WORDSWORTH

Tintern Abbey

This poem is resonant of another of Wordsworth's poems, "It is a calm and beauteous evening." Lines 50-55, Wordsworth talks about how nature is a source consolation "in darkness and amid the many shapes of joyless daylight." It is interesting to me how often people turn to nature for comfort. Is it because there is a certain peacefulness in the cool wind breezing through the leaves? Or is it the calm sound, the noise-free arena of the greens that offers solace? I think that nature offers comfort because it reminds us that there is something greater than us, beyond our daily problems. We see that life is not only what goes on with us as people, but includes those things that cannot speak...at least not like we do. In lines 60-75, Wordsworth discusses how he has changed from his first visit ti Tintern Abbey. He states that "[w]hile here I stand, not only with the sense / Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts / That in this moment there is life and food / For future years. And so I dare to hope, / Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first / I came among these hills...I cannot paint / What then I was." I'll never forget how I felt when I first went to England and saw what grass should be, but I have no idea what I'll be like when I return, Will I still have the same sense of awe and breathtaking muteness? Or will I "have learned / To look on nature, not as in the hour / Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes / The still, sad music of humanity?" My favorite lines are 93-111. There's really nothing I can say about it that will do it any justice, so you'll have to read it on your own and feel its greatness. In lines115-120, Wordsworth seems to be addressing his sister Dorothy, and discussing how he sees his old self in her voice, her "wild eyes" and her awe.

Ode to Immortality

This is a serious, somber treatment of a high subject like death. Questions that Wordsworth seems to be raising is "Have I changed?" and "How does someone retain enthusiasm for life?" Sound replaces sight to rekindle feelings of nature (Be now forever taken from my sight). In stanza five, Wordsworth states that "Heaven lies in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close / Upon the growing Boy / But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, / He sees it in his joy." What does WW mean when he says the "prison-house?" Perhaps he's talking about custom, imitation and other aspects of society. In stanza seven, WW discusses how children revel in learned things, that there is little creativity, and that this is a type of "prison-house." But in line 99, there is hope that "this be thrown aside, / And with new joy and pride / The little Actor cons another part." In stanza ten, WW states that there are things in childhood that we can never regain (Though nothing can bring back the hour / Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower), but there are also things that only come with age (Strength in what remains behind; / In the primal sympathy / Which having been must ever be; / In the soothing thoughts that spring / Out of human suffering; / In the faith that looks through death, / In the years that bring the philosophic mind).