As I was reading “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” I could not help but consider my own childhood memories of nature. For the majority of my life I lived in Oakwood, Ohio. While many people loved the variety of architecture, the fantastic schools, or the fact that Oakwood had practically become Stepford, I always loved the explosion of green that covered the community. On a sunny day, you can drive down a street in Oakwood and be completely shaded by the thick canopy of oaks overhead. In the center of Oakwood is a bird and wildflower preserve named Hawking's Swing and I immediately thought of this place when I reading the ballad. Wordsworth has these strong feelings of nostalgia when he visits Tintern Abbey five years later. I went to Hawking’s Swing last summer, and I felt the same way. I was thinking about all the fond childhood memories I had there, while experiencing the place in a different way than before. Wordsworth considers his childhood experiences of Tintern simple and effortless. Now that he is older he views the nature differently, and he has to be a more conscious of what he is seeing and feeling. I think in this ballad, Wordsworth is not only paying homage to the beauty of this area, but he is also being very upfront about his nostalgic attitude towards this place.
Nicely done. I like the picture. Isn't simple nostalgia somewhat more reductive of the past than this poem is? I mean, he looks back fondly but he SAYS that he is a better or more complex person now than when he was a "thoughtless youth." So... maybe the nostalgia is qualified by a more complex layered consciousness?
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