{"id":131,"date":"2023-02-07T18:12:36","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T18:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/?p=131"},"modified":"2023-02-07T18:12:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T18:12:36","slug":"the-sublime-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/2023\/02\/07\/the-sublime-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"The sublime soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cLines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey\u201d is such a romantic poem. Literally and periodically. \u201cLines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey\u201d is composed of five stanzas in iambic pentameter which adds a natural cadence mimicking regularly paced human speech. Writing from the point of view of a returning admirer, Wordsworth deeply immerses his soul in the calming beauty of this specific setting of nature that in fact, never mentions this \u201cTintern Abbey\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right away in the first two opening lines of the poem, our attention is drawn to the repetition of \u201cfive\u201d that occurs three times: \u201cFive year\u201d, \u201cFive summers\u201d, and \u201cFive long winters\u201d (l. 1-2).\u00a0 This repetition immediately emphasizes just how long these five years felt to him that time has passed in nature\u2019s equivalent to five summers and five winters. Further on, seclusion is also repeated which invokes an image of nature as separate from the world of man in its own wild \u201csecluded\u201d world where everything is untouched. Thus, when the narrator is in \u201ctowns and cities\u201d(l. 27) where he experiences \u201chours of weariness\u201d(l. 28), all he has to do is remember the undisturbed tranquility of the landscape to feel \u201csensations sweet\u201d(l. 28). In other words, it is like a man being revived by the memory of sensations his lover has ingrained into his heart and brain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not just his own mood that changes though. His entire being comes into focus when he is induced into the sublime peace:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUntil, the breath of this corporeal frame<\/span><\/p>\n

And even the motion of our human blood<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost suspended, we are laid asleep<\/span><\/p>\n

In body, and become a living soul:\u201d (l. 44-47)<\/span><\/p>\n

As described in these lines, Wordsworth looks within and sees in his mind\u2019s eye that he has transformed into \u201ca living soul\u201d as he has been guided to being free of his \u201ccorporeal frame\u201d that bears human burdens previously described as \u201chours of weariness\u201d (l. 28)\u00a0 and \u201cthe heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world\u201d (l. 40-41) <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cLines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey\u201d is such a romantic poem. Literally and periodically. \u201cLines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey\u201d is composed of five stanzas in iambic pentameter which adds a natural cadence mimicking regularly paced human speech. Writing from the point of view of a returning admirer, Wordsworth … Continue reading The sublime soul<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4770,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4770"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}