William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey

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William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey

As students, we are taught that William Wordsworth's basic tenets of

poetry are succinct: the use of common language as a medium, common man as

a subject, and organic form as an inherent style. Yet beyond these

rudimentary teachings, it should be considered that it was the intimacy

with nature that was imperative to the realization of Wordsworth's goals

set forth in the "Preface" to Lyrical Ballads. In his "Preface,"

Wordsworth states, "Poetry is the image of man and nature" (Norton 247). A

study of "Tintern Abbey," the intended finale and last impression of the

Lyrical Ballads, reveals Wordsworth's conviction that the role of nature

is the force and connection that binds mankind not only to the past and

the future, but to other human beings as well. Regardless of the language

employed, the subject used, or the method of delivery, it was the primal

connection with nature that fueled Wordsworth's poetic genius.

Wordsworth begins the journey into "Tintern Abbey" by taking the reader

from the height of a mountain stream down into the valley where the poet

sits under a sycamore...

... middle of paper ...

... together even after his death.

Over two hundred years after it was written, "Tintern Abbey" continues to

uphold the essence of William Wordsworth's beliefs and continues to touch

the emotions of its readers. Even though, here in the twenty-first

century, the term real-world has a connotation of life in the fast-lane,

the real world - the natural world - of Wordsworth's time still holds a

place of eminence both in literature and in the hearts of its readers.

Certainly, Wordsworth would be pleased to see how very far into the future

his vision has endured.

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