TINTERN ABBEY

1. TINTERN ABBEY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

2. FIVE years have past; five summers, with the lengthOf five long winters! • The speaker opens by telling us how much time has passed since he last visited this place. • “this” place - "a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey," on the "Banks of the Wye" • "five long winters.“ – emphasising that its been a long while.

3. and again I hear…Once again • He’s returned to this place. • He sees and hears all the beauty that he remembers from his first visit. • This is where he starts to describe those impressions and memories, and he starts with what he can hear: the sound of the "mountain-springs."

4. Do I behold …quiet of the sky. • The word “again” is repeated for emphasis. This is not his first visit. • Everything is as he remembered it. "steep and lofty cliffs." “the mountain cliffs” “the sycamore” • The scene impresses or compels the speaker to think “thoughts of deep seclusion” • Those cliffs look as if they are columns connecting the landscape to the sky.

5. The day is come when I again reposeHere, under this dark sycamore, and viewThese plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves'Mid groves and copses.  • Here's that word, "again," again. • The speaker rests under the sycamore. • He sees the cottage grounds, orchards and groves and copses. • Because the fruits are still unripe the speaker says that when he looks down they “orchard tufts” get mingled with groves and copses. • Everything looks green. Its difficult to tell whether a group of trees belongs to a grove or an orchard.

6. These hedge-rows, …from among the trees! • The "hedge-rows," look as if they have run wild (haphazard). • The speaker can see "wreaths of smoke" appearing from near the pastoral farms. • The smoke goes up "in silence." Its still a very quiet scene being described.

7. With some uncertain notice, as might seemOf vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fireThe Hermit sits alone. • The speaker imagines that the smoke could come from the fire of a "vagrant" – someone homeless who has found shelter in the woods • Or maybe the smoke is coming from a cave where a "Hermit," lives.

8. These beauteous forms,Through a long absence, have not been to meAs is a landscape to a blind man's eye: • This stanza goes into a kind of flashback, describing the way the speaker felt during the "five years" that had passed. • Since his last visit, the memory of the "beauteous forms," he's just described, has always been in his mind as if he could almost see it. (unlike a "landscape to a blind man," who would never be able to see/imagine it fully.)

9. But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the dinOf towns and cities, I have owed to themIn hours of weariness, sensations sweet,Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;And passing even into my purer mind,With tranquil restoration:  • The memory of those "beauteous forms" comfort the speaker when he was "lonely" or caught"din" (noise), of "towns and cities“. • The ‘sensations sweet” are so powerful that he can feel them in every iota of his being – “blood”, “heart” and ‘mind” • The memory of this scene could "restore" him to "tranquility," or peace.

10. – feelings tooOf unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,As have no slight or trivial influenceOn that best portion of a good man's life,His little, nameless, unremembered, actsOf kindness and of love.  • Remembering the "beauteous forms" also reminded the speaker of "unremembered pleasure," or pleasant things that may have seemed insignificant at the time, but are actually really important. • It's the memory of having done nice things for people, even if each individual act of kindness was "little, nameless, [or] unremembered" by the person.

11. Nor less, I trust,To them I may have owed another gift,Of aspect more sublime; • The speaker thinks that he has the"beauteousforms" to thank for another gift. • This says that this gift is"sublime," – lofty and life-changinglyspiritual.

12. that blessed mood,In which the burthen of the mystery,In which the heavy and the weary weightOf all this unintelligible world,Is lightened: • The "sublime" gift was a "blessed mood" that made the weight of the world seem lighter. • It’s a powerful mood, right there. • The speaker feels that the memory of the beautiful scene help him to stop him bothering about the incomprehensible, and mysterious aspects of the world.

13. – that serene and blessed mood,… living soul: • The speaker tells us more about the "blessed mood“ • He is already in a “lightened” mood and now his "affections" take him a step further. • "affections" - his feeling for his friends and family or for nature in general, or a combination of both. • The "affections lead" him to a place where his physical body (the "corporeal frame") becomes almost irrelevant. Even his blood has almost stopped moving in his veins. • It is only the soul that matters. • The speaker it seems is in a trance. Its like what is supposed to happen when a person is in deep meditation. • For the speaker the memories of the “beauteos forms” gives him this meditative experience. • The speaker switches from first person singular ("I", "me," "my," etc.) to the first person plural ("us", "we," "our", etc.). • It's as though the speaker wants us (the reader) to be included in the meditative trance he's describing.

14. While with an eye made quiet by the powerOf harmony, and the deep power of joy,We see into the life of things. • “While with an eye made quiet “ - the speaker is in the trance so he is not aware of his immediate, physical surroundings. • And now that he is detached from the physical world he can see "see into the life of things," or, is able to see things as they really are and figure out how everything is interconnected in ways that we can't always put into words.

15. If this…turned to thee! • This entire stanza is ONE LOOOOOOOOOONG sentence • He asks hypothetically that suppose his theory (about how it's possible for the memories of beautiful things to lead you to a state where you understand important truths about the world) is just a "vain belief.“ i.e. its not true. • For a moment he considers the possibility that’s this belief of his is false. • But then he remembers the many times these memories have made helped him out of a depressed state and realizes that for him its true. He does feel happy.

16. And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,With many recognitions dim and faint,And somewhat of a sad perplexity,The picture of the mind revives again: • The flashback is over. The speaker is back in the . • Memories of his first visit are being revived • In the process, though, he's experiencing "somewhat of a sad perplexity a slight confusion about how his present impressions match up with his "dim and faint" recollections. • He finally manages to "revive," "picture of the mind," and remember his earlier impressions.

17. While here I stand, not only with the senseOf present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughtsThat in this moment there is life and foodFor future years.  • The speaker is standing and enjoying the view. • He's happy for 2 reasons. • First, because that view is beautiful. • Second, because he's feels that in future this memory will bring him joy.

18. And so I dare to hope,Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when firstI came among these hills; • The speaker hopes that he'll live to look back on this moment with pleasure. • Then he starts reflecting on how much he's changed since his first visit (five years before).

19. when like a roe/ I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides/Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,Wherever nature led: • Another flashback: the speaker is describing himself from five years ago. • Back then, the young poet leaped and "bounded" all over the place like deer – just going "wherever nature led"

20. more like a manFlying from something that he dreads, than oneWho sought the thing he loved.  • The poet feels that at that time he seemed to be running away from something, rather than looking for something "he loved" • The thing "he loved" is probably nature, but it's not clear who or what the speaker thinks he was running from when he was a young boy.

21. For nature then/ (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,And their glad animal movements all gone by) To me was all in all. • Nature meant everything to the poet. • The speaker says that the "coarser" as inlessrefined or sophisticated "pleasures" that he enjoyed as a boy, and his "glad animal movements" (i.e., the innocent and unthinking bounding through the mountains) are all over.

22. I cannot paintWhat then I was. • The speaker interrupts himself with a dash to claim that he can't describe his past self in words. • This is kind of ironic, because that that's exactly what he's doing, and what he will do through the rest of the poem. • He probably means its difficult to fully describe homself as he was when he was a first visited this place.

23. The sounding cataract/Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,/The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,/Their colours and their forms, were then to me/An appetite; a feeling and a love,/That had no need of a remoter charm,/By thought supplied, nor any interest/Unborrowedfrom the eye. • The speaker has just said that nature meant everything to him when he was young. • The waterfall, took the place of his "passion," and the colours and forms of the "mountain" and the "wood" were his appetite. • Nature supplied his "feeling" and "love," too – and without the need for intellectual "thought," since nature had enough "charm" and "interest" on its own.

24. That time is past,/And all its aching joys are now no more,/And all its dizzy raptures. Not for thisFaint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other giftsHave followed; for such loss, I would believe,Abundant recompence. • The speaker can no longer experience the same "aching joys“ and "dizzy raptures" that the way he did when he was young. • He can just remember them. • The speaker isn't worried about that. He might not experience the "aching joys," but he has "other gifts" now that "recompence" or make up for it (aching joys and dizzy raptures).

25. For I have learned/To look on nature, not as in the hour/Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/The still, sad music of humanity,/Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power/To chasten and subdue. • The speaker has matured. No longer is there unreflecting, un-intellectual, "thoughtless" appreciation of nature. • Now, when he looks at nature, he's able to hear "the still, sad music of humanity," which seems to mean that he can sense some universal, timeless connection between nature and all of humanity. • He looks but instead of seeing he says he hears. A mixing up of senses. • This "still, sad music," is not unpleasant. It must be kind of pleasant, actually. • The music is powerful. It can "chasten and subdue" the speaker, or, in other words, it can make him feel both humbled and calm.

26. And I have felt/ A presence that disturbs me with the joy/ Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime/ Of something far more deeply interfused,Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,/And the round ocean and the living air,/And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; • When he hears the "still, sad music of humanity," the speaker says that he feels some kind of "presence". He doesn’t clarify what this presence is Nature ?God? Some indefinable force of good? • The "presence" (whatever it is) "disturbs" the speaker, but in a good way. It helps him lift his thoughts to higher things. • The "presence" also gives the speaker a sense that there's "something" like a divine presence that exists "deeply interfused," or blended in with everything around it. • This "something" lives in "the light of setting suns", in "the round ocean and the living air", in "the blue sky", and even "in the mind of man". • This "something" exists in everything in nature, surrounding us, filling us, and binding the universe together.

27. A motion and a spirit, that impelsAll thinking things, all objects of all thought,And rolls through all things. • The "something" is now defined as "a motion and a spirit," that rules all things that think. • Repetition of "all" - to emphasize that this "spirit" connects everything.

28. Therefore am I still/ A lover of the meadows and the woods,/ And mountains; and of all that we behold/ From this green earth; of all the mighty world/ Of eye, and ear, – both what they half create,/ And what perceive;  • This is why the speaker still considers himself a "lover" of nature. It's because he feels that the "presence" connects everything. • So the speaker loves everything "that we behold”. • So the speaker is saying that he loves what his "eyes and ears" "half create" as well as "what they perceive". • the speaker suggests that whatever we see and hear is coloured by our thoughts.

29. well pleased to recognise/In nature and the language of the sense,The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/ The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/Of all my moral being. • The speaker is happy to see the "presence" in nature and the language of the sense" (in other words, in his own sense perceptions). • He calls the “presence” "the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/ The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/ Of all my moral being". • Clearly, this "presence" is very important to the speaker's spirituality if it's the "anchor" that keeps his "thoughts" pure, as well as the "guardian of his heart" and the "soul" of his "moral being."

30. Nor perchance,If I were not thus taught, should I the moreSuffer my genial spirits to decay: • The speaker says that even if he weren't "thus taught" – even if he hadn't learned about the "presence" in nature – he still wouldn't "suffer his genial spirits to decay." Meaning, he wouldn't allow his natural sympathy and kindness to go to waste.

31. For thou art with me here upon the banks/Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,/My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch/The language of my former heart, and read/My former pleasures in the shooting lights/Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while/May I behold in thee what I was once,/My dear, dear Sister! • The reason why he won't let his "genial spirits" go to waste is because "thou art" i.e. his sister Dorothy is with him on the banks of the river Wye. • He says that her voice reminds him of the way he used to feel ("the language of my former heart"), and her "wild eyes“ remind him of his "former pleasures“. • So the speaker seems to be saying that present-day Dorothy reacts to nature in the same way that he did when he was here five years ago. • He says that he can see his past self in her.

32. and this prayer I make,……Is full of blessings. • The speaker prays that he can continue to see his former self in his sister. • He prays to nature. • Nature will answer the speaker's prayer because he's a Nature-lover. • He says Nature will always lead us from one joy to another and make sure that we only have lofty thoughts and will keep our minds full of quietness and beauty. • He says nature will protect us from all the negativity of the world like - malicious people , misjudegement, people who look down upon others, or the daily rut os life. • Nature will help us keep “simple faith” and which will keep all help us overcome all the above mentioned things.

33. Therefore let the …sounds and harmonies;  • The speaker utters a blessing for Dorothy: "let the moon/ …blow against thee“ • The speaker wants Dorothy to experience nature the way that he experienced it five years ago. He wants her to have the same "wild ecstasies“. • So when Dorothy mature slike him he pleasure in natre will also become “sober” just like his did on his second visit. • Just as the "beauteous forms" lingeres in the speaker's memory, Dorothy's mind will become a "mansion for all lovely forms“.

34. oh! then,…And these my exhortations! • If all this happens – if Dorothy's mind becomes a dwelling place for memories of her visit then, later on, "if solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief" should upset her, she'll be able to dig into her memory and have "healing thoughts" that will make her feel better. • “Healing thoughts” - her memories of how she and brother stood at this place and her brother’s "exhortations" or encouragements. • The speaker imagines that Dorothy's memories of the scene will soothe her in the future, just as his memories of them soothed him in the past.

35. Nor, perchance – …and for thy sake! • Now the speaker imagines a future after he has died or when they're not together anymore. • He asks Dorothy if she'll forget having "stood together" on the banks of the Wye after he's gone. • He asks if she'll forget that her brother who has loved Nature for so long and come back to the banks of the Wye with an even deeper love of nature than he felt before. • The speaker does not expect an answer. Of course she won't forget! • She also won't forget, that after all this time the view from the banks of the Wye are even more precious to him than they were before – both for its own sake (because it’s a beautiful scene) and for her sake.