William Wordsworth

"The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being."
-Wordsworth pg 205 (from Tintern Abbey)

For the first 17 years of my life, my grandparents lived on a lake in central Florida. The essence of my feelings toward that lake are captured near perfectly in Wordsworth's Letters Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey. For me, the lake is the guardian of my heart. It has been close to ten years since my grandparents sold that home, but I still call the lake mine. When Wordsworth opens the poem, he repeats "again" and "once again" reiterating the fact that he is revisiting this place and still holds the memories from before. I still return to my lake each time I return to Florida. I revisit old memories and clear my head of all that I want to forget. In the second stanza, he tells the reader that he never forgot the Wye.

Though absent long,
These forms of beauty have not been to me,
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:

This is the same feeling that I have no matter how distant from this landscape that I lived in for so long. Just as Wordsworth wrote, it is "felt in the blood, and felt along the heart." I was so surprised by how much this poem actually mirrored my own feelings. When he writes of the Wye as a wanderer through the wood on page 203 in the third stanza, I picture the cypress swamp at the edge of my lake that winds for about a mile before reaching two ponds that are almost entirely secluded in the woods. And on page 204 in the fourth stanza, he really hit home when he talked about his first visit. He talks about how much change has occurred since his last visit, not solely due to the landscape itself, but due to his perspective. I think I understand exactly what he means by "I cannot paint what then it was." Every time I go to the lake, things change slightly due mostly to my perspective. 150 acres doesn't seem as big to an adult as it does to a child. Nature once held my complete attention, but I am unfortunately able to see more now. It bothers me to see the expanse of progress and homes being built on the other side of the swamps. I can no longer ignore it the way I did in childhood. This is absolutely my favorite reading thus far. I do like the clear and concise language that Wordsworth uses, but that is not the reason for my favoring his work. I relate most to his love for nature and his love for his sister. In the last stanza, he brings Dorothy into the poem.

For thou art with me, here, upon the banks
Of this fair river; thou, my dearest Friend,

This is the part where my newly found sensitive side brought out a few tears! These feelings for his sister are the same I share for my older brother. It is impossible for me to stand at the edge of the lake, with or without him, and not think of him. There is seldom a memory from that place that does not include him. The relationship between William and Dorothy is beautiful and evident in nearly all of his work. I lost my senses again when reading We are Seven. This is possibly the saddest, but sweetest little poem I have ever read. He captures his feelings at the loss of his mother and his feelings toward his siblings. Wordsworth was a sincere, sweet, and brilliant writer. He conveyed his feelings and opened up mine, a true poet.