Historical Context in Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

Used repeatedly throughout the first stanza, the descriptors “green” and “wild” illustrate a fertile, abundant landscape beginning to become contaminated by signs of industrialization. Romantics envisioned a simple past and disapproved of the corruption of nature by factories and pollution.

One of the major visions of the Romantic movement was to paint and write about landscape with newfound reverence. Here, Wordsworth praises nature through his description of his surroundings, specifically in the blurred distinctions between the objects in nature—how the landscape “connect[s]” with the sky through the imprint of the cliffs; how the color green extends to every door. The melding of land and sky, as well as the broader conception of Nature as a unified whole, is a motif that characterizes much of the art of the Romantic movement.

Wordsworth opens his first stanza by establishing the context of the poem. This poem, as clearly described in the title, was written five years after a walking tour from London to North Wales in 1793. Now, five years later on July 13, 1798, Wordsworth returns to the same spot, which overlooks the village of Tintern on the west bank of the River Wye in Wales. The title provides a sense of perspective—both physical and temporal—and indicates that Wordsworth stands on a secluded cliff “above” the village below. This intimates a sense of distance from the village, as though Wordsworth were standing back and observing both the village and his life from afar.