It’s extremely hard to extract a sense of continuity in
Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey. After the first stanza, or maybe it’s a paragraph--see,
I just don’t know about this poetry stuff, regardless, after the opening, all
hell breaks out, and I have no idea what is going on. There is not continuity,
at least the kind I am familiar with. I do come away from the poem with a
general impression that Wordsworth is promoting a kind of environmentalism, and
that his grounds for this is a personal relationship one can have with the
environment. After saying that, it sounds a lot like the Protestant emphasis on
a personal relationship with Christ. Who knows, though.
I'm really glad you posted this. Poetry is not my thing either and I'm having a bit of a hard time extracting things from the poems. I read them the first time (WHAT). I read them again (OK, WHAT).
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I empathize with your struggle. Power through!
I also have a hard time with poems of this nature. I am glad I do not stand alone.
DeleteI'm not sure which poem you are referring to but I definitely felt the same way about "Poems on the Naming of Places." When I began reading it I felt ummmm maybe it will get better but it didn't and I ended up having to take a break and start over which really didn't help matters either.
ReplyDeleteThere are multiple themes to Wordsworth’s poem. There is definitely a religious undertone to the poem, it emphasis’s nature as a sublime force (or being) and Wordsworth finds great peace within the solitude of nature. The feeling he gets from Tintern Abbey is one that attempts to keep with him even when he is in the city. Another aspect is the personification of nature as a friend. Wordsworth talks about nature and his relationship with the spot above the Abbey and how as he has grown he has come to truly appreciate it. This is a big part of the poem as he spends a fair amount of time comparing himself in his youth to who he is at the time he writes the poem. His personification as nature adds to the sublime aspect of the poem and thus nature becomes very God-like and the Abbey takes on sort of utopia that allows him to contemplate and understand life.
ReplyDeleteAnother important theme is time, from the beginning of the poem with the emphasis of the 5 years, and the way in which Wordsworth changes over those years. He discusses his changed attitude towards the area surrounding the abbey and the attitude he believes his sister will adopt towards the location.
ReplyDelete