mankind and nature. Throughout the poem, the narrator examines how the natural environment can inspire his spirit independent of inhospitable surroundings. The narrator also laments the passing of time and explores how his earlier perception of the serene environment has changed. Thepastoral landscape described in the poem conjures feelings of ecstasy and joy in the narrator. In moments of uncertainty and anguish, the narrator simply needs to recall the memory of the natural landscape in order to find tranquility. As the narrator speaks about the peaceful atmosphere along the Wye River in Wales, he tells his sister that he hopes she will one day have the ability to experience the restorative power of nature.

This poem, whose official title is “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798”, is a major narrative statement expressing the heart of the “Romantic” movement:  We go to Nature (here represented by the ruins and the river and banks and sycamore tree) to recall and re-“feel” the joyful emotions from our more innocent past, to “recollect in tranquility” the “powerful emotions” that our earth-life has separated us from (Wordsworth in another poem refers to the “toys” that this world places in our childhood lap).  For the first-person narrator of this poem describes the scene he has not “seen” in a long time, but which he “sees” almost daily in his mind, his imagination (“These beauteous forms,/Through a  long absence...feelings too of /Of unremembered pleasure” ). They also remind him of a lost love (“on the banks of this delightful stream/We stood together…”). 

William Wordsworth was a renowned English Romantic poet. This being said, his work reflected the characteristics typical of the English Romantic Period.

The characteristics of the Romantic Period were as follows:

1. Imagination was highly prized. Given that the previous period, the Age of Reason, looked down upon the imagination (by instead raising up the importance of factual and influential texts), the Romantics embraced imagination. According to the Romantics, the imagination was the ultimate tool used to shape creative power.

2. Nature was also highly respected. The use of nature mirrored the religious imagery used in prior periods. Natural elements, given they were born of the divine, suggested that nature existed as an element of divine nature.

3. Symbolism was used in much of the Romantic period given the symbol showed both imagination and the fact that nature could communicate.

In Wordworth's "Tintern Abbey", one can see how nature heavily impacted him. Wordsworth states that he is standing above the abbey looking down upon the natural elements which pulled him to the spot. Wordsworth admits in the poem that he is a "worshiper of Nature." The capitalization of nature shows an even deeper meaning than one may first discern: nature is personified- Wordsworth is giving nature the power a human typically possesses. This deepens the understanding of his love of the element.

Wordsworth recognizes the fact of the power of nature given that he knows nature will forever be able to remind him of who he once was.

For Wordsworth, nature was the most powerful thing on earth.