Me and Nature Sitting in a Tree...

     I love nature! I am an avid camper and general outdoors lover; I need sun and fresh air, I need to be able to get away from the general population for a few days a year in order to refresh myself. It seems to me, after reading "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey", that William Wordsworth felt the same way. In this poem Wordsworth explores the power of nature and its effect on his life.
     The picture of nature that Wordsworth paints for us is wild and pure; in lines 14-21 he writes:

Nor, with their green and simple hue, disturb

The wild green landscape. Once again I see

These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

Of sportive wood run wild; these pastoral farms

Green to the very door; and wreathes of smoke

Sent up, in silence, from among the trees,

With some uncertain notice, as might seem,

Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,

Structurally speaking, the first fives lines are enjambed; which mirrors the wild and run-on way that nature appears to him and the next three lines end with commas, indicating that this is still one thought and scene. And just as this thought is unbroken by a period, this scene is untouched and whole, even with the presence of man. The green runs all the way to the door, and the smoke, which is man-made, is silent and seems to come from the trees. For Wordsworth, it is natural for man to take shelter in nature, as long as he does not disturb it. In this way, nature both sustains and protects, but has the power to do more.

     Throughout the rest of the poem Wordsworth begins to explore what this scene means to him on a personal level. He explains how his memories of this place have sustained him while he was away; these memories are “Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,/ And passing even into my purer mind” (29-30). These two lines speak to the power of nature; his entire body is affected by its beauty. These memories are in his heart, blood and mind; his whole physical being. The fact that these are only memories serves to intensify the power of nature. 

     While the power of these memories speaks to me as a fellow nature-lover, what I really appreciated was Wordsworth's personification of nature. In lines 108-112 he writes:

          And what perceive; 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. 

We can see how nature is not only a part of him, it has formed who he is. As an anchor it grounds him; as a nurse it heals him; as a guide it teaches him; as a guardian it protects him. And if that is not enough, he calls it the "soul of all my moral being"; it is his essence, without it he would be nothing. 

     This feeling of "oneness" with nature shows up earlier in the poem. In lines 44-50 Wordsworth mentions death; he writes:

         Until, the breath of this corporeal frame,

         And even the motion of our human blood

         Almost suspended, we are laid asleep

         In body, and become a living soul:

         While with an eye made quiet by the power

         Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

         We see into the life of things.

In this passage Wordsworth presents death as a release from his temporary body, with its "corporeal frame" and "human blood." This release allows him to join in "the power of harmony" with nature and thus become a "living soul". For me, this highlights the cyclical quality of nature and suggests that if we are in tune with nature, we will continue to be reborn through nature. 

     I love nature! Fond memories of family camping trips help get me through long winters full of dirty streets and frozen sidewalks. I have had many life-altering experiences in nature that have helped ground and teach me. I am "a lover of the meadows and the woods/ And mountains; and of all that we behold" (104-105); and reading "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"  enriched my feelings about nature and made me see its power in a different light. Nature, as William Wordsworth presents it, has the power to form and sustain and the power to defeat death. Go Nature!