In his article On Reading Romantic Poetry, L. J. Swingle identifies the tendency of the Romantic poet to “think in human heart” using a rustic description to explore “the naked dignity of man.” This analysis is certainly true of William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey and Thomas Gray's Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, two 18th-century perspective poems that examine humanity and man's changing relationship with nature through an expressive overview of a place with emotional meaning. Both poems, written during a time of considerable upheaval in the countryside, emphasize physical, temporal, and metaphorical distance to examine complex questions relating to the poet's past and future. In this way, the descriptive and reflective elements of the lyrics interact with each other, allowing the poets to poignantly communicate ideas of memory, loss, and, ultimately, the restorative power of nature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first stanza of Tintern Abbey mimics the process of recollection by conveying the narrator's experience of the landscape before him in intricate detail. Wordsworth delights in depicting the quiet serenity of his surroundings, seeming to relish such details as the “soft inward murmur” of the waters “that fall from their mountain springs.” His gentle use of assonance enhances the sensual nature of the piece, suggesting that the narrator's thirst is quenching – albeit distantly – after the aesthetic drought of “five long winters” in the city. This interplay between sense and memory exposes an important aspect of much perspective poetry: the power of reflection and memory. Indeed, it is significant that Wordsworth writes of “Thoughts of deepest solitude,” thus reminding the reader that the poem is not simply an objective description of landscape. The rural setting imprints belief and resonance on the narrator, allowing Wordsworth to present “two consciousnesses belonging to the poet at different times in his life,” bound together by memory and used as tools in an exploration of humanity. Similarly, Gray's Ode highlights the importance of memory through the romanticized, almost childlike tone adopted to describe his earlier perception of the grounds of Eton College ("Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasant shade, / Ah , fields loved in vain"), thus expressing the important relationship between mind, reminiscence and natural description. However, it is important not to undermine the role of dislocation in the perspective poem, especially as it relates to Wordsworth and Gray's reflections on distance. In Tintern Abbey, for example, Wordsworth demonstrates how memories of the abbey regularly act on the narrator during his absence from the countryside, evoking spiritual feelings even within the confines of the city: "But often, in the lonely rooms and amid the din of the cities ". and city, I owed them, in hours of tiredness, sweet sensations." We are reminded that, rather than existing entirely separate, the town and the city often intrude upon each other, exerting considerable influence on Wordsworth's Thoughts and Deeds. Furthermore, Clarke draws attention to the poet's allusion to the “wandering dwellers in the homeless woods,” arguing that Wordsworth tends to remember characteristics that are “just out of sight or beyond definition.” This raises the possibility that the chaos of urban life made some aspects of the landscape inaccessible to Wordsworth. Even a place as quiet and of great emotional significance as Tintern Abbey cannot help but becontaminated by the experiences of “this unintelligible world,” ensuring that the pure communion of childhood with nature can no longer be recovered. The impenetrability is most explicitly conveyed in Gray's Ode, where he poignantly describes the wholesome landscape ambushed by personified adult passions: “Disdainful anger, pale fear, / And shame that hides behind.” The attachment of human characteristics to these imperfect emotions—augmented by the poet's use of capital letters—allows Gray to endow them with an almost unstoppable power, demonstrating how the immorality of city life inevitably imposes itself on the countryside. This feeling of alienation from the remembered scene lends credence to Williams's observation that much 18th-century pastoral literature, including perspective poetry, "contrasted the dignified simplicity of rural life with the corruption of the city," thus demonstrating how more fascinating life rural environments cannot escape the vices of urban life. In this way, both poems emphasize the concept of distance, ranging from the physical to the temporal and the metaphorical. Wordsworth and Gray explore the loss of young people's carefree, unpolluted relationship with nature, implying that certain factors, such as the passage of time and a growing awareness of the inevitability of hardship, have severed their childhood connection to the countryside. The only way this union can be preserved, then, is through memory. Gray, for example, manages to exploit the distance from Eton College, in both a physical and temporal sense, to consider his school days in a different context, leading him to brand the young inhabitants of the neighborhood "little victims", unaware of their imminent “misfortune”. This sense of remoteness can be better appreciated when considering the agricultural changes that occurred during the 18th century. While this period was a time of enormous progress, it was also a time of considerable doubt, with the Enclosures leading to limited access and the decline of common lands. Consequently, it is possible that, through the thorough use of memory and imagination in their poetry, Wordsworth and Gray intended to compensate for their lack of proximity to the countryside, instead emphasizing the benefits of distance in exploring the hopes and doubts associated with the live in the countryside. eighteenth century society. It is this interplay between hope and doubt that exposes the importance of the reflective elements of perspective poetry, allowing Wordsworth and Gray to engage in both reminiscence of the past and speculation about the future. These reflections often amount to reflections on gain and loss – for example, although his childhood experiences along the Wye have enabled Wordsworth to acquire “food / For future years”, this realization is bittersweet, for he has also lost his childhood communion and undisputed with nature. In this regard, Wordsworth's allusion to “unripe fruits” can be interpreted as a metaphor for unfulfilled dreams, adding another layer to the poem's theme of loss. However, although ideas relating to loss are present in both poems, it is important to consider the enriching sense of rejuvenation associated with the countryside, which is implicit in Wordsworth and Gray's writing. While the pupils described by Gray are the reincarnation of his younger self's carefree pleasure in the grounds of Eton College ("Yet ah! why should they know their doom?"), Wordsworth's heartfelt speech to his "dear sister" verse the end of Tintern Abbey reaffirms one's past and demonstrates a deeper appreciation for one's surroundings, thus exposing the cyclical power and. 50.