Friday, May 15, 2020

Tintern Abbey and the Place of Nature Essay - 1562 Words

Tintern Abbey and the Place of Nature Throughout Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth constructs nature as both a healing entity and a teacher or moral guardian. This paper considers Wordsworths treatment of nature in relation to both Ralph Pites discussion of the relationship between the ecology movement and Romantic poetry and Richard Gravils explication of the historical context of the Romantic eras system of nature in relation to Tintern Abbey. Nature as Healer? Wordsworth ascribes healing properties to nature in Tintern Abbey. This is a fairly obvious conclusion, drawn from his references to tranquil restoration (31) that his memory of the Wye offered him in lonely rooms, and mid the din / Of towns and†¦show more content†¦Arguably, this possibility is evident in the passage describing These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, / Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits / along the woods and copses lose themselves (11-13). These lines could be interpreted as a harmonious inclusion of human agricultural life within its natural environment, but I find there is something portentous in the image of the plots of cottage ground being indiscernible from the wilderness as seen from Wordsworths vantage point. It suggests that nature has the power to swallow up human existence, and that survival-represented by the effort to grow food-is uncertain. The extent of natures power is alluded to in the sounding cataract and the steep and lofty cliffs that exist independent of man; they are unchanging, as Wordsworth notes that these things are the same after his absence of five years. Such constancy reminds us of our own fragility. A power structure between man and nature is present in the poem, and while nature may have the power to alleviate emotional suffering, nature also has the power to harm us not through malevolence, but through indifference. In considering this double-edged relationship with nature, Richard Gravil discusses Wordsworth in relation to Baron dHolbach and notes that: Whether dHolbachs nature and Wordsworths are compatible depends on which passages one selects. Sometimes nature is presented in distinctlyShow MoreRelatedDiction In Tintern Abbey1276 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Wordsworth’s â€Å"Tintern Abbey† explores the relationship of the narrator (presumably Wordsworth) with the unchanging, pastoral landscape of Tintern Abbey, as well as that with his sister. Wordsworth uses diction to show that during his youthful days, he fervently enjoyed this natural scene with a childlike innocence, but now older, he struggles to see the same scene in the same light and instead, with effort, views the landscape in a more emotional, chastening, and sad manner. 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