Tintern Abbey By Marcel Isnard: A Literary Analysis

Beginning in late-eighteenth century Europe, Romanticism challenged the Enlightenment Age’s methodical and scientific ideas and encouraged the growth of imaginative and idiosyncratic philosophies. Russian-British philosopher Isaiah Berlin described Romanticism as “the greatest single shift in the consciousness of the West that has occurred, and all the other shifts which have occurred … [are] less important, and at any rate deeply influenced by it. (Berlin 2)”. Imagination, individualism, and pastoral life were predominant themes in the Romantic Movement, and the Industrial Revolution which had begun several decades before posed a threat to preservation of these features of Romanticism. Nature, particularly, was almost idolized by Romantic poets during this time. Marcel Isnard argues that “Nature also means the principle or power that animates or even creates the

In “Tintern Abbey”, the poem circles back to the speaker’s past by addressing his “dear Sister! (Wordsworth 121)”, saying, “I behold in thee what I once was (Wordsworth 120)”, from which we can imagine his sister is playing among the trees as he once did during his childhood. He hopes that his value will not fade, but live on through her, and that her memory of it shall also be “a dwelling place / For all sweet sounds and harmonies (Wordsworth 141-142)”, demonstrating a revival of memory that reflects upon nature’s cyclic processes as presented in “Ode to the West Wind”. Wordsworth poem also alludes to the social miseries in urban cities and resulting unrest across Europe around the French revolution as the speaker mourns the loss of his and his sister’s childhood and the change time brings. Those “wild ecstasies (Wordsworth 138)” of youth have “matured / Into a sober please (Wordsworth 138-139)” that has forewarned him of the “sad music of humanity (Wordsworth