That Time at Tintern Abbey

Wordworth’s “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” raises some interesting questions about temporality. Obviously the poem relies heavily on the transcendent power and utilitarian value of memory. In remembering his youthful days of wandering amongst nature (or Nature), the older and wiser poet has found solace in the harsh environment of the city. The poem can seem to lend itself to a straightforward criticism of industrialized urban life. So frustrating is the “din of towns and cities” and the confinement of “lonely rooms” (lines 26-7) that even the mere memory of a time spent communing with the sublime in nature can be seen as superior.

But I think there’s more to it than that. The speaker of the poem, presumably Wordsworth or a persona not far removed from the author, places himself above the abbey in what I would argue is a liminal space outside the bounds of time. From his spot above the abbey, the speaker can observe the world from a distance with insights into the past and glimpses into the future constantly obscuring his vision of the present. In the opening lines, Wordsworth is marking the passage of time since he last visited the space. The season’s transition in the natural order of winter into summer and now the waters are again welling up along with memories of the authors experience as a younger man in the same spot. The idea of the present moment is of little concern to the poem noted by the absence of the abbey itself beyond the title of the poem. The present only seems to exist as a point of departure where the speaker can mark the changes since his last visit or as a meaningful and important moment for his sister that lacks the significance that can only be given to it by the power of memory. Wordsworth hopes his sister can one day look back and enjoy her time in the Welsh countryside as he has done but his preoccupation with how much has changed and the value of his own memories seems to drown out the present.