William Wordsworth and Tintern Abbey

1
William Wordsworthand Tintern Abbey

• Fawn, Brandon, Henry, Emily

2
William Wordsworth of England1770-1850
3
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
• Wordsworths hometown was in the beautiful Lake
  District prompting his early love and
  appreciation of nature, along with imagination

4
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

5
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, Wordsworths sister, was very important
  to him
• She experienced nature at an early age and her
  thoughts and impressions influenced Wordsworth

6
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.

7
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

8
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

9
Pages 736-741
10
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 speakers 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

11
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

12
More Devices

• Symbolism is prevalent through the poem though
  one stands out
• In a poem about maturity, unripe fruit symbolizes
  the young speakers transformation into a
  ripened speaker towards the end.
• Personification is used to bring the Wye River to
  life as the speakers spiritual place, a living
  place
• O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer tho the woods, how
  often has my spirit turned to thee!

13
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
• Combination of blank verse and unrhymed iambic
  pentameter
• Diction is forthright and spoken from the heart
  in a plain manner

14
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.

15
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/Lite
  rary/Wordsworth.htm
• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jwordworth.ht
  m
• http//www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.ht
  m
• http//www.english.upen.edu/jenglish/Courses/Spri
  ng2001/040/preface1802.html
• http//www.shmoop.com/wordsworth/family.html
• http//downloads.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/audio/mp
  3/wordworth_tintern_abbey.mp3
• http//www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/reader/tabbey.html
• http//www.gradesaver.com/wordsworth-poetical-work
  s/study-guide/section5/