An extract from "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth

 

                            The sounding cataract[M1] 

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[M2] ; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm[M3] ,

By thought supplied[M4] , nor any interest

Unborrowed from the eye[M5] .—That[M6]  time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I[M7] , nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts[M8] 

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompense[M9] . For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth[M10] ; but hearing oftentimes

The still sad music [M11] of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue[M12] .—And I have felt

A presence [M13] 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[M14] :

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things. 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; well pleased to recognise

In nature and the language of the sense[M15] 

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

Of all my moral being.

 

Written by William Wordsworth in July 1789 after a walking tour with his sister near the Welsh Borders, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” describes his encounters with the countryside on the banks of the River Wye and grows into an outline of his general philosophy. The section we are looking at is an extract from the poem. This section deals with three main themes: enjoying the moment, presence of a universal spirit in nature, interconnectedness of all things in nature,    

 

                         The sounding cataract[M16] 

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[M17] ; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm[M18] ,

By thought supplied[M19] , nor any interest

Unborrowed from the eye[M20] .—

 

In the first run-on line of the extract, the poetic persona says that the memory of the boisterous river “[h]aunted” him “like a passion”. By using the two terms haunted and passion, the poetic persona tells the reader how strong the memory of the river was. He felt equally passionate about “the tall rock,/ [t] mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood.” Those sights have created in his mind “a feeling and a love”. He is satisfied with the beauty of things nearby. As a result he feels no need seek faraway sites, or imagined sites, or “any interest/ [u]nborrowed from the eye.” The run-on line ends with an apostrophe signaling that he was overcome by emotions and was silent for a while. This section of the extract highlights the theme of enjoying the moment and appreciating it without being regretful of its passing.     

 

                                   That[M21]  time is past,

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this

Faint I[M22] , nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts[M23] 

Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,

Abundant recompense[M24] . For I have learned

To look on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth[M25] ; but hearing oftentimes

The still sad music [M26] of humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue[M27] .—

 

All those happy memories are now in the past. The poetic persona says that he was too “[f]aint” or weak to experience such pleasure more than once, so he was not going to “mourn” or “murmur” about not being able to experience the adventure again.  The poet uses inversion in “Not for this,/ Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur” in order to highlight the section “Not for this” and to maintain the rhythm and the rhyme. In addition, the poet uses parallelism in “nor mourn nor murmur”. The phrase also creates an auditory image through alliteration and assonance. That kind of  extreme form of joy cannot be felt for a long time by a weak human being like him for a long time or repeatedly – it is a once in a life time thing/ joy. After his visit to Tintern Abby and the surrounding, he had other experiences which were also wonderful so that he thinks they were “[a]bundant recompense” for not being able to go back to Tintern Abby. Now that he was an older man, the way he looked on nature had changed from the way he used to look at nature when he was “thoughtless” or immature youth. Now when he looked at nature he hears the “still sad music of humanity” – the sad story of human beings. The music may be sad but not “harsh” or “grating” – cruel or unpleasant; however, the music has ample power so that it could “chasten and subdue” – teach a lesson and pacify - those who listen to it. Here, nature is looked on as a teacher who can point out our mistakes and calm us down when we go wrong.

  

                                      And I have felt

A presence [M28] 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[M29] :

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things.

 

In his observations of nature, the poetic persona had felt the presence of some kind of energy or a universal spirit that was found in everything animate and inanimate that had filled his mind with “elevated thoughts”. That had made him joyful. In this section of the poem the poet deals with the theme of interconnectedness of all living and nonliving things.

 

                               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; well pleased to recognise

In nature and the language of the sense[M30] 

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

Of all my moral being.  

 

Therefore, he says, that he loved nature, both what he saw and what he imagined or understood. For the poetic persona, he happily recognized nature as anchor of his “purest thoughts” and the nurse, the guide and the guardian of his heart, and the soul of his moral being. In the last section, the poet once again highlights nature’s role as a teacher.     

---

 [M1]The river flowing making a lot of noise

 [M2]He couldn’t see enough of them. He wanted to see more and more of them

 [M3]Beautiful things in far away places

 [M4]Things created by our imagination

 [M5]Things that he had not seen

 [M6]Use of aposiopesis

 [M7]That kind of  extreme form of joy cannot be felt for a long time by weak human being like him for a long time or repeatedly – it is a once in a life time thing joy

 [M8]Wonderful experiences

 [M9]The later experiences were enough repayment for not being able to experience Tintern Abby again

 [M10]Not as an immature young man who enjoys it for the moment

 [M11]Oxymoron

 [M12]Teaches one a lesson and pacifies one

 [M13]A force a nature

 [M14]All living and none living things are deeply connected

 [M15]What I understand from senses

 [M16]The river flowing making a lot of noise

 [M17]He couldn’t see enough of them. He wanted to see more and more of them

 [M18]Beautiful things in far away places

 [M19]Things created by our imagination

 [M20]Things that he had not seen

 [M21]Use of aposiopesis

 [M22]That kind of  extreme form of joy cannot be felt for a long time by weak human being like him for a long time or repeatedly – it is a once in a life time thing joy

 [M23]Wonderful experiences

 [M24]The later experiences were enough repayment for not being able to experience Tintern Abby again

 [M25]Not as an immature young man who enjoys it for the moment

 [M26]Oxymoron

 [M27]Teaches one a lesson and pacifies one

 [M28]A force a nature

 [M29]All living and none living things are deeply connected

 [M30]What I understand from senses