Man's States of Awareness in William Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"

Abstract

William Wordsworth's Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey shows the power of nature over man's heart and mind. It exhibits poetically the effect of the natural scene upon man in his three stages of life: childhood, youth and maturity. In each of these three stages, man's critical response to nature is different. The stage of childhood is characterized by sensuous and frivolous awareness to nature. This stage is characterized by the poet's childish intense love of the physical harmony of nature. In the stage of youth, man's awareness turns to be more conscious. He still entertains the sense of joy and the pleasure in experience when he sees the natural scenery, but he is conscious of the miseries of the world