William Wordsworth

and
“Tintern Abbey”
William Wordsworth of
England
1770-1850
Influence of Early Life
• Both parents had died by the time
Wordsworth was 13
• John Wordsworth, his father, was very
educated and liberal and encouraged his
children to be the same
• Wordsworth’s hometown was in the
beautiful Lake District prompting his early
love and appreciation of nature, along with
imagination
Influence of Other Life
Experiences
• Visit to France during the French
Revolution
• Friendship with Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
• Affair with Annette Vallon while aboard
that produced his first daughter
• Death of several of his children
 Influence of Nature
and Dorothy
• Believed all individuals have potential to
reach a transcendental understanding of
nature through his or her relationship with
nature
• Believed nature was the glue that binds
everything together
• Dorothy, Wordsworth’s sister, was very
important to him
• She experienced nature at an early age
and her thoughts and impressions
influenced Wordsworth
“Lines Composed a
Few Miles above
Tintern Abbey, on
Revisiting the Banks
of the Wye during a
Tour. July 13,1798”
“Tintern Abbey” is the
cumulative reactions of the
narrator as he returns to a
place he has not seen in five
years. The narrator reflects
over the changes of the past
years and the changes to
come.
 Setting
• 13 July 1798 on the
banks of the Wye
above Tintern Abbey

• Tintern Abbey: Abbey

left to decay in 1536
by Henry VII

• Wye River: 5th largest

river in the UK forming
the border between
England and Wales
 The Basics
• Published as a lyrical
ballad in Lyrical
Ballads

• Assumed the narrator

is Wordsworth himself

• Dorothy is referred to
as “Friend” rather than
sister

• Does not actually take

place within Tintern
Abbey
 Breaking It Down
• Stanza 1 begins in the present as the speaker describes
the beauty around him

• Stanza 2 departs to the past as the speaker remembers

how scenes of the place sustained him the past 5 years

• Stanza 3 returns to the present as the speaker

contemplates his connection to nature

• Stanza 4 tells the reader the speaker’s joy at being back in

such a wonderful place and his happiness at the new
memories being formed

• Stanza 5 explains to the reader the connection the

speaker feels between nature and his sister
 Literary Devices
• The tone of “Tintern Abbey” is nostalgic and of hope of the
future

• “to them [memories] I may have owed another gift...a

blessed mood”

• “therefore am I still a lover of the meadows and the

woods and mountains

• Imagery plays a vital part as Wordsworth paints vivd

pictures of the scenery

• “waters rolling from their mountain springs”

• “the mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood”

 More Devices
• Symbolism is prevalent through the poem though
one stands out

• In a poem about maturity, unripe fruit symbolizes

the young speaker’s transformation into a
“ripened” speaker towards the end.

• Personification is used to bring the Wye River to life

as the speaker’s spiritual place, a living place

• “O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer tho’ the woods,

how often has my spirit turned to thee!’’
 More Devices
• There are multiple themes in “Tintern Abbey”, most
encompassing memories and their effects on life

• “felt in blood, and felt along the heart”

• “nor wilt thou then forget, that after many wanderings,

many years of absence”

• The diction and form of the poem tend to hold the reader
and impact him in a personal way

• blank verse or un-rhymed iambic pentameter

• Diction is forthright and spoken from the heart in a plain

manner
 Final
Thoughts

“Tintern Abbey” focuses on

memories, specifically childhood
memories and their effect on
adulthood. It addresses the pure
relationship with nature in childhood
and how that relationship gradually
dissipates in adulthood, but maturity
of the mind in adulthood
compensates for the loss of the
purity.
 Photos and artwork
representing Tintern Abbey
• E 138 Wordsworth Tintern Abbey.pdf
 Works Cited
• http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/296

• http://kirjasto.sci.fi/wordwor.htm

• http://incompetech.com/authors/wordsworth/

• http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Literary/Wordsworth.htm

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jwordworth.htm

• http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.htm

• http://www.english.upen.edu/~jenglish/Courses/Spring2001/040/preface1802.html

• http://www.shmoop.com/wordsworth/family.html

• http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/audio/mp3/wordworth_tintern_abbey.mp3

• http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/tabbey.html

• http://www.gradesaver.com/wordsworth-poetical-works/study-guide/section5/