The Shift from the real to imaginative to imaginary in poem “Tintern Abbey” (first verse paragraph)
The first
verse paragraph of
the poem Tintern Abbey presents a significant
shift from the real to
imaginative to imaginary.
“Five years have past; five summers, with the
length / Of five long
winters! and again I
hear” (lines 1-2, Tintern Abbey)
The
first line of
the poem does not express only the
gap of
five years between 1793-1798 but the gap of five years also indicates his suffering
from the French revolution (1789)
and Reign of terror (1793-1794) . The narrator has
returned to Tintern
Abbey after five
years. According to
Harold Bloom, “ the exclamation
mark of the
second line indicates
the surprise of
the overwhelming sense
of the past.”1
The narrator has
returned to the
landscape of Tintern
Abbey with certain
hopes and desires. He hopes that
the landscape will
provide him the absolute
seclusion from humanity
and sorrowful experiences of last
five years. He was
in the support
of French revolution
in the hope
for change but
the bloodshed and
terror brought an
end to his
support.
“It is sometimes assumed that the execution
of Louis XVI (21 January 1793) and the
Terror(1793-1794) brought to an end Wordsworth’s support for the revolution and
his republican principles more broadly”2(William Wordsworth in
context, chapter 20, Revolution)
In
the third line of the poem, narrator hints about the real image of landscape.
“These
waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With
a soft inland murmur.”
“These”
is a plural form of “this” and “this” is a determiner which indicates
something/someone nearby. The use of “these waters” presents the real image of the landscape.
“Do I
behold these steep
and lofty cliffs,
That on
a wild secluded
scene impress
Thoughts of
more deep seclusion;
and connect
The landscape
with the quiet
of the sky.”
These four
lines hints the
imaginative phase of
the first verse paragraph . The subject has changed
from “I” to
“steep and lofty
cliffs”. The narrator
connects the landscape
with the “quiet
of the sky”
through “steep and
lofty cliffs”. “the quiet
of the sky”
is significance of
his want to
erase humanity and the
noises of revolution
from his mind.
“
Once again I see
These hedge- rows,
hardly hedge-rows” (line
14-15, first verse
paragraph)
In this
line, the use
of “hardly” suggests
that he tries
to come out
from the memory
of last visit
to the second visit . The landscape of
Tintern Abbey has
changed in last
five years and
the narrator tries to un-acknowledge this
change. This un-acknowledgement of the narrator
suggests the imaginative
phase.
“with some
uncertain notice, as
might seem
Of vagrant
dwellers in the
houseless woods,
Or the
some Hermit’s cave,
where by his
fire
The hermit
sits alone.” (line 19-22, first
verse paragraph, Tintern
Abbey)
These lines present
an account of
imaginary phase of
the narrator. “might
seem” constructs the
imaginary phase. In the line
seventeen, the “wreaths of
the smoke” suggest
the human presence
on the landscape
of Tintern Abbey. In lines twenty and twenty one,
“vagrant dwellers” and “Hermit” hint that the narrator acknowledges human
presence on the landscape but he imagines this sense of human presence as the
presence of “vagrant dwellers” and “hermit”.
William and Dorothy Wordsworth set out from Bristol
toward the banks of the Wye on July 10, 1798. An overland trip about twelve
miles brought them to the hamlet of Aust. On the east of the seven Estuary,
where they took the ferry across to Beachley on the small promontory which just
out to form the east bank of the river Wye. A ten mile walk brought them to a
point across the Wye from Tintern, which was at that time an iron-working
village of about forty houses. 3
This is a
passage of the essay “Wordsworth’s tour of the Wye 1798” written by John Bard
Mc Nulty which indicates human presence on the landscape. The narrator has returned to landscape after the gap
of five years and he imagines the landscape as he wants. He wants to erase the
noise of revolution and reign of terror from his mind. He wants seclusion from
the humanity. When he returns to Tintern Abbey in 1798, he finds that the
landscape is not complete “wild secluded scene”. The narrator tries to
un-acknowledge the human presence on the landscape and he presents the
imaginary phase by “hermit”. The
use of “these
waters ” in the
first verse paragraph
of Tintern Abbey
presents the real
vision of the
landscape. The “steep and
lofty cliffs” is a
subject in line
five which impress the thoughts
of seclusion and the un-acknowledgment of “hedge-rows”
and “wreaths of
the smoke” make the imaginative vision of
the narrator. “the vagrant
dwellers” and “the hermit
sits alone” form
the imaginary phase
of the narrator .
Work cited
1.
Harold Bloom, The
scene of Instruction: Tintern Abbey
2.
William Wordsworth in
context, chapter 20, The
Revolution
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