a close reading on a Wordsworth poem I submitted for my western literature class

The Romantic Impetus: Uncovering the Romantics’ Subtle Confrontation of the Urbane
Many perceive the Romantic Movement as merely a rant of frustration that ultimately brought its adherents to a hopeless worldview and an escapist philosophy. Those who were considered the bearers of the romantic spirit though it could be said fled to the rural; they can’t be accused of turning a blind eye unto the urbane. In fact, it was this take off unto the rural that the romantics did that can be considered their “revolution” against the urbane which they in their earnestness saw in its bare potentials to strip the human psyche of what it once knew. It is from Wordsworth’s poem Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey that the romantic impetus: the turn to the beauty of nature, the ethics of spontaneity, and the investment of hope on the innocent that the confrontation of the romantics with the urbane ethos can be unpacked.
Lush depictions of nature are very abundant in romantic writers and Wordsworth is not one who is exempt from the use of this theme. Wordsworth’s primary depiction of nature is that of “unremembered pleasures” as seen in line 31 of his poem. His deriving from nature the notions of solitude, quiet, and calm in lines 6-8 highlight the subtlety of the landscape and at the same time, his passionate rendering that dwells on detail makes the imagery as if an intense, yet unhurried blossoming in the mind of his reader. Though it could be said that he depicts nature as meek, suffice to say, that though it is meek, nature is still first and foremost majestic. This is where the very romantic tendency to “romanticize nature” can be seen-- the grandeur depicted in the meekness of nature as a paradox is the only way to express in words broken how nature is beautiful. From the beginning of the poem, this depiction is very evident since the general movement introduced in the poem is that of retrospect and the imagery of this retrospect is that of nature being so beautiful. The mention of the time which contained the duration in which Wordsworth did not go back to nature compounded with the sentimental manner of exposition he uses in his poetry intensifies the longing inherent in the poem. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” as many would say. He takes utter pleasure in beholding nature and at the same time, he feels humbled for only remembering it now.
Also, by the sheer form Wordsworth wrote his poem, it was as if he wanted to bridge the gap between emotion and understanding through expressing his words in seeming immediate emergence or in a style almost similar to thinking aloud. By de-emphasizing an organized flow he aims to reveal how his thoughts develop and how they are inherently connected to his sentiments. The lack of logical order in his writing points to a different kind of order: that of spontaneity. It is also in this way that a sort of “ethics” is presented in his poem. In lines 58-65, it can be seen how Wordsworth is involved in the realm of necessities and the pursuit of survival, but he then goes on in lines 65-72 that he longs for more; the more being his love for nature. Other lines that depicts a different kind of ethics is in lines 103-111 wherein he says that If he stuck his attention with “The still, sad music of humanity” (line 91) then he will lose the anchor of his purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of his heart, and soul of all his moral being. Wordsworth seems to attribute that his heart is slowly pushing his mind to regard nature as not only a source of beauty, but also a source of goodness.
Pushing the point further, like in line 30-34 wherein Wordsworth says that the “best portion of a good man’s life” (line 34) he owes to “unremembered pleasures” that “have no slight or trivial influence” depicting that there is a certain evil inherent in being “influenced.” It could be said that the “influence” Wordsworth means here is that of the urbane as seen in line 131 “the dreary intercourse of daily life” or the drudgery of living an urbane life. The fact that William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth needed to go back to nature and William’s need to “remember” nature means that they are used to urbanity. In here, it can be seen that Wordsworth makes more nuanced the notion of nature as not only physical environment, but as the more philosophical concept of “nature” as the virginal state of originality. Here, Wordsworth depicts nature (physical environment) as natural (virginal state of originality) and (in very Rousseauist categories,) asserts that the “state of nature” of nature is of goodness as opposed to the urbanity he has been used to with the tendency of the urban ethos to see nature as merely an extension of the ego that man can “chasten and subdue” (line 93). It is here where the address to Dorothy can be situated. William creates an ode to innocence in his speaking to Dorothy and hopes that she will preserve in her mind and heart the beauty and goodness of nature in both of its senses. Ultimately, he wishes that Dorothy contain in her the sensibilities of purity despite the influence of the urbane which she will or probably is being slowly initiated into.
It is in the turn to the beauty of nature, the ethics of spontaneity, and the investment of hope on the innocent that the romantics put the impetus of their confrontation with the urbane. Beyond the hopeless worldview and the escapist philosophy, the romantics can be said to be very vigilant to the dangers of the problems we now suffer immensely in our modern age: environmental and identity loss. Though indirect, the romantics can’t be denied of their sublime capacity to remind us of the danger of moving too fast forward and perhaps we can use a little bit of romanticism in our time.