Wordsworth’s Development of the Meaningful Connection between Man’s Spirituality and Nature in “Tintern Abbey” and “Immortality Ode”–Kayla Walthall

Wordsworth begins “Tintern Abbey” with the tranquil scene of nature as he is revisiting this place after “Five years have passed; five summers, with the length/Of five long winters” (1-2). This place, a place that represents “interchange between man and nature,” once brought him comfort before he was forced to remain in England away from his lover and newborn child (Langbaum 265). This part of nature had such an impact on Wordsworth that he reflects on his memories in this place while he is away and unable to return over the course of five years. He expresses his vivid remembrance of the Wye by saying, “Though absent long, / These forms of beauty have not been to me, / As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye” (24-6). Even though he is unable to visit this place physically, he often escapes there in his mind to experience the pleasure he once gained from its surroundings. It could be said that Wordsworth meant to convey the message “that true wisdom as well as true religion may be gained through sensuous acuteness to nature’s teachings” (Cerf 623). In other words, there is much insight to be gained from nature’s offerings, whether spiritual or mental, but one must be in tune with nature in order to fully receive all it has to offer. Even though Wordsworth is pleased to be revisiting this place that he once treasured so dearly, he also notes that his outlook on life and nature has changed. He reflects on this change saying, “For nature then to me was all in all. / I cannot paint what then I was” (73, 76-7). His previous perception of nature seemed to consume him as he then had an “appetite” for the “coulours” and “forms” of the mountains and woods that nature so graciously offered to him (80). This hungry appetite for nature soon fades, however, as he states “That time is past, and all its aching joys are now no more” (84-5). He describes this new outlook he has obtained as he states:

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,

Not harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue. (89-94)

This evolution of thought brings about a new philosophical and/or spiritual dimension to Wordsworth’s view of nature. As he once believed nature was merely present for his pleasure and leisure, not to be taken seriously but as an escape for “restoration,” now he feels nature is an inspiration and a connection to God from which he can learn new things and grow spiritually (31). In “’These Beauteous Forms’: ‘Tintern Abbey’ and the Post-Enlightenment Religious Crisis,” Henry Weinfield argues that “Tintern” is composed while Wordsworth is experiencing a personal religious crisis influenced by his aging as he states, “’Tintern Abbey is a poem that confronts a crisis that is at once personal or private—insofar as it involves a recognition of mortality and of the progressive loss of vitality as a result of the aging process” (257). While Weinfield portrays this poem as a reaction to personal “crisis,” John Peters, on the other hand, views this poem as “regenerative rather than degenerative” (77). Peters’ ideas reinforce the idea that nature in “Tintern” is a positive influence for Wordsworth in his journey through life. As Wordsworth is reflecting on his younger days when nature was his “all in all,” he is also reminded of the toll age has taken on his life, both physically and spiritually. In Robert Langbaum’s “The Evolution of Soul in Wordsworth’s Poetry,” he felt that this time in Wordsworth’s life was a time of “Christian revelation” (272). He comments on this recognition process as he states, “Because he discovers continuity in the disparate pictures through a principle of growth, he becomes aware of the pattern of his life—he binds his apparently disparate days together. He may be said to evolve his soul in becoming aware that his soul evolves;” thus in “Tintern” Wordsworth does not intend or wish to leave his youthful passions behind, but bind them together with new spiritual vision he has acquired (270). While he realizes this loss of vitality, “Tintern” presents the idea that nature serves as a form of rejuvenation for Wordsworth. Though itself nature remains unchanged, Wordsworth develops a new perspective about nature and its purpose. He is not necessarily abandoning his devotion for nature, but finding a new way to appreciate it. Thomas Raysor takes a closer look at Wordsworth’s perception of immortality and this metamorphic process in his article “The Themes of Immortality and Natural Piety in Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode” by stating, “The gain in mature human tenderness is not a substitute which takes the place of the love of nature, whether inferior or superior; it is a means to continue the love of nature in a different form” (872). In “Tintern” Wordsworth has not yet lost his admiration for nature, but it is here that the reader begins to see his loss of youth and innocence which will ultimately lead to a detachment from nature.

Wordsworth’s later work “Ode” also begins with a reflection on the enjoyment and pleasure he once achieved by spending time and growing in nature, but soon the mood of sorrow and loss appear. While reflecting on this innocent and joyous time in his life which consumed his childhood, he states,

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Apparell’d in celestial light. (1-4)

This gives the reader the impression that he used to have a spiritual connection that was channeled by nature which he has lost or has disintegrated in some way since his younger days. Thomas Raysor points out this change in his statement, “And every one who reads Wordsworth will probably agree that his conception of immortality was one thing in childhood, another in poetic maturity” (861). In “Ode” Wordsworth sees the error in placing too much value on nature as he did in his childhood and realizes, “But yet I know, where’er I go,/That there hath pass’d away a glory from the earth” (17-18). It appears as if a veil has been lifted from his eyes in order that he may see the reality of life without Christ, which ultimately leads to death, both physical and spiritual. Nature no longer stands as his “all in all” as it did in “Tintern,” and therefore the glory he once saw in the world and worldly things fades away and is replaced with a spiritual relationship with God. Raysor goes on to say, “These unthinking, somewhat irresponsible joys in sensation and emotion in youth are not at all equal in glory to the ‘celestial light’ which Wordsworth remembers in the Ode, but they share the same fate and disappear in manhood” (Raysor 872). It is as if Wordsworth has come to the realization that “the visionary gleam, the glory and the dream of childhood, which once rested upon nature but does so no more, is an intimation of the child’s nearness to God, who is our home, whose glory makes possible the celestial light in which every common sight is clothed” (Raysor 863). While he once found stability and consistency in nature, he now sees the “idea of spiritual progress” as a better, more prosperous route, rather than that of “permanence in the midst of change” remaining dependent on nature (Raysor 868). Here in “Ode” nature has become the stationary element in his life which holds him back from this “spiritual progress” (868). Along with this loss of his spiritual connection through nature, he has also lost a part of his innocence, for he says “The things which I have seen I now can see no more” (9). With this new perspective, he seems to be grieving over the loss of the “visionary splendor of the senses which he has once possessed” (Raysor 869). Raysor speaks of this severance process from innocence, stating, “But this splendor is the light which we bring with us from our life with God and slowly fades as we become more and more remote from childhood” (869). Wordsworth seems to yearn for the innocence he once had when he could enjoy nature as he says, “Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower,” but realizes he must move forward with his new philosophical views by finding “strength in what remains,” (180-1, 183) further illustrating his “decline of sensibility in maturity” (Raysor 870). Furthermore, Percy Shelley, in his poem “To Wordsworth,” addresses the “Poet of Nature”:

thou has wept to know

That things depart which never may return:

Childhood and youth, friendship and love’s first glow,

Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn. (1-4)

Wordsworth does in fact seem sorrowful for leaving these childish but joyful remnants behind as they symbolize a time of “glory,” innocence, and freedom in nature.

This new perspective creates a different portrayal of Wordsworth’s life and views than those of “Tintern Abbey” in which he first needs only the experience of nature, but in the end finds “abundant recompense” through a relationship with God (89). Wordsworth, since the composition of “Tintern,” has matured through life’s experiences, and, as Barry Cerf describes, “It seems certain that at about the mid-point of his life he came to realize more or less clearly that he had been worshiping false gods, that external nature was not a guide to high summits” and “religion [was] not [a] mere obsolete symbol of an unawakened past” (625). This alludes to the fact that Wordsworth was exhibiting a form of pantheism by placing too much emphasis on nature and less on God in “Tintern”; however, in “Ode” he is aware of this mistake and realizes the distraction nature has become. In “Ode” with the loss of immaturity and innocence comes also a loss of spirituality. Though nature seems to take on a negative form which aids in this loss, it still remains to serve a purpose: to distract from spirituality. Wordsworth alludes to the figure of a “nurse” stating,

And, even with something of a Mother’s mind,

And no unworthy aim,

The homely Nurse doth all she can

To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,

Forget the glories he hath known,

And that imperial palace whence he came. (79-84)

In this poem nature, who is personified as a “homely Nurse,” wishes to distract a person from one’s spiritual connection with God in hopes one will eventually lose sight of the heavenly place from which they came and be completely satisfied in nature. But in its attempts to distract one from Heaven, it actually serves as a constant reminder of one’s mortality in that nature is not the eternal home-place but rather a place from which one will perish. Anya Taylor infers from Wordsworth’s image of the “homely nurse” that “the soul never becomes completely acclimated to the earthly world into which it has temporarily fallen” (635). There is a constant yearning for something more eternal than nature has to offer, thus, earth poses as the “nurse” or “foster –mother,” “trying in vain to solace the child who yearns for his true mother Eternity” (Taylor 635). Taylor goes on to explain the relationship between a spiritual being and nature’s incapability to provide for one’s need of the eternal life, stating, “The child, surrounded by Earth’s inadequate playthings, feels orphaned and abandoned; he struggles to adapt himself to earthly roles in which he will be increasingly ensnared in the drag of quotidian” (635). Instead of finding comfort and strength in nature, now he must focus on God and rely on faith rather than settling for dependence on nature to fulfill his spiritual needs. He wishes he could take back the innocent, pleasure-giving nature and “splendour in the grass” that he once cherished so much, but instead he must deal with the reality of knowledge and experience and the burden they bring (182). For Wordsworth, nature will never compare to eternity through spirituality; “No consolations, however poignant, however philosophic, keep the human being from his yearning for the almost but never quite forgotten elsewhere, the worlds unrealized toward which he gropes” (Taylor 436). Despite nature’s, or the “homely nurse’s,” best efforts, it will never replace the “elsewhere” that a spiritual being knows to exist in the form of Heaven.

While the “homely Nurse” who appears in “Ode” creates limitations to one’s spiritual growth and hinders a once spiritual being from a divine connection with their maker, there is a different illustration of the “nurse” in “Tintern Abbey” (81). Here the “nurse” is viewed in a more positive manner:

well pleased to recognize

In nature and the language of the sense,

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

Of all my moral being. (108-12)

This statement shows a deep dependence on nature to serve as a spiritual guide that aids the growth of the relationship between man, in this case Wordsworth, and God. These opposing views of nature create a contrary in one’s mind, which Charles Smith mentions as a “kind of dualism” (1181). Smith goes on to say, “Wordsworth had a very strong habit of thinking in terms of paired opposites or contraries. Everywhere, in nature, in individual man and in society, he saw a constant interplay of opposing forces” (1181). This poem presents a certain “harmony” in the relationship between man and God, whereas in “Ode,” nature imposed a form of “discord” for Wordsworth’s spiritual connection (1181). In “Tintern Abbey” nature becomes the bridge between man and immortality, and ultimately serves as the “guardian” or gatekeeper of one’s spirituality (111). The image of the “anchor” that this nurse represents symbolizes the “harmony” of which Smith speaks, as it creates “fixed, permanent relationships” (1181). This image of the nurse could be better explained through the analogy of a mother and her child’s relationship where nature takes on the form of a mother caring for her infant, who in this case happens to be Wordsworth. One responsibility a mother will most likely take on when she is given a child is to educate him or her so that they may be successful in life. When a child is born into this world, its mother, in a sense, becomes that child’s “all-in-all”, just as nature becomes to Wordsworth (76). “The infant,” states Robert Langbaum, “is from the start an active agent of perception who ‘drinks in’ feelings,” and these feelings, for Wordsworth, came from nature, or his “nurse” (266). Until he discovered the aspect of spirituality and the necessity of God at some point in his life, Wordsworth was dependent on nature to fill his needs. And it did so abundantly, even

In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,

Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,

And passing even into my purer mind

With tranquil restoration. (28-31)

Nature then was so appealing for him that he acquired an “appetite” for its “colours” and “forms,” and in return he was provided with

A feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, or any interest

Unborrowed from the eye. (80-84)

In a sense nature was a form of religion and spirituality for Wordsworth at this time in his life, for nature was all he needed. And even though there was more emphasis on nature rather than on God, he still appeared to be a spiritual person who felt free and alive when in the presence of nature, such similar feelings are experienced when one obtains a saving relationship with God. In “Tintern” nature seems to educate Wordsworth in a positive way, so positive that he returns to it after “five long winters” in hopes that it will rejuvenate him in order that he may resemble the light-hearted boy he used to be. Though Wordsworth has obtained a more mature and spiritual outlook on life, he is still able to draw comfort and inspiration from the fruits of nature.

Through both “Tintern Abbey” and “Immortality Ode,” Wordsworth presents two different developments and portrayals of nature and its spiritual connection with man. While in “Tintern Abbey” he experienced a spiritual connection with nature, his “Immortality Ode” paints a very different picture of nature as a distraction from spirituality. Much of Wordsworth’s insight was derived from nature, though in some instances it was not portrayed so positively. By showing his own development and growth as a spiritual being, he creates two opposing realities: one, that nature is necessary and desirable for a spiritual connection and two, that nature will never fully take the place of eternity. Charles Smith states, “In poetry these contraries are translated into corresponding images,” which in these two poems took the form of the “nurse” (1182). While nature is personified as the nurse in each of the poems, they are illustrated in very different manners. While the nurse in “Tintern” serves as a necessary foundation on which spirituality is built, the nurse in “Ode” is portrayed quite negatively as it only distracts a person from eternity with one’s celestial Father.

Works Cited

Barbour, Brian. “‘Between Two Worlds’: The Structure of the Argument in ‘Tintern Abbey’.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 48 (1993): 147-68. Print.

Cerf, Barry. “Wordsworth’s Gospel of Nature.” PMLA 37 (1922): 615-38. Print.

Langbaum, Robert. “The Evolution of Soul in Wordsworth’s Poetry.” PMLA 82 (1967): 265-72. Print.

Peters, John. “Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey.” Explicator 61 (203): 77-78. Print.

Raysor, Thomas. “The Themes of Immortality and Natural Piety in Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode.” PMLA 69 (1954): 861-75. Print.

Shelley, Percy B. “To Wordsworth.” British Literature: 1780-1830. By Anne K. Mellor and Rechard E. Matlak. Boston: Heinle, 1995. 1-1442. Print.

Smith, Charles. “The Contrarieties: Wordsworth’s Dualistic Imagery.” PMLA 69 (1954): 1181-199. Print.

Taylor, Anya. “Religious Readings of the Immortality Ode.” Studies in English Literature (Rice) 26 (1986): 633-54. Print.

Weinfield, Henry. “”These Beauteous Forms”: “Tintern Abbey” and the Post-Enlightenment Religious Crisis.” Religion and the Arts 6 (2002): 257-90. Print.

Wordsworth, William. “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour July 13, 1798.” British Literature: 1780-1830. By Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Boston: Heinle, 1995. 1-1442. Print.

Wordsworth, William. “Ode.” British Literature: 1780-1830. By Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Boston: Heinle, 1995. 1-1442. Print.

—. “Preface from The Excursion, being a portion of The Recluse, A Poem.” British Literature: 1780 1830. By Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Boston: Heinle, 1995. 1-1442. Print.

—. “Preface to Lyrical Ballads.” British Literature: 1780-1830. By Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Boston: Heinle, 1995. Print.