Monday, November 28, 2011

Cycles in Tintern Abbey

I found Wordsworth's poem "Tintern Abbey" to exhibit a similar yet somewhat more pronounced form of cyclic language than does "To Autumn" or any of the other nature-focused poems we have read. Keats and Blake tend to address nature more linearly (first you're alive, then you're dead, then other things can live), and others, such as Shelley, address it spontaneously (eg, in this moment, the wind is blowing, the stars are glittering, etc). Here, I value nature's perceived continuity.
I believe Wordsworth's focus on the moment as part of a phase and neither a beginning nor an end nor instance allows the poem to transcend our ideas of time as punctuated. This then sets the stage for the remainder of the poem, where he wishes nature were his original teacher, that he might consider time on earth less futile (140-147).

1 comment:

  1. It's interesting how, also, the poem's form is without obvious ending. With a stanza, you decide the ending point in advance (10 lines, say). With a verse paragraph like this, it's openended.

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