The Romantic imagination in Tintern Abbey

Over the past couple weeks, looking at a variety of poetry and painting that deals with this idea of the Romantic dream and imagination, it struck me very varied the conception of this idea really was. For someone like Henry Fuseli, it was this extremely macabre, haunting pictorial realm. For Coleridge in "Kubla Khan," it was a visionary, fantastical landscape. However, for Wordsworth, in Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, I felt that it was something much quieter and more internal, exemplified by the lines:

"...Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world
Is lighten'd:--that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on,
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame,
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended , we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things." (lines 36-5o, "Tintern Abbey")

For me, this was the section of Tintern Abbey that best exemplified the Romantic imagination. It is the moment in which Wordsworth turns from what he can see to what he can see within--to his thoughts and ideas. This passage begins with heavy language, as he speaks of the "burthen of mystery" and "the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world", but it makes a dramatic shift as the burden "is lighten'd", and he transitions into his description of what he considers to be the Romantic imagination. He creates Romantic imagination as an inward reflection, completely serene and lacking the sublime elements we see in something like Fuseli's The Nightmare. It is a state of being that is removed from the body, as one becomes "a living soul" as "Even the motion of... human blood [is] suspended." He posits it as almost indescribable, using smooth and serene language without visual imagery as Coleridge does in Kubla Khan--instead the Romantic imagination is characterised by pure feeling and understanding, or more specifically, feeling and understanding the most essential and simple elements of life, as "the power of harmony... and joy" allow us in this state to "see into the life of things." Overall, Wordsworth's version of the Romantic imagination presents a sharp contrast to other versions of the idea that we have looked at in class, as well as paves the way for the authors' further reflections in the poem.