As discussed in class, Romanticism rose as a reaction to the Enlightenment. In Romanticism, one of the big themes was the appreciation of nature as nature can play a massive role in our lives. In William Wordsworth’s poem, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, he talks of remembering the beauty of the Banks of the Wye since his last visit five years ago and one of the sticking points was when he started talking about the sublime, “I trust, To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, … the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened(lines 35-41). This landscape had become a kind of therapy because this past memory gave him the feeling of sublime during his city life and helped him feel lighter from the daily troubles.
Even after five years of being away, the beauty captured from his last visit let him be in awe of the landscape but his perspective has changed since then. He now has a deeper understanding and appreciation for it as seen in lines 88-91, “For I have learned To look on nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes The still sad music of humanity.” The matured narrator reflected his old self as being thoughtless but now he sees and appreciates the whole picture. One of the questions I have is what he meant by “the still sad music of humanity.”
He also hopes in the future that his sister will also go through this transformation as he did. He describes the changing experience in lines 137-142, “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.” This means if she starts to internalize the same feelings, she can also experience the sublime and live happily by cherishing this moment. In the last few lines, “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!” (155-159), he is saying even after he has passed he hopes these memories will bring her sister back to the sublime.
Can this sublime be the same for everyone? For example, instead of the natural landscape, can the feeling of sublime come from something artificial like art or a city landscape?
Many a time, a revisit in a fantasy of a memory makes the scene sweeter, the action more dramatic, the view more dynamic, and that’s because we’re currently in a less comforting place – that’s why we daydream after all. But in this case, Wordsworth comes back to this place, once beautiful, and in the present even more so. And I find that to be incredible. Memories tend to be perverted/twisted in a sense where what once was is better than it actually was, and when returning to that place there’s the initial jolt of nostalgia and fun, but nothing so mystical as Wordsworth’s deep feelings. Personally, I’ve never felt that deep of an attachment to a place such as Wordsworth. Perhaps you have? Either way, it’s a rarity, and a truly special thing he’s experienced.
I think that the feeling of sublime can come from anything such as artificial like art or a city landscape and not just natural landscape. I feel that one of the main reasons why paintings of art are created and bought by people is because of the connection it may have with the person buying it. It is probably why some paintings that seem worthless to someone may be bought for millions of dollars by someone else. It is because they feel a certain connection with the painting that someone else may not. I have fortunately been able to experience such a connection to a natural landscape. It was at a lake where I hiked to which took about two hours to get there with my brother and friends several summers ago. I enjoy sometimes just closing my eyes and remembering about being there when my life is super chaotic to remember a place I thought to be a very peaceful and quiet place of nature. When remembering about it, the sounds of nature I heard; the birds, the water, the leaves on the trees being blown by the wind, makes me very relaxed and calm.
In “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, Willliam Wordworth opens the poem visiting Banks of the Wye where he reminsces about his last visit five years ago. He recites each object that he sees again and explains the feeling and effect that they had on him between lines 5-8, “Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, that on a wild secluded scene impress thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect the landscape with the quiet of the sky”. After, he leans against the sycamore tree while looking at the cottage-grounds and orcard-tufts with the unripe fruits and talks about the “wreaths of smoke” (line 17) that he believe might be coming from “vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, or of some Hermits cave” (line 20-21)
Later on, he interprets how his perspective and understanding of the “beauteous forms” has changed from his last visit five years ago in his absence, but he feels much joy and happiness from reviving these experiences from the past. He describes himself as different from his old self from five years ago where nature was one of the most important things to him. He does not feel guilty however, because he cannot continue his past relationship with nature and states that, “For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentime the still, sad music of humanity.” He basically sees a much bigger picture now of his life and can now sense the existence of something much more important and powerful.
My question for the class is that if Wordworth returned to Banks of the Wye after another five years, do you think his perspective would change again?
I think that in 5 years, his opinions and feelings will definitely change. Maybe this is a pessimistic way of looking at this, but things are never as great as your memory or imagination builds them up to be. Although when he visited a second time he was still enjoying himself, his perspective on the place changed. It is likely that in another 5 years he will lose the preserved memory that made this place such a sanctuary in the first place.
I surely think that if Wordsworth was to return to the Banks of the Wye after another 5 years his perspective would change for the simple fact that time will take its toll on everything. Although sometimes it may be little changes but as a whole it creates a big difference. For example, if you haven’t seen a child for 5 years a lot may have changed such as facial features, height and etc. the same mostly happens with nature. Nature is constantly changing but it will almost always remain as a beauty and it will catch you eye the same way it caught Wordsworth’s.
In “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, Willliam Wordworth opens the poem visiting Banks of the Wye where he reminsces about his last visit five years ago. He recites each object that he sees again and explains the feeling and effect that they had on him between lines 5-8, “Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, that on a wild secluded scene impress thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect the landscape with the quiet of the sky”. After, he leans against the sycamore tree while looking at the cottage-grounds and orcard-tufts with the unripe fruits and talks about the “wreaths of smoke” (line 17) that he believe might be coming from “vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, or of some Hermits cave” (line 20-21)
Later on, he interprets how his perspective and understanding of the “beauteous forms” has changed from his last visit five years ago in his absence, but he feels much joy and happiness from reviving these experiences from the past. He describes himself as different from his old self from five years ago where nature was one of the most important things to him. He does not feel guilty however, because he cannot continue his past relationship with nature and states that, “For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentime the still, sad music of humanity.” He basically sees a much bigger picture now of his life and can now sense the existence of something much more important and powerful.
My question for the class is that if Wordworth returned to Banks of the Wye again after another five years, would his perspective change again?
I believe that his perspective would change dramatically in five years. I believe in class we discussed that this piece of writing was inspired by Wordsworth watching his sister experience Tintern Abbey after he already saw it before. Like any good thing you experience again, such as your favorite movie, there is always something new to experience and appreciate. One gets to experience the subtle details that were looked over before.
As discussed in class, Romanticism rose as a reaction to the Enlightenment. In Romanticism, one of the big themes was the appreciation of nature as nature can play a massive role in our lives. In William Wordsworth’s poem, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, he talks of remembering the beauty of the Banks of the Wye since his last visit five years ago and one of the sticking points was when he started talking about the sublime, “I trust, To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, … the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened(lines 35-41). This landscape had become a kind of therapy because this past memory gave him the feeling of sublime during his city life and helped him feel lighter from the daily troubles.
Even after five years of being away, the beauty captured from his last visit let him be in awe of the landscape but his perspective has changed since then. He now has a deeper understanding and appreciation for it as seen in lines 88-91, “For I have learned To look on nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes The still sad music of humanity.” The matured narrator reflected his old self as being thoughtless but now he sees and appreciates the whole picture. One of the questions I have is what he meant by “the still sad music of humanity.”
He also hopes in the future that his sister will also go through this transformation as he did. He describes the changing experience in lines 137-142, “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.” This means if she starts to internalize the same feelings, she can also experience the sublime and live happily by cherishing this moment. In the last few lines, “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!” (155-159), he is saying even after he has passed he hopes these memories will bring her sister back to the sublime.
Can this sublime be the same for everyone? For example, instead of the natural landscape, can the feeling of sublime come from something artificial like art or a city landscape?
Many a time, a revisit in a fantasy of a memory makes the scene sweeter, the action more dramatic, the view more dynamic, and that’s because we’re currently in a less comforting place – that’s why we daydream after all. But in this case, Wordsworth comes back to this place, once beautiful, and in the present even more so. And I find that to be incredible. Memories tend to be perverted/twisted in a sense where what once was is better than it actually was, and when returning to that place there’s the initial jolt of nostalgia and fun, but nothing so mystical as Wordsworth’s deep feelings. Personally, I’ve never felt that deep of an attachment to a place such as Wordsworth. Perhaps you have? Either way, it’s a rarity, and a truly special thing he’s experienced.
I think that the feeling of sublime can come from anything such as artificial like art or a city landscape and not just natural landscape. I feel that one of the main reasons why paintings of art are created and bought by people is because of the connection it may have with the person buying it. It is probably why some paintings that seem worthless to someone may be bought for millions of dollars by someone else. It is because they feel a certain connection with the painting that someone else may not. I have fortunately been able to experience such a connection to a natural landscape. It was at a lake where I hiked to which took about two hours to get there with my brother and friends several summers ago. I enjoy sometimes just closing my eyes and remembering about being there when my life is super chaotic to remember a place I thought to be a very peaceful and quiet place of nature. When remembering about it, the sounds of nature I heard; the birds, the water, the leaves on the trees being blown by the wind, makes me very relaxed and calm.
In “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, Willliam Wordworth opens the poem visiting Banks of the Wye where he reminsces about his last visit five years ago. He recites each object that he sees again and explains the feeling and effect that they had on him between lines 5-8, “Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, that on a wild secluded scene impress thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect the landscape with the quiet of the sky”. After, he leans against the sycamore tree while looking at the cottage-grounds and orcard-tufts with the unripe fruits and talks about the “wreaths of smoke” (line 17) that he believe might be coming from “vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, or of some Hermits cave” (line 20-21)
Later on, he interprets how his perspective and understanding of the “beauteous forms” has changed from his last visit five years ago in his absence, but he feels much joy and happiness from reviving these experiences from the past. He describes himself as different from his old self from five years ago where nature was one of the most important things to him. He does not feel guilty however, because he cannot continue his past relationship with nature and states that, “For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentime the still, sad music of humanity.” He basically sees a much bigger picture now of his life and can now sense the existence of something much more important and powerful.
My question for the class is that if Wordworth returned to Banks of the Wye after another five years, do you think his perspective would change again?
I think that in 5 years, his opinions and feelings will definitely change. Maybe this is a pessimistic way of looking at this, but things are never as great as your memory or imagination builds them up to be. Although when he visited a second time he was still enjoying himself, his perspective on the place changed. It is likely that in another 5 years he will lose the preserved memory that made this place such a sanctuary in the first place.
I surely think that if Wordsworth was to return to the Banks of the Wye after another 5 years his perspective would change for the simple fact that time will take its toll on everything. Although sometimes it may be little changes but as a whole it creates a big difference. For example, if you haven’t seen a child for 5 years a lot may have changed such as facial features, height and etc. the same mostly happens with nature. Nature is constantly changing but it will almost always remain as a beauty and it will catch you eye the same way it caught Wordsworth’s.
-Carlos Gratereaux
In “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, Willliam Wordworth opens the poem visiting Banks of the Wye where he reminsces about his last visit five years ago. He recites each object that he sees again and explains the feeling and effect that they had on him between lines 5-8, “Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, that on a wild secluded scene impress thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect the landscape with the quiet of the sky”. After, he leans against the sycamore tree while looking at the cottage-grounds and orcard-tufts with the unripe fruits and talks about the “wreaths of smoke” (line 17) that he believe might be coming from “vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, or of some Hermits cave” (line 20-21)
Later on, he interprets how his perspective and understanding of the “beauteous forms” has changed from his last visit five years ago in his absence, but he feels much joy and happiness from reviving these experiences from the past. He describes himself as different from his old self from five years ago where nature was one of the most important things to him. He does not feel guilty however, because he cannot continue his past relationship with nature and states that, “For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentime the still, sad music of humanity.” He basically sees a much bigger picture now of his life and can now sense the existence of something much more important and powerful.
My question for the class is that if Wordworth returned to Banks of the Wye again after another five years, would his perspective change again?
I believe that his perspective would change dramatically in five years. I believe in class we discussed that this piece of writing was inspired by Wordsworth watching his sister experience Tintern Abbey after he already saw it before. Like any good thing you experience again, such as your favorite movie, there is always something new to experience and appreciate. One gets to experience the subtle details that were looked over before.