Intro
Don’t let the title that’s almost as long as the actual poem get you down. Basically, this is one of the most famous Romantic poems, and in it the speaker takes this long walk to an area surrounding an old ruined abbey from the Middle Ages. Sounds like a relaxing day in nature, right? Oh, but it’s so much more.
When we think of the Romantic poets, we often think of flowers, trees, maybe some lovers’ tears, and basically lots of really scenic nature that maybe stands in for romance. In other words, we don’t think of politics or class structures or capitalism—all those things are total turn-offs, after all. And sure, we’ve got plenty of leaves and hillsides near Wordsworth’s abbey, but some of his observations have to do with that less romancey stuff, too.
New Historicists like Jerome McGann say we’re wrong to approach the Romantics in this way that ignores everything but the candy hearts. According to him, Romantic poetry isn’t “detached” from the contextual history of the French Revolution, industrialization, urbanization, all those other fun things. Sure, the Romantic poets may love to write about flowers and trees, but even when they’re writing about flowers and trees, they’re referencing all kinds of political, economic and historical events.
Jerome McGann looks at Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” to prove his point. At first glance, the poem seems to be all about pretty scenery. But McGann says it’s about a whole lot more. Let’s have a look:
Quote
…Once again I see
these hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,
Or of some Hermit’s cave, where by his fire
The Hermit sits alone.
Analysis
Here we have all the usual Romantic stuff: woods, hedge-rows, “pastoral farms,” and greenery. But Jerome McGann makes the point that things are not all as they seem. The reference to the “vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods” is super important, according to him. That’s because in the 1790s (when Wordsworth wrote this poem) the ruined Tintern Abbey was “a favorite haunt of transients and displaced persons.”
By referencing these poor, homeless people, at the same time as he’s evoking all the “pastoral” beauty of the farms and the landscape around the abbey, Wordsworth is actually setting up a contrast in social conditions. The “happy cottager” mentioned in these lines is not far removed from the “houseless vagrant.” Sounds a bit like modern-day New York, huh?
We don’t usually think of the Romantics as having anything to do with poverty and homelessness. And there is poverty and homelessness in this picture, people. It’s only when we put our New Historicist lenses on that we can pick up on all of these subtle economic, social, and historical cues.