By: William Wordsworth Lecture 04 Tintern Abbey By: William Wordsworth Lecture 04

Nor perchance, If I were not thus taught, should I the more Suffer my genial spirits to decay: Poet wonders what would have happened to him if he didn’t recognize nature’s blessings!

For thou art with me here upon the banks Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend, My dear, dear Friend Dorothy is introduced here, as a friend.

and in thy voice I catch The language of my former heart, and read my former pleasures in the shooting Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while May I behold in thee what I was once, My dear, dear Sister! In her youth, Wordsworth finds his former pleasures.

and this prayer I make, Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, Through all the years of this our life, to lead From joy to joy: Because Nature never betrays, it always gives joy. Nature personified as guide.

for she can so inform The mind that is within us, so impress With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, Different roles of Nature: a teacher, a nurse and as an art.

that neither evil tongues, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings. Nature protects us from every mischief, and prevents our hearts from being polluted or corrupted.

Therefore let the moon Shine on thee in thy solitary walk; And let the misty mountain-winds be free To blow against thee: Wordsworth’s love for his sister. Tells her to seek Nature’s blessings, and experience Nature like his former days.

and, in after years, When these wild ecstasies shall be matured Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms, Thy memory be as a dwelling-place For all sweet sounds and harmonies; He believes that later she too will find mature pleasures. ‘mind a mansion for lovely forms’ – store house of beauteous forms Connects the mind and the memory

oh! then, If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, And these my exhortations! These present joys will always give her strength

Nor, perchance — If I should be where I no more can hear Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams Of past existence — wilt thou then forget That on the banks of this delightful stream We stood together; Wordsworth asks her to remember him even when he is no more.

and that I, so long A worshipper of Nature, hither came Unwearied in that service: rather say With warmer love —oh! with far deeper zeal Of holier love. Poet declares himself a ‘worshipper of Nature’ He came here in servitude and in knowledge of Nature’s immense blessings.

Nor wilt thou then forget, That after many wanderings, many years Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs, And this green pastoral landscape, were to me More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake! The scene was memorable for its own sake and herself. Previous memory was of the place alone, but now Dorothy has become part of it.

Themes Poems explore the impact of passing time on his relationship with Nature. Wordsworth’s intellectual and spiritual transformation Wordsworth’s deepening relationship with nature- his mysticism & pantheism

panthism Idea of divinity of Nature – Nature is divine ‘pan’= everything ‘theos’ = God Irish writer, John Toland, first used the term in 1705, deriving it from Dutch philosopher Spinoza. Spinoza belived that everything that exists in Nature is ONE reality. For him God and Nature were two names for the same reality, God is the natural world and have no personality.

Paulo Cohelo- modern writer uses the idea in his works Root of the philosophy is the ‘All is one and Interconnected’ Harrison (1999): ‘In essence, pantheism holds that there is no divinity other than the universe. Different from Islamic view

Islamic pantheism Associated with Ibn e Arabi born in the year 560 A.H. (1165 A.D.) Islamic view of ‘wahdat al wujud’ says there is God and nothing else. For a sufi, there is only ONE reality or Haq – God. Islamic view is that this universe or nature and everything within it are manifestations of different attributes of God.

Wordsworth’s pantheism Wordsworth does not talk about the personal or biblical God, He talks about the Spirit of the universe that is everywhere. It is the result of his deep association with Nature, that he sees Nature as having influence in our lives.

Words worth’s relationship with Nature He describes the influences of Nature on individual rather than a simple observation of natural phenomena. In both the poem, when nature was described the main focus was the response of the poet himself to nature. In wordsworth’s philosophy man is inseparable from nature and shares a bond of unity with nature.