Summary and Critical Appreciation of William Wordsworth Poem “Tintern Abbey”

Summary and Critical Appreciation of  “Tintern Abbey”

Maybe “Tintern Abbey” is the most well-known poem by one of the most famous British Romantic poets. The poem has its foundations in Wordsworth's own past. Wordsworth professed to have formed the poem altogether in his mind, starting it after leaving Tintern and but rather writing down a line until he arrived at Bristol, by which time it had recently arrived at mental culmination. “This is the first Poem,” as Helen Derbyshire says, “in which Wordsworth’s genius finds full expression: the blank verse, low toned and familiar yet impassioned, moves with a sureness and inevitable ease from phase to phase to this mood.” In fact this poem sums up all the main articles of Wordsworth’s faith in Nature. To Wordsworth Nature is never dead. He discovers a dominating spirit and the contemplation of it, a holy communion with it is a source of joy, delight, consolation and thought. His philosophical thought finds an expression through the grand style. It has been enriched with autobiographical touch. It also exhibits the poet’s gradual development of thought through different stages. His mystic view of nature has been focused through these stages.

The Poem "Tintern Abbey" is considered as a sort of monologue in verse as Wordsworth admitted that he formed it in his inner self while wandering through the river Wye. He has extraordinarily recalled his graceful thought of Tintern Abbey where he had gone first time in 1793. This is his second visit to this spot. Wordsworth has communicated his extraordinary confidence in nature. There is

Wordsworth's acknowledgment of God in nature. He got exotic pleasure in it and it is all things considered to him. Tintern Abbey fascinated him most when he had first visited this spot. He has again gone to a same spot. This lonesome spot, the river banks of the waterway and moving waters from the mountain springs present a lovely panoramic light. The lonely spot remands the poet of transient residents and hermits' cave.

Summary and Critical Appreciation 

In “Tintern Abbey” a profound philosophical truth has been embodied in poetry of the purest kind. The philosophical attitude towards Nature has given the poem a genuine poetical atmosphere. The intensity of thoughts, the volition of emotion and the subjectivity of approach towards Nature have easily moved the readers even who do not accept the Nature- creed of Wordsworth. The emotion is hued with intellectuality and grand style has made the thought and emotion grand as well as grave. The grandeur of diction is undoubtedly praiseworthy.

The description of Nature in the First part suits Wordsworth’s perfect manner. The rushing ease of the verses carries away the readers in their flow. In the second part Wordsworth’s philosophic observation of nature is always discussed by the nature philosophers whenever they discuss the subject. The glowing tribute to Dorothy in the last part (lines 114 on wards) that Wordsworth pays is the echo of all the lovers of nature who discover oneness between their own spirits and that of nature. Thus this poem is unique in English poetry in respect of its grandeur, originality of thought, depth of feeling and faith, vividness of imagination, rush and sweep of language and melody of versification etc.

Wordsworth use of different interesting expressions like simile, alliteration, metaphor, and symbolism have made what the poem is, a remarkable melodious refrain fit for setting the uncertain irritations of the human heart to rest.

So to sum up the poem may be a clear illustration of Wordsworth’s concept of poetry that poetry is that the emotion recollected in serenity. His poetic brilliance discoveries full expression in this rhyme. The whole poem any reader can echo with Herbert Read while he has said, “It is the greatest exaltation of the mind of man that has ever been conceived. No wonder Blake found it blasphemous; for Wordsworth so elevates the human mind, that he leaves no room for a personal God.”

 

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