Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Poetry
Poetry
ABBEY by
William
Wordsworth
Using ecocriticism analysis
By 7th Group
ECOCRITICISM
is
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Tintern Abbey
As described by one of the Wordsworth’s biographers, “Tintern
Abbey” is a landscape poem in the eighteenthcentury tradition
(Durrant, 1970, p. 87). Landscape is symbolic of the environment
or Nature, and poetry is an important genre of literature. The very
fact that “Tintern Abbey” is a landscape poem showcases that it is
an ecocritical work which establishes a relation between Nature
and literature.
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Analysis
with ecocriticism
Nature vs Culture
From the aesthetic point of view, the
ruined Tintern Abbey, which was
built with human hands, adds
beauty to the picturesque scene of
Nature. From religious angle, it is Nature as a symbol
emblematic of the monks who were
in harmony with Nature. of harmony Rewards for love of
Life in the city is characterized by the nature
uproar, agony and fretful situations.
But Nature is a symbol of peace and Wordsworth realizes that unlike
harmony. If the fretful life of the city human beings, Nature will never
dominates Nature, humankind will betray ‘the heart that loved her’.
become agitated, and life will Hence, if human beings safeguard
become meaningless. If people Nature from all manmade dangers
realize the importance of Nature, it and all environmental hazards, it
will offer them a harmonious life. will in return guard, nurse and guide
them.
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Wordsworth, through the poem, “Tintern Abbey”, has shown a way to establish
a better world and a better life, and has taught how a close relationship with
Nature could be created in order to give birth to a peaceful and harmonious
life in the world. He advises everyone to learn from the past. This is
perceptible in the words of Geoffrey H. Hartman (1964) who claims that
“Wordsworth’s poetry looks back in order to look forward the better” (p. 29).
Thus, the poem, “Tintern Abbey”, is a typical ecocritical work which strives to
promote a relationship between Nature and human being. It also indirectly
advises every reader to look back and see how
human beings have behaved towards Nature in the past, and what the
consequences of their anthropocentric attitude towards Nature are. It also
insists on the need to take proper measures to establish harmony with Nature.
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Figurative languange
Wherever nature led more like a man flying from something that he dreads,
than one who sought the thing he loved.
I make knowing that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her