William Wordsworth, one of the greatest Romantic poets the world has ever seen, pioneered the movement of deliberately breaking with established mores. The magic of the words that the poems weave was previously used to venerate great heroes or great love. The poets who preceded Wordsworth often exposed the ills of the upper classes of people. It was Wordsworth who distanced himself from this tradition and began studying ordinary people, such as farmers and shepherds. More importantly, he was generous in studying and interpreting nature and daffodils rather than dealing with society. The poet’s personal views and feelings also began to affect his poems more strongly than they had the early versifiers, and his lyrical genius began to shine.
The poem Tintern Abbey clearly testifies to Wordsworth’s love for nature. From his childhood, Wordsworth had established a strong bond with nature and as time passed the relationship witnessed transformations, maturing his poetic abilities. As a child, he was in love with the “joyful movements of animals” as he frolicked in the lap of nature, but with the advent of youth, he fell in love with the beautiful color and sounds of the natural scenery of the heavenly Lake District in England. The link seemed to stop there for some time. However, more would come and with his aging as he equated nature with God Himself. In other words, both your heart and soul begin to draw sustenance from this tool of God from this point on. By particularizing Nature with the definite article ‘the’, Wordsworth implies the exclusivity of his guardian angel in the sense that it is she who protects him from the harsh cruelties of other people and also strengthens the moral fabric of his character. The poet solemnly says that, unlike human beings, nature never betrays the heart that loves her. Again it is the sublime face of Nature that has taught him to approach the human being. The sad melody of humanity is clearly heard by the poet at this juncture. Being physically present by the side of a beautiful river from where you can see distant snow-capped mountain peaks, your spirit spreads wings and soars to impossible heights, never experienced before. Going into a trance, the poet feels transported to another world where everything in the universe seems to be connected.
The language of the poem is not very simple due to the deep and enigmatic meditation that Wordsworth is immersed in this poem. The poet’s love for nature, as well as his affection for his sister, have been clearly expressed in the poem. We are simply won over by the indisputable feelings articulated in the poem. Negative phrases such as “it has not been for me what a landscape is like for the blind eye”, “not without borrowing from the eyes”, etc. They have added vigor and a sense of conviction to the poet’s words. Vivid images like those of water falling with a “murmur from within” and smoke rising from a wandering inhabitant’s hut capture the soft sound of the river and unexpected smoke in the forest.
The use of various rhetorical figures such as alliteration (Still sad music of humanity), metaphor (Half-extinguished thoughts), simile (The sounding waterfall torments me like a passion) and imagery (Green to the door itself) have made what the poem is, an unforgettable lyrical verse capable of putting to rest the indeterminate disturbances of the human heart.