A Synopsis of Wordsworth's "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"

I. ( 1-23) He returns to the Wye after a long absence.

He is at the Wye again after a five year absence. It brings to his mind a more deep seclusion, and he describes the scene which he sees once again.

II. (24-49) In his absence images and feelings of this place have sustained him, guided his moral life, and even allowed him vision into the life of things.

Though absent long thoughts of this place have often been with him.

Not just images, but feelings too, which have a great influence on the moral life.

But he also owes to them a mood of serenity in which the body is laid asleep and in which our soul can see into the life of things.

III. (50-58) Even if this higher vision be impossible, he has often turned to memories of this place in dark times.

Even if this higher vision may be impossible, he has turned often to his thoughts of the Wye in the face of the joyless fever of the world.

IV. (59-112) He contemplates the differences in his love and reverence of nature from that former time to now. He has increased and deepened his love, though it is different now.

Now he looks on it again with hopes that it will serve him as a storehouse of images and feelings over the long years of the future.

He hopes that ...

Even though he is changed from his time here as a boy, when he was immersed in nature and needed nothing beyond the immediate interest of his glad animal movements and their surroundings.

He does not long for that lost time, for he has gained something: he can look upon nature not in the hour but also hearing the still sad music of humanity.

And he has felt the presence of a great motion and spirit that impels all things.

Therefore he is still a lover of nature and of the world of sense which we half-create, and recognizes in them both the guide and anchor of his moral being.

V. (113-160) Not only is he revived by nature, but also by his sister who reminds him of his former self and for whose sake he loves nature even more.

But even were he not so taught by nature, he would still not allow his heart to decay.

For his sister is here with him, and he can see in her the language of his former heart.

So he makes this prayer to Nature, who can impress our minds with beauties that will lead us to bless life despite its cruelties and dreariness:

Let Nature shine upon you, and in later years, when your mind is stored with these memories, if evil befall you, you will remember my words with tender joy.

Or if I should be gone, you will not forget that we stood here, and I a worshipper of nature came unwearied, nay more ardent in love.

Nor will you forget that after these many years these woods were more dear to me, both for their sake and for yours.

© 2006 David Banach 

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