Wordsworths Development of the

Meaningful Connection between

Mans 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 mans 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 natures teachings (Cerf
623). In other words, there is much insight to be gained from natures 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 Wordsworths 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 privateinsofar 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 Langbaums The Evolution of Soul in Wordsworths Poetry, he felt that this
time in Wordsworths 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 lifehe 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 Wordsworths perception of immortality and this
metamorphic process in his article The Themes of Immortality and Natural Piety in
Wordsworths 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.
Wordsworths 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
Apparelld 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, whereer I go,/That there hath passd 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 childs 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 loves 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 Wordsworths 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 lifes

experiences, and, as Barry Cerf describes, It seems certain that at about the midpoint 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 Mothers 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 ones 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 ones mortality in that nature is not the eternal home-place
but rather a place from which one will perish. Anya Taylor infers from Wordsworths
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 natures incapability to provide for ones need of the
eternal life, stating, The child, surrounded by Earths 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 natures, or the homely nurses, 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 ones
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 ones 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 Wordsworths spiritual connection (1181). In Tintern Abbey nature
becomes the bridge between man and immortality, and ultimately serves as the
guardian or gatekeeper of ones 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 childs 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 childs 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 Wordsworths 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 ones celestial
Father.

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