The Light of Setting Suns: Wordsworth and the Sublimity of Nature

Wordsworth’s meditation on his visit to the banks of the Wye at Tintern Abbey is an excellent example of a characteristic poem encapsulating the values of the romantic age. While his claims that the poem was conceived entirely in his head and transcribed with no changes have faced a great deal of skepticism from many literary critics, his deeply immersive language used to describe the power and beauty of nature is nevertheless an amazing of its own that has helped characterized some of the connecting themes of the Romantic Age.

Although the Tintern Abbey itself is never physically described, its presence in the title immediately suggests religious connotations to the poem, however in line with the “romantic spirit”, Wordsworth religion appears to be nature, with a pantheistic perspective present throughout all mentions of God. For example, “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,/ A motion and a spirit, that impels/ All thinking things, all objects of all though,/And rolls through all things…” (96-103). We see hear that the motion and a spirit are entirely natural forms, suggesting that God is quite literally nature, and not some anthropomorphized removed being. These lines are also excellent examples of the way Wordsworth is able to paint the picturesque with such ease; moving from the light of setting suns to the round ocean and blue sky, and then into green meadows and woods, Wordsworth identifies nature as the “anchor of my purest thoughts” and the “guardian of my heart, and soul/ Of all my moral being.” Clearly to Wordsworth, nature itself is a religious experience.

While I too have to remain skeptical of whether such a well-crafted poem could be conceived fully in his mind and then transcribed literally, Wordsworth’s reflections on nature and the power it holds over him are supreme examples of romantic literature.