Wordsworth Essay, Research Paper
Tintern Abbey: Seeing into the Life of Things
What does Wordsworth see when he “sees into the life of things?” Remember that in the lines leading up to his portrayal of the “blessed mood” that gives him sight, Wordsworth has been pointing to the power of human memory and reflection. And the importance of memory and reflection are made plain by the shifting time perspectives in the poem. The poem begins with the speaker on the banks of the Wye for the first time in five years. At first the poet emphasizes the way in which his present experience is similar to that of five years ago. More than once he tells us that “again” he has certain experiences in this secluded spot, a place that is evidently a refuge for him. He then tells how he has though of “these beauteous forms’ at many difficult times since he was last at this spot, five years before. At these moments, his recollections of his time on the banks of the Wye seems to lift his spirits and restore him. He then points to what might, at first glance, seem to be impossible: “unremembered pleasures.” How can it make sense to say that we recall “unremembered pleasures”? If they are unremembered, how can we be thinking about them? This strange phrase might point to some vague pleasant experience in the past, one that we cannot clearly name. But it could also mean that we can now remember pleasures that previously not only unremembered but actually unnoticed. The thought of an unnoticed pleasure might seem strange as well. But is it so odd to think that, in memory, our pleasurable experiences take on new meaning and greater substance than they had at the time? Pleasant experiences are often over quickly or happen in a rush. We are so caught up in the experience that we can’t attend to all that is happening to us. Or, in some instances, when we are in the middle of some experience, we cannot grasp just what makes it special or wonderful. For what some experience means to us depends upon what came before it and, even more, what will follow from it. And, in the middle of an experience, we may forget what lead up to it and cannot know what will come of it. It is only in retrospect that we can revel in the experience, appreciate aspects of it that we could not at the moment, and grasp the meaning of it for our lives.
Then Wordsworth points to the way in which our past experiences affect the way we live with others. Why are the “best portion of a good man’s life” “His little, nameless, unremembered, acts of kindness and of love?” Because they are uncalculated and unmotivated by self-concern. They come so freely from us that it is only in retrospect that we recognize them for what they were. However they are the true measure of what we are, and what we are is determined in large part by what we remember of our lives, by the shape we give our lives in memory. It is the recollection of good memories, the naming of nameless pleasures, that help make us the kind of people who commit nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.
So the mood that leads the author to see into the life of things begins with recollection and memory, of pleasures of good deeds. But these memories occur in what seems like and otherwise dreary time for the author, when he is weary and lonely. They occur in times when the “fever of the world” has burdened the author, when his worries have lead him to fruitless endeavors, and when he has suffered from the “evil tongues,” “rash judgments,’ and “the sneers of selfish men” he points to later in the poem. Memories of the Wye
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear, –both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense,
Seeing into the life of things, then, is seeing into the power of human reflection, which in turn rests on our capacity for recollection. Thus the form of the poem—the constant shifting of the author’s attention from one period of time to another—portrays the experiences and recognition’s that is the subject matter of the poem. It is in this shifting of attention that the author—and we—come to distance ourselves from those aspects of our lives that trouble us and turn to other experiences that nurture us and give us hope for the future. Moreover, this power of reflection gives us the ability to give shape not just to our experiences of the past but, also, to our expectations of the future. The author has learned that what he becomes is, in large part, the result of what he chooses to make of himself. Making oneself, for Wordsworth, however, comes not in building a career or seeking riches, but in coming to a better understanding of one’s own nature and situation. This gives the author tremendous power over his life, but also a great deal of responsibility for it as well.