The Difficulty in Separating Wordsworth's Biographical Information from Tintern Abbey

It is difficult to analyze William Wordsworth’s Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798 without relating it directly with the author, who is also the subject and speaker of the poem. While we are taught to analyze poetry at a distance from it’s author’s biographical information, it is difficult to do this with Wordsworth’s poetry, particularly Tintern Abbey, because the entire work is based on a very particular personal experience. It is impossible to separate Wordsworth from this poem because his personal life is intertwined in it. It is also difficult to separate him from the poem because Wordsworth wrote so extensively on all of his poetry, and even provided his own footnote in the Norton edition.

The inspiration to write Tintern Abbey came from his experience revisiting the sight five years after his original visit. Wordsworth was so moved by his experience that he wrote the poem immediately after leaving over a 4 or 5-day period. Wordsworth not only revealed what it’s like for him to return to Tintern Abbey*, but he also revealed the impact that his first visit had on him. The landscape and scenery had such an impact on Wordsworth that he remembered very specific details like the “waters rolling from their mountain springs” (3) and the “steep lofty cliffs” (5) from his trip half a decade prior.

The scene at Tintern Abbey helped Wordsworth to develop his sexuality his theory of the interconnectedness in nature and spirituality. Through his experience walking through the natural landscape of Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth was able to understand “the unintelligible world” (40) of mystery. The beliefs that Wordsworth expressed in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads that nature have the capability to reveal some sort of truth. Wordsworth’s personal and spiritual beliefs are clearly intertwined in Tintern Abbey, and it is difficult to distinguish aspects of the poem like the theme, symbols and message from Wordsworth’s own beliefs. Maybe it is just the curse of being too informed about a poet, but I find it near impossible to analyze the poem without including Wordsworth’s biographical information and distinguish the speaker in the poem from the author because of the personal nature of the subject and the interconnectedness between Wordsworth’s own beliefs and those expressed in the poem.

*I refer to the entire natural landscape that Wordsworth describes simply at Tintern Abbey for convenience sake, even though the actual ruins are not included in the poem.