Last thoughts on Tintern and it comparative to London

Due to the beginning of class and "google-ing" Tintern Abbey (which is beautiful) I realized that perhaps Wordsworth really was touching base on religion. It would make sense, due to every other poem he writes expressing God or some biblical reference. The poem seems to have a subtle strain of religious sentiment; though the actual form and structure of "Abbey" does not appear in the poem, the idea of Tintern Abbey-- which, thanks to google, is a place consecrated to the spirit and had the Cistercian monks (or White Monks) who lived at Tintern followed the Rule of St. Benedict--fills the scene, almost as though the fields and forest themselves the speaker's abbey. Pretty much what i am saying is that even though he did not refer directly go God or biblical references, he did allude to it with the title and main point of the poem. As we also discussed in class, there are several different ways to relate to nature, poetry in the way wordsworth presents it is just one form of that. Nature represents a counterweight to society. Nature ought to be with us all the time as a state of mind, as opposed to an actual forest.

Okay, well for the last 30 seconds we had of class, we touches base on London by William Blake. London is a dismal and sad poem, it is sensually filled and emotionally as well. The poem London expresses the tension, sounds, and meanings of a collapsing city. The poem expresses a dark and sad city to the reader, through the tension within the poem’s "voice." As opposed to Tintern Abbey which is a reminisence of childhood and beautiful nature. Wordsworth says that in those days, nature made up his whole world: forrests, waterfalls, mountains, and woods gave shape to his passions and his love. Due to both time and innocense has now past, he does not mourn it. I think Wordsworth realizes he cannot resume his old relationship with nature, but he has been somewhat compensated with new set of "mature gifts." (For instance, he can now "look on nature, not as in the hour / Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes / The still, sad music of humanity.") Due to this he can now sense something more powerful, and fundamental in things such as the light of the setting suns, the ocean, and the state of mind.