Trace the gradual development of Wordsworth’s attitude to nature
as recorded in ‘Tintern Abbey’.
Or
Discuss the three stages of Wordsworth’s growth as a poet of nature as recorded
in Tintern Abbey’.
‘Tintern Abbey’ of William Wordsworth is
the first clear expression emotional change in poetry. It recognizes the power
of Nature to quicken the imagination of a creative mind. It helps us get an
analysis of the three different stages in the gradual development of the poet’s
altitude to Nature (a) The period of the blood- the animal pleasures of his
boyhood (b) The period of the senses— the enjoyment and apprehension of the
sensuous of the sensuous beauty of Nature in his youth and (c) the period of
the imagination and the soul- his capacity to look on Nature with a
philosophical eye in his maturity.
The first stage in the development of Wordsworth’s
attitude to-Nature was marked by a simple delight, in freedom and the open air,
at the first stage, Wordsworth found pleasure in roaming about in the midst of
Nature. Like a deer, he leaped about over the mountains, by the side of the
deep rivers, and along the lonely streams. He wandered about wherever Nature
led him. He felt more like one who flees from something that he dreads than
like one who seeks the thing he loves. His wanderings in the midst of Nature
are described by him as “glad animal movements1’ and the pleasure he enjoyed in
the midst of Nature is called a coarse pleasure.
At the second stage, Wordsworth’s
love for Nature was purely physical. Nature now appealed chiefly to his senses.
He felt pleasure in seeing the colours of Nature in smelling the fragrance of
Nature, in touching the objects of Nature and in hearing the sweet sounds of
Nature. The colours and shapes of mountains and wood to him were an appetite.
The noisy waterfall haunted him like a passion. Thus he loved Nature with an
unreflecting, or thoughtless passion. He experienced aching joys and dizzy
raptures in his contact with Nature.’ It was the external, outward sensuous
beauty of Nature that delighted and gladdened him.
