Wordsworth's descriptions are amazing. I found a few parts of Tintern Abbey particularly interesting:
1. "These beauteous forms...sensations sweet/felt in the blood, and felt along the heart...with tranquil restoration" (ln 22-30)
When in the city, Wordsworth uses the memory of this special spot to restore the stability of his mind. The description, though, is almost medicinal, as though the memory of the shapes and colors are curing his city melancholy.
2. "O sylvan Wye!" (ln 56)
It seems that only in moments of heightened emotion does Wordsworth turn to personification and use of metaphor. Otherwise, his language is quite ordinary and very accessible.
3. "I cannot paint what then I was...that time is past,/and all its aching joys are now no more,/and all its dizzy raptures" (ln 75-85)
This is Wordsworth's reflections on aging and mortality. Later he refers to "thoughtless youth" and "the language of my former heart" and "my former pleasures", as though these things are lost to him now. I found it interesting that in a piece about returning to a beloved place, Wordsworth focuses on how he has changed, and perhaps how the spot no longer brings the same magical feeling. It seems that Dorothy saves Wordsworth from drowning in ideas of his mortality. In her, Wordsworth can relive what it is to be young and to experience things -such as being on the banks of the Wye - for the first time. This is an Ode about rebirth.
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3 comments:
These are very interesting thoughts, Krishna. I also find it very interesting that Wordsworth's descriptions about aging and mortality bring to think about how focused we are on our image as we get older. Yes, youth is one of the most beautiful parts of our life in most cases. But it is also important to also focus on the life that we have had and take those beautiful memories and make them a nurturing aspect as we go on in life. In society today, body image is such a huge issue. Wordsworth portrays it in another level, which in my opinion, that's how it should be.
great comments. Wordsworth's language is remarkably and deliberately free of metaphors and other literary tropes--he was attempting to break away from the highly ornamented poetry of the 18c and write something that was closer to the way people actually speak--in part because he felt that was the best way to represent true feelings. His most famous poem on aging is the the "Intimations" ode, which I recommend reading or rereading in this context.
I think Wordsworth would agree with your remarks about aging, Fior, which are very eloquent. He refers to a time when his sister's mind will be "a mansion for all lovely forms"--it is these early experiences that make this possible. I think it is a beautiful wish to make for someone.
I also agree with Fior that Wordsworth shows a different side to life. The side that can live on forever and be forever beautiful. It is a part of him in which no one can ever take from him but in turn, he gives these feelings more meaning to it by sharing it with his sister and doing to her what these memories have done for him.
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