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The Pastoral Tradition

Of all the British Romantic poets, Wordsworth is arguably the one whose representation of the natural world is most closely associated with the tradition of pastoral poetry. This tradition goes back to Greek and Roman antiquity, when poets from urban centers like Athens and Rome wrote poems that conjured highly idealized images of rural life’s peaceful simplicity. A key element in pastoral poetry is the gently rolling country landscape, the chief inhabitant of which is the idle shepherd who tends his flock and pursues nymphs. This idealized landscape contrasts sharply with the city. Whereas the city is associated with the frustrating complexities of social and political life, the country comes to be seen as a place of leisure, pleasure, and abundant natural wealth. Pastoral poetry largely fell out of favor following the collapse of the Roman Empire, only to be revived by Renaissance poets, from whom Wordsworth later inherited the tradition. This inheritance is clearly visible in “Tintern Abbey.” Admittedly, the landscape around the Abbey isn’t populated with shepherds and nymphs. However, Wordsworth’s speaker interprets this natural space as a comforting refuge, memories of which he can recollect later to conjure feelings of rural tranquility even when he’s in the city.

Lyrical Ballads

“Tintern Abbey” initially appeared as the final poem in Lyrical Ballads, which was published in 1798. This volume resulted from a collaboration between Wordsworth and his close friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. To the second edition of the volume, published in 1800, Wordsworth added a preface in which he outlined the broad aim of their project. Their primary goal, he explains, was to move poetry beyond the stilted and inaccessible forms that had dominated the previous century. Instead of lifeless, alienating, formal verse, they proposed a new poetry that featured a simpler, more natural language. Such naturalistic language could infuse poetry with new vitality, particularly when used to express the emotions of a first-person speaker. “Tintern Abbey” beautifully reflects Wordsworth’s ideal of a renewed lyric tradition—one characterized, above all, by “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” The speaker’s language is simple and flows with natural cadences that, though accessible to the average reader, also reflects the careful craftsmanship of an accomplished poet. With “Tintern Abbey” and the other poems of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth and Coleridge marked the unofficial beginning of the British Romantic period.

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