Dissecting Michael on top of Tintern Abbey

Yikes! Did anyone else find the mid-term difficult? It was a doozy. I think I'm going to pay closer attention to detail this semester. Alriiight, enough post-test babble...

As I wander lonely as a cloud I found myself jumping into two poems: 'Michael' and 'Tintern Abbey'. Both were very interesting reads with juicy similarities in themes and variations that I will comment on later, but first I'll turn my attention to 'Michael'.

This poem, not uncanny of many Wordsworthian poesy is written in blank verse, and reads like a story. This poem is powerful, and the language in the story is what makes this poem so rich. The loving relationship of father (Michael) and son (Luke) is what establishes the emotional aspect of the story. Wordsworth is able to wrap these two elements together nicely:

" why should I relate that objects which the Shepherd loved before were dearer now? That from the Boy there came feelings and emanations--things which were light to the sun and music to the wind; and that the old Man's heart seemed born again? " (lines 198-203)

This positive mood in the early stages of the poem falls deleteriously at the end. When Luke takes a turn-for-the-worst in the city, the emotional response is profound. Because of such a sudden reversal of mood in combination with the carefully crafted language of Wordsworth, It felt like I sank into a deep sadness, deeper then I would have originally expected. Again, Wordsworth is uncanny of eliciting a sympathetic response in the reader. This time the muse of our sympathy is Michael. Michael is a character of unwavering devotion and diligence. He is a hard worker with a strong mind. Even when he hears about the unfortunate fate of his son, he does not break down and let his emotions take over. This is what I felt made the story so profound; The emotional solidarity of Michael.

One of the longest names for a poem that I've ever come across " Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798 " is an interesting poem about revisiting nature. There are many many themes and ideas that can be dissected and rehashed and what not, so I will only graze over a few. First off, Wordsworth like many other Romantic Writers of his time was obsessed with this idea of the Sublime. The term Sublime in terms of poetry is defined as the transcendental feeling one can attain which is often conveyed by the Poet to the reader through the convention of writing (this is just my understanding of the definition). This was a goal for many of the Romantic Writers. The Greek rhetoritician and philosopher Longinus wrote an essay on the Sublime and it stood as an early source of explanation:

“ There are, it may be said, five principal sources of elevated language. Beneath these five varieties there lies, as though it were a common foundation, the gift of discourse, which is indispensable. First and most important is the power of forming great conceptions, as we have elsewhere explained in our remarks on Xenophon. Secondly, there is vehement and inspired passion. These two components of the sublime are for the most part innate. Those which remain are partly the product of art. The due formation of figures deals with two sorts of figures, first those of thought and secondly those of expression. Next there is noble diction, which in turn comprises choice of words, and use of metaphors, and elaboration of language. The fifth cause of elevation--one which is the fitting conclusion of all that have preceded it--is dignified and elevated composition. ” – Translated Excerpt from ‘On Sublimity’

In 'Tintern Abbey' in particular I found that Wordsworth was trying to convey elements of the Sublime, where he notes that nature is the optimal landscape for such transcendent thoughts and ideas to be elicited. In the poem Wordsworth seems to shift paradigms and look through a lens that sees him as he once was. And this identification makes him realize that who he is now, is not as good as what he used to be. One of the problems that Wordsworth alludes to is the “ sad music of humanity ”, a world that youth is devoid of. Wordsworth seems to chide the grown up world, and wherein he thus creates another set of dichotomies: the natural world vs. The human world.

In 'Michael' we see that the rural landscape that is the setting for most of the poem, is the natural world that Michael, Luke, and Isabel live in. The themes of love, and prosperity, and youth seem to revolve around this world. It's not until Luke moves to the city that the negative events begin to unfold. Thus further exemplifying the Wordsworthian bias that the natural world is good, and the human world is bad.

Unfortunately, the world we live in now, the dawn of the 21st century, is slowly wiping out the natural world because of our excess usage of natural materials that destroy nature in order to create and develop an artificial world devoid of the wonderful qualities that accompany this endangered rural landscape. But that's just my opinion.


Ciao, and Happy Blogging!