What is the significance of an important passage in "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"?

Wordsworth's poem offers numerous passages that express important ideas and personal observations by the poet. Much of the poem deals with his dynamic relationship with nature, drawing contrasts between what that relationship once was and what it is presently as he surveys the beautiful valley of the River Wye below him. The contrasts are rooted in the poet's recognition that his youth has passed; he is no longer "what I was when first I came among these hills." Then after remembering himself somewhat wistfully as a young man, full of life and passion, he writes these lines:

That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompense.

The passage makes a significant statement of personal growth and wisdom; the poet does not lose heart or grieve for his lost youth because he recognizes that with age comes "other gifts" that make up for its loss. Following this passage, Wordsworth writes of what he finds now in nature: not the "coarser pleasures of my boyish days," but "the joy of elevated thoughts" and "a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused." The "aching joys" and "dizzy raptures" of youth are no more, but in their place he has come to know the joy and "sublime" sense of the spiritual.

How is "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" a philosophical poem?

"Tintern Abbey" is philosophical in that it represents a particular kind of epistemology, or way of knowing things, and posits a particular relationship between subject and object.

In the poem, Wordsworth returns to Tintern Abbey, a site he last visited years before. He is drawn by the beauty of the place and writes evocatively about the landscape. But there is also a sense that the place has described him. That is, the perception of the poet constitutes the landscape, but in being perceived the landscape also changes the poet. Rather than perceiving outside reality as separate and objective, the poet is able to "see into the life of things," a phrase that suggests that reality is as much a "seeing into" as it is any sort of essential "life." It is through beholding this landscape that Wordsworth is able to appreciate the difference between the person who first visited here five years ago and how he is now; somehow the passage of time, and even the concept of memory itself, is made understandable or brought to the foreground by the poet's reaction to the landscape.

The poem is also philosophical in that it asserts the importance of aesthetics. It is the poet's ability to perceive beauty that forms the vital link between him and the landscape. In fact, the articulation of this relationship is aesthetic, since it can only happen in poetry. In this sense, poetry becomes the language of philosophy, since the essential nature of reality is poetic.

Analyze "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by Wordsworth.

Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" is free verse, which has no rhyme, in iambic pentameter (i.e., unstressed - stressed ^/ for five feet), which is in keeping with Wordsworth's theory that poetry should be composed in the diction of daily conversation: Iambs approximate English conversation because of the untressed - stressed nature of English words, a condition not true of all languages. In the iambic scheme Wordsworth interjects spondees at the beginning of some lines (e.g., lines 98-99; 105-107; 111-112) to underscore the emphasized thought of the line (e.g., "Of all my moral being ..."; "If I were not thus taught ..").

The overall structure of the poem continually opposes one thing or concept to another, for instance, the burden of wordly care opposed to the "serene and blessed mood" (lines 39-55; 42) or the fortifying power of nature opposed to negative influences of humankind (lines 121-135). The central and principle opposition is that of the relationship between "the mind of man," humankind's perceptual faculty, and nature at large, creating an ideology that describes perception as active instead of passive and creative instead of receptive. Wordsworth embeds these oppositions in a narrative that explores his own perceptions of the area surrounding Tintern Abbey from the vantage point of his childhood, his adulthood and from five years after his adult perception.

This poem describes the poet's return to Tintern Abbey, an old, ruined monastery in England. He was struck then and now by the stillness and calmness of the scene, including its orchards, hedge-rows, and "pastoral farms." He has spent the five years since last viewing Tintern Abbey in a city, and during this time the serene images of the place have returned to his mind's eye, putting him in a state of reverie in which the "heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world/Is lightened." Now, having been away, he recognizes that he viewed the countryside differently than when he first saw it. It goes well beyond simple enjoyment of nature's beauty, to a "sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused," a divine presence that moves him. His recognition of this turns his thoughts inward, an example of the power of nature to spark self-reflection. The final part of the poem is his hope that his sister, who is with him at Tintern Abbey, might experience the same sensation he does.

Does the appeal of 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey' lie more in its poetic quality than its philosophical content?

Arguably the most delightfully Romantic of the Romantic poets, Wordsworth is one of the Romantic movement's foremost practitioners For, Wordsworth urged poets to explore their innermost feelings and become attuned to the sensations of their souls. Thus, much of his poetry has a spiritual and almost mystical quality. In his verse, Wordsworth embraces life and experiences what is Classically termed the Sublime (Longinus), a realm of experience beyond rational thought in his worship of Nature." Another aspect of Romanticism that figures into this poem is that of subjectivity. Clearly, Wordsworth's personal reveries and his connection of "[T]he landscape with the quiet of the sky" along with his own feelings of solace and restoration in Nature are evinced repeatedly through his poem. Indeed,"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" abounds with beautiful ideas awash with imagery and lyricism. so lovely is the verse itself, flowing like the stream of the Wye, as the reader hears and sees that much of the philosophical import is subordinated to the experience of the shifting boundaries between the outer world and the poet's inner reality.

• Poet's connection to outer world and inner reality 

As the poet gazes at the "beauteous forms," mountain springs, the woods, and the farms that abound in the valley of the River Wye, near the great ruins of a medieval church, he is emotionally moved and senses the restorative power of feeling:

In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood and felt along the heart,
And passing even into my purer mind
With tranquil restoration:—feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure;

Further, Nature becomes for the poet a source of solace as he becomes attuned to his 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.

• Experience of the sublime

As the poet recalls his youth, he compares himself to a "roe," or young deer, overcome by sensory experience and subject to "dizzy raptures" (l.85), but now he feels a stronger connection and has learned from nature and no longer perceives it as "thoughtless youth." 

And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,

Interestingly, the poetic form of the lines reflect the poet's youth "like a roe" as they are enjambed while as a mature man, the lines flow in free verse as he engages in reflection and the experience of the sublime, or experience beyond rational thought--"these wild ecstasies." Sense perception is directed inward and deeper knowledge attained. In line 94, Wordsworth writes of "A presence that disturbs me with joy," a paradoxical phrase that points to the contradictions existing in spiritual experience. In the following lines, this use of paradox is reflected in the blank verse that has its iambic pentameter, the short and long pattern of stresses as a symmetrical match for the poet's thoughts.

• Spiritual, almost mystical quality

Repeatedly, Wordsworth employs the words soul, heart, and spirit. Near the end of the poem, in line 153, he is "A worshipper of Nature."

With warmer love--oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love.

Nature’s sublimating effect on his mind preserves and strengthens the poet's faith that the world holds spiritual values and blessings. The poetic form, imagery, and metaphor all serve to reflect the experiences of the poet.