Romanticism in Tintern Abbey and The Thorn

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Recommended: Nature in the poems of William Wordsworth

Tintern Abbey + The Thorn

Romanticism is a core belief. It can be demonstrated in a complicated format, with themes and subjects that qualify a piece of writing as ‘Romantic’, however in the context of Romantic writing, Romanticism is indefinable by those who wrote it. A set of beliefs and literary practices nonetheless, however the main Ideas of tranquility, beauty in nature and humanity cannot be classified. As Wordsworth states ‘We Kill to Dissect’ the same can be said with his poetry. To be given a list of Neo-Classic tendencies, and then a subsequent one with its opposites, and then to call that ‘Romantic’ is, I don’t believe, the principal of Romantic writing in its context. I believe that both of these poems I have chosen (Tintern Abbey and The Thorn) show, in stages, the core beliefs of the Romantic Movement. Firstly, list of thematic aside, the poems show the beating heart of Wordsworth’s ideals in nature and in humanity, however it also does show the thematic, The importance of the individual, of subjectivity, that imagination has no boundaries. Both express the view that nature is the ‘music of humanity’ and particularly in Tintern Abbey, that tranquil contemplation is important to a man of any creed.

The locations often carry specific importance in Lyrical Ballads, Primarily because they give meaning to the individual who experiences them. Feeling and surroundings go hand in hand in Wordsworth poems. For example in ‘Lines left upon a seat in a Yew Tree’, the feeling of isolation and melancholy is compounded by his desolate surroundings, even though Wordsworth disapproves of this view, nature being subjective, it is still an important theme throughout. ‘Tintern Abbey’ is arguably the poem where...

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...ful, natural beauty and personal feelings drive this poem exclusively into the collaborative of ‘Romantic’. ‘The Thorn’, is a different matter, easy to understand words throughout, connected in a way, which gives a complicated, and ambiguous message. Each reader could gain a different meaning from ‘The Thorn’, it is self-knowledge, it is, in my opinion, one of the few poems in lyrical ballads which brings neo- Classicalism and Romanticism together, landing of course on the side of the Romantic view, the view of imagination and the importance of the individual. I believe that ‘The Thorn’ is less committed to the style and thematic concern of Romanticism, however as far as the message it gives to the reader, I believe Romanticism shines through. Tintern Abbey on the other hand exemplifies Romanticism, and is, I believe, the example of personal Romantic poetry.

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