the natural world has passed: “But there's a tree, of
many, one, / A single field which I have look'd upon, / Both of them speak of
something that is gone:” (52-54). The following stanzas then depict his
struggle to revive the memory of immortality’s glory that clothed the earth,
“Which we are toiling all our lives to find,” (117), and which comes from
‘home’, from ‘God’, as a means to relieve the yearning soul: “Whither is fled
the visionary gleam? / Where is it now, the glory and the dream?” (5758).
However, the ease that memory brings to the poet is temporary, and his only
hope to return to this glory lies after death: “In the faith that looks through
death,” (190). In other words, there is no cure for him during his life on
earth: “Though nothing can bring back the hour” (182).
This argument of discontentment, drawn from
traditional theology is “less subject than the first to the vagaries and
distortions of memory, and arises from deeply felt experience, another point
explained by depth psychology” (Taylor 635). As mentioned in the previous
section, according to this idea, the child is an orphan soul surrounded by
“Earth’s inadequate playthings” that struggles to adapt to the earthly
lifestyle (Taylor 635). As a result, he is
“increasingly ensnared in
the drag of the quotidian” and “conspires in his own entrapment” (Taylor 635).
The child thus “seeks to obliterate the pain of loss by self-suffocation,
hurrying toward the inevitable yoke and accepting the weight of custom” (Taylor
635). In other words, by quickly burying himself, he would gradually forget the
loss. Regardless of his effort to cope with the reality of earth, his yearning
never vanishes entirely. This yearning however does provide additional proof of
man’s immortal past and, moreover, his immortal future. For this reason, in the
poem Wordsworth “gives thanks not for the recollections themselves, but for the
dissatisfaction they arouse when the recollections are contrasted with present
realities” (Taylor 635). That said, the poet appreciates immortality more than
all earthly objects and pleasures:
The
thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual
benediction: not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest— Delight
and liberty, the simple creed
Of
childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:—
Not
for these I raise
The
song of thanks and praise;
But
for those obstinate questionings
Of
sense and outward things,
Fallings
from us, vanishings;
Blank
misgivings of a Creature
Moving
about in worlds not realized,
High
instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did
tremble like a guilty thing surprised: (138-152)
More specifically, he
questions the significance of the physical world and nature, which are affected
by the “fallings from us, vanishings”, or the fragility of the flesh
(Wordsworth 148). What is worthy to be blessed? Is it delight or liberty? Or,
is it the fact that the memories of the child’s immortal past lead to a
noncompromising desire to explore unknown worlds? The poet mentions: “The
thought of our past years in me doth breed” (138), “But for those obstinate
questionings / Of sense and outward things,” (146-147) Moving about in worlds
not realized,” (150). That being the case, humans are eager to have more, and
do not settle for what they already possess. Taylor adds that “even the human
community of feeling that develops under the stress of mortality does not ease
the insistent undertow but rather may increase it” (Taylor 636). Wordsworth
justifies this belief in immortality more decidedly in his Essay Upon Epitaphs I:
For my own part, it is to
me inconceivable, that the sympathies of love towards each other, which grow
with our growth, could ever attain any new strength, or even preserve the old,
after we had received from the outward senses the impression of death, and were
in the habit of having that impression daily renewed and its accompanying
feeling brought home to ourselves, and to those we love; if the same were not
counteracted by those communications with our internal Being, which are
anterior to all these experiences, and with which revelation coincides, and has
through that coincidence alone (for otherwise it could not possess it) a power
to affect us. I confess, with me the conviction is absolute, that, if the
impression and sense of death were not thus counterbalanced, such a hollowness
would pervade the whole system of things, such a want of correspondence and
consistency, a disproportion so astounding betwixt means and ends, that there
could be no repose, no joy. Were we to grow up unfostered by this genial
warmth, a frost would chill the spirit, so penetrating and powerful, that there
could be no motions of the life of love; and infinitely less could we have any
wish to be remembered after we passed away from a world in which each man had
moved about like a shadow. (51-52)
In this passage,
Wordsworth suggests that immortality “gives meaning to the pathos of human
suffering and allows one to endure it”, and hence, without it life is
meaningless. Taylor interprets his words by stating that the voice of the
authentic “internal being” reaffirms that “we do not die, despite the fact that
our experience disagrees; and that love is valuable, despite the fragility of
its objects” (Taylor 637-638). Moreover, Wordsworth’s sense of the
disproportion between the needs of reality and the spirit results in a longing
for immortality, since without it “hollowness would pervade the whole system of
things” (Taylor 637). In other words, both in the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
and the Essay Upon Epitaphs I,
Wordsworth argues for immortality from the perspective that it is vital to
humanity, “because it gives meaning to a life beset with sorrows”
(Taylor 638). Therefore,
the fact that we experience the need to seek for, or imagine an
‘elsewhere’ suggests that
‘somewhere’ it does exist (Taylor 638). We may not remember exactly what this
‘elsewhere’ is and where it lies, but, the “residue of regret left in our
memory” is so powerful that from “the depths of our insufficiency we hunger for
it continuously” (Taylor 638). Furthermore, the poet’s argument for
immortality, which was traditionally formed by Anselm and elaborated by Ficino
in his Theologia platonica, answers
certain queries of the post-enlightenment period. Their ideas combine “the ontological argument
that what we conceive must exist, with the teleological argument, that our
feelings must have a purpose” (Snyder online, n.pg). In particular, Taylor
states that Anselm believed that “because we yearn for immortality it must
exist, since we could not conceive of it if it were not” (Taylor 639-639).
In conclusion, the Ode
is irrefutably a spiritual poem which Wordsworth uses to claim deliberately his
faith in eternity. Through the flashbacks to his own life and childhood, he
creates the imagery around the child, who represents all children. The poet
takes advantage of this fact to provoke nostalgic emotions in the reader
because of their lost childhood, but also because of their lost ‘Eden’. More
importantly, in the ninth stanza (lines 138-152)
Wordsworth challenges
theOde’sreaders to reexamine the value of worldly, natural objects in
comparison with love and immortality: “And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and
Groves, / Forebode not any severing of our loves!” (192-193). Last but not
least, it can be said that the poem’sbeauty lies in this paradox: some
attributes of life become more precious since they are ephemeral (Hiers
8-10).The poet writes: “The clouds that gather round the setting sun / Do take
a sober colouring from an eye / That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; /
Another race hath been, and other palms are won. / Thanks to the human heart by
which we live / Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears” (201-206), and
“We will grieve not, rather find / Strength in what remains behind; / In the
primal sympathy / Which having been must ever be; / In the soothing thoughts
that spring / Out of human suffering;” (184-189).
3.
Biblical Allusions
Having concluded that the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood is a spiritual poem, this raises a need to
discuss its themes from a biblical perspective. The significance of this type
of biblical reading of the poem is based on Wordsworth’s own selection of
biblical references, which will be presented later in this section. However, to achieve such an analysis, it is
necessary to use the Scriptures, that is, The
Bible, as the main source of information. Therefore, this last chapter’s
purpose is to explore the biblical allusions and symbolism that Wordsworth has
included in his poem, which will reveal the hidden truths about childhood and
immortality, and which will further explain the abstract concept of
immortality.
To start with, the first stanza of the poem is a
comparison between what the poet ‘saw’ as a child and what he ‘sees’ as an
adult, which I have previously explained in the section of childhood. He
describes the beauty of the earth with all its fields, streams, and trees,
which appear like heaven, in contrast with the different perception of the
world he has during adolescence. Now,
although there is still much beauty around him, e.g. roses, rainbows, the
moonlight, the sunlight, these sights lack the glory of what he once ‘saw’ as a
child, “The things which I have seen I now can see no more” (Wordsworth 9).
However, what brings this concept into perspective is the sentence “That there
hath pass'd away a glory from the earth” in the second stanza (Wordsworth 18).
When studied in depth, these two stanzas symbolize Eden, the garden that used
to be ‘heaven’, and the fall of man with all its consequences. To clarify this
symbolism, the book of Genesis
describes the creation of the earth with all its beauty, trees, flowers,
waters, stars, etc., and everything that humans needed (Genesis 1: 131). “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of
the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). However, Wordsworth
mentions “there’s a tree, of many, one/ A single field which I have look’d
upon, / Both of them speak of something that is gone:” (52-54). In Genesis God commanded “you must not eat
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you
will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17).
Indeed, the protoplasts ate from the fruit and what followed was ‘the fall’, or
their exit from Eden, their ‘home’. To put it another way, Wordsworth does not
only imply that the child is an eternal being that remembers ‘heaven’, but,
also, that this innocent creature represents humanity before the fall, before
the glory of God’s life passed away with man’s
sin that brought spiritual death, and that adolescence illustrates
humanity after the fall.
Further on, as the poet continues to praise spring and
nature, the birds and their song, the lambs that dance, he is suddenly
afflicted by a ‘thought of grief’ (Wordsworth 22). He remembers the ‘tree’,
‘sin’ and its wages, the glory with which man used to be clothed, and the fact
that it is no more. Even so, he realizes that there is a solution to ‘sin’,
‘death’, and the ‘loss of glory’, and that is through “Thou Child of Joy, /
Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy/ Shepherd-boy!(Wordsworth
34-36). In fact, Wordsworth is using biblical allusions to Christ, the ‘child
of joy’, the ‘shepherd-boy’, and the promised ‘lamb’ that was slain to redeem
humanity from the power of sin, as it is written: “For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Therefore, the first allusion refers
to Christ as the Savior, or as the second Adam that would be crucified to
restore eternal life. The Bible
explains:
“Wherefore, as by one man
(Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned […] For if the many died by the trespass of the
one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of
the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many![…] For if, by the trespass of
the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who
receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! (Romans 5: 12-17)
Simply put, Wordsworth
finds the cure for his grief in Christ, who as the second Adam obeyed God, and
therefore allowed those who believe in Him to experience triumph, joy, and hope
in life; but, who also restored the hope of returning ‘home’, and that means
‘heaven’. The second allusion refers to Christ as the “Child of
Joy”, or the baby-born Jesus (Wordsworth 34). According to The Bible, an angel appeared to some shepherds to guide them to the
manger where they would meet for the first time the Savior, “And the angel said
unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a
Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11). What this passage says in
plain words is that this child would bring joy to the people, for He is the
Savior of the world, and thus Wordsworth calls him the “The Child of
Joy” (34). The third
allusion refers to Jesus as the “Shepherd-boy” and it can be interpreted in two
interrelated ways (Wordsworth 36). Initially, the shepherd boy in The Bible, who is a prophetic
representation of Jesus, is King David. David ruled successfully over Israel,
although he was just a shepherd. In the same way today, Jesus is the shepherd
of the church, which symbolizes the spiritual Israel that consists of the
believers, and He reigns over his sheep: “I am the good shepherd, and know my
sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:14). The latter regards David as Jesus’s
physical ancestor. In The Scriptures it is written that “The
Lord God will give him (Christ) the throne of his father David,” (Luke 1:32)
and that
“regarding his Son, who as
to his earthly life was a descendant of David” (Romans 1:3). Conclusively, in
the stanzas mentioned, Wordsworth utilizes the various biblical profiles of
Jesus to create the poetical character of the child.
Similarly, the rest of the poem follows the same
pattern of biblical parallelisms. For example, in the fifth stanza Wordsworth
portrays birth as the awakening from a momentary sleep in which the soul
existed in the celestial realm. He writes: “Our birth is but a sleep and a
forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, / Hath had
elsewhere its setting, / And cometh from
afar: / Not in entire forgetfulness, / And not in utter nakedness, / But
trailing clouds of glory do we come/ From God, who is our home:” (Wordsworth
59-66). The poet uses this picture of a blurred memory to claim that the soul’s
existence is preordained and originates from God, just as The Bible mentions “even as he chose us in him before the
foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4a); and “For those whom he foreknew he
also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29a). Yet,
as in the sixth and seventh stanza, Wordsworth states that the memory fades as
the child becomes a boy and is attracted by earthly desires, pleasures, and
promises:
Earth
fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings
she hath in her own natural kind,
And,
even with something of a mother's mind,
And
no unworthy aim,
The
homely nurse doth all she can
To
make her foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget
the glories he hath known,
And
that imperial palace whence he came. (78-85)
More analytically, in this
passage Wordsworth refers to these natural pleasures as a representation of
fleshly desires, which try to captivate the child and urge him to forget of God
and eternity. According to The Bible,
after the fall of man, humanity has been enslaved under the yoke of sin and has
been victim of its desires. It is written: “Therefore do not let sin reign in
your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the
members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present
yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:12-18). That said, the poet depicts the
perpetual battle between the spirit and the flesh; the will of God and the will
of sin:
Shades
of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees
it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel,
still is Nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his
way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of
common day. (68-77)
Some fragment from his dream of human life,
Shaped by himself with newly-learnèd art;
A wedding or
a festival,
A mourning
or a funeral;
And this hath now his heart, And unto this he frames his song:
Then will
he fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love, or strife;
But it
will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,
And with
new joy and pride
The little actor cons
another part; (93-103)
Nonetheless, Wordsworth
repeatedly presents the young child’s image as one that incomes ease. Some
specific characteristics of the child also reveal that it is an allusion to
Christ. For instance, The Scriptures refer
to Christ as “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29c). Likewise,
Wordsworth writes “Behold the Child among his new-born blisses” (86). In
addition, Wordsworth indicates that this child is filled “With light upon him
from his father's eyes!” (90), and mentions “Some fragment from his dream of
human life,” (92). In the same manner, The
Bible refers to God’s satisfaction with the work of His Son, Jesus, who had
to live a human life on earth for the sake of the world. He says: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I
am well-pleased.” (Matthew 17:5). Hence, it can be assumed that ‘The Child’,
Christ, is also the solution to the adult man’s strife that Wordsworth
describes. Moreover, in the Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood the poet calls the child
“Thou best philosopher,”
(111) and “Mighty prophet!”(115), which are attributes of Jesus. The
Bible ascribes to Jesus the title of ‘the best philosopher’ because “the
wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the
wise in their own craftiness.” (1st Corinthians 3:19-20). By the
same token, it ascribes to Him the title of ‘Mighty prophet’, as it is written
“And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great
prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.” (Luke
7:16).
Additionally, lines such
as “thou eye among the blind,” (112), “On whom those truths do rest, / Which we
are toiling all our lives to find,” (116-117) and “thy Immortality” (119)
suggest that Wordsworth does indeed use similes of Christ from The Scriptures. Likewise, The Bible clarifies that Jesus is the
one who possesses the absolute truth and thus the sole person who can lead
humanity. When referring to mankind, The
Bible questions “Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall
into the ditch?( Luke 6:39). Obviously, the answer is negative and therefore
the poet suggests that only He who is the way, the truth and the (eternal) life
can guide men, who toil all their lives to find this truth (John 14:6): “Mighty
prophet! Seer blest! / On whom those truths do rest, / Which we are toiling all
our lives to find,” (115-117). Even more, The
Scriptures summarize the different profiles that Wordsworth ascribes to
Jesus in a few verses:
Who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things
were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all
things consist. (Colossians 1:15-17).
These verses reveal the
greatness of Jesus as the image of God, the Creator, “Nature’s priest”, the
everlasting, “the eternal mind”, and the one who was, is, and will be
(Wordsworth 73, 114). In the same way the poem shows the greatness of the child
who preexisted: “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that
rises with us, our life's Star, / Hath had elsewhere its setting, / And cometh
from afar:” (59-62); who was born with the ability to create and unify: “And by
the vision splendid / Is on his way attended;” (74-75), “Shaped by himself with
newly-learnèd art;” (93); and who will live eternally both in terms of the
memories and of the afterlife: “O joy! that in our embers / Is something that doth
live, / That nature yet remembers / What was so fugitive! / The thought of our
past years in me doth breed” (134138), and “Our noisy years seem moments in the
being / Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, / To perish never: / Which
neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, / Nor Man nor Boy, / Nor all that is
at enmity with joy, / Can utterly abolish or destroy!” (159-165).
Eventually, after referring to desire’s destructive
power, Jesus’s solution through His cruciform sacrifice, and God’s attributes,
Wordsworth reaches the zenith of biblical allusions: Jesus’s burial and
resurrection. In the eighth stanza, he depicts men’s or Christ’s battle with
darkness and the grave, meaning death. He writes: “In darkness lost, the
darkness of the grave; / Thou, over whom thy Immortality / Broods like the Day,
a master o'er a slave, / A presence which is not to be put by;” (Wordsworth
118-121). However, he emphasizes that the child’s, or Christ’s immortality,
leads to the resurrection and victory over the slavery of death. The Bible concludes this allusion by
saying that “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
death hath no more dominion over him.” (Romans 6:9).
Last but not least, the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood ends
with stanzas encouraging the adult man to endure all earthly sufferings,
because at least the natural surroundings manifest a glimmer of celestial light
and of God that lies within him: “We will grieve not, rather find / Strength in
what remains behind; In the primal sympathy / Which having been must ever be; /
In the soothing thoughts that spring / Out of human suffering; / In the faith
that looks through death, / In years that bring the philosophic mind.”
(184-191). The poet continues:
And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and
Groves, Forebode not any
severing of our loves!
Yet
in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquish'd one delight To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I
love the brooks which down their channels fret,
Even
more than when I tripp'd lightly as they;
The
innocent brightness of a new-born Day
Is
lovely yet;
The
clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring
from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
(192-208)
The biblical truth and
Romantic sentiment that Wordsworth alludes to is the revelation of God through
nature, as The Scriptures state: “For
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Wordsworth writes:
“The innocent brightness of a new-born Day / Is lovely yet; / The clouds that
gather round the setting sun / Do take a sober colouring from an eye / That
hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;” (199-203). In these lines he refers to
God’s eye that is upon humanity, as it is written in the Psalms: “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from
his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth” (33:13-14). This knowledge
allows him to rejoice with the songs of May and to forget that a time would
come when all the flowers and fields of spring would be forever gone; because
he is aware that greater glories await humans beyond death: “To me the meanest
flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears”
(207-208), as The Bible writes, “For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2nd Corinthians 4:17).
4.
Conclusion
By examining William
Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of
Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood in terms of a biblical
reading encompassing the themes of childhood and immortality, this essay has
provided a clarification of the significance of spirituality in the poem, and
of how it contains biblical allusions in direct relation to the Scriptures. In other words, this paper
supports the claim that the Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood is
transcendental and that childhood and immortality are strong illustrations of
biblical symbols and truths.
The first section gives a general introduction into
the theme of childhood and its complications in contrast to adolescence. It discusses the cognitive development of the
child in connection with scientific studies and the differences between an
adult’s vision and a child’s. In addition, it explains the spiritual attributes
of the child. For instance, the poem assumes the theory of preexistence, that
is, children are closer to God through their memory of immortality, whereas
adults are further from it as the memory fades through the years. The chapter
concludes with a depiction of the discrepancy of viewing the theme of childhood
from a naturalistic and a spiritual aspect.
Mentioning
spirituality, the second chapter analyzes the theme of immortality and the
spiritual concept that lies beneath childhood and memory. Through the analysis
of the aspect of discontentment, this section discusses the significance of
immortality and the necessity of its existence. Moreover, by examining theories
drawn from traditional theology that Wordsworth himself uses to justify his
belief in immortality in his Essays Upon
Epitaphs I, such as Anselm’s ontological and teleological arguments, the
chapter elaborates spirituality and its role. The chapter closes with the
discussion of the poets challenging lines about life’s important objects and
ideas, and with the poem’s paradox: life’s beauty arises from the fragility of
its purpose and meaning.
The final section is a parallel reading of the Ode and of The Bible. I have used the Scriptures
to interpret the biblical allusions present in the poem, in order to gain a
deeper insight into the spiritual metaphors and symbols that Wordsworth
utilizes in his poetic language.
In conclusion, this paper has studied in depth William
Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of
Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood from a secular and a
biblical perspective based on former research. However, the importance of this
thesis lies in the fact that it discusses various aspects of the poem and the
interrelated connection between childhood and immortality, and The Bible. Hence, this essay has sought
to show the poem’s transcendental allusions, as well as its spiritual essence.
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