The Role of Childhood Memories in Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"

The focus of Tintern Abbey is memory, specifically memories from William Wordsworth’s childhood of communing with nature. Tintern Abbey is William Wordsworth’s first great ode to his primary motto, which is that memories of communing with unspoilt mother nature in childhood works on the mind even into adulthood, when access to those pure memories are thought to be lost. The poet employs a device that he once described as two consciousnesses – he conjures up a “picture in the mind”, from memory, of a place that he has visited before, which he then juxtaposes with the visual of the same place in front of him in the present day. He recollects the memory of his past experiences from the area, and superimposes them over his present view of them. When the two visuals fail to match, the poet is, at once, sad and perplexed.

The poet acknowledges that he is a different person today, when compared to how carefree he was those many years ago, when he bounded over the hills and waded through the streams. He is now acutely aware of everything that the present scene offers him – all his senses are heightened.

The poet believes that the past is firmly behind him and he has no need to mourn it. Life has compensated him with a new set of gifts centered on the theme of maturity. On the whole, he is happy knowing that his present experience will, in turn, provide many happy memories for the years to come.