Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth, saught a reunion of man and nature. They also believed in cultivating higher knowledge through a relationship with unrestricted nature, and rallied against conformity imposed by society. In many ways, Chris McCandless embodied Romantic ideals, seeking deeper meaning in solitude of the wild.
Click the link to read Wordsworth's biography. Take notes on relevant details as relating to similarities/differences with Chris McCandless. Then, click and read Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. What does the poem mean? How are the ideas expressed connected to McCandless? Find supporting quotations between book and poem. Post your response; it should be an original interpretation, exhibiting evidence of close reading of both the poem and the quotations from the book.
20 points for Interpretation of Poem
20 points for Connection To Into the Wild
10 points for close reading and analysis
Romantic Poetry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_poetry.
Wordsworth Biography http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/
Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tinturn Abbey http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/518/
Click the link to read Wordsworth's biography. Take notes on relevant details as relating to similarities/differences with Chris McCandless. Then, click and read Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey. What does the poem mean? How are the ideas expressed connected to McCandless? Find supporting quotations between book and poem. Post your response; it should be an original interpretation, exhibiting evidence of close reading of both the poem and the quotations from the book.
20 points for Interpretation of Poem
20 points for Connection To Into the Wild
10 points for close reading and analysis
Romantic Poetry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_poetry.
Wordsworth Biography http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/
Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tinturn Abbey http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/518/
TAKE A LOOK AT TINTERN ABBEY! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintern_Abbey
31 comments:
The poem Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey relates to Chris from the book into the wild because. In the poem and in the book both the main characters don�t like the life style there living and want to head into the wild to escape from society. In the poem (line 50) the character says, � If this be but a vain belief, yet, oh! How oft�In darkness and amid the many shapes of joyless daylight.� This means that when being in the city he fells joyless and it fells like darkness. But even though the sun comes up and he sees the city and all the different shapes and people he�s still not happy. Also in the poem the main character says (line 6) �That on a wild secluded scene impress thoughts of more deep seclusion and connect with the landscape with the quiet of the sky.� Meaning he wants to leave the city and society and go back to the wild and interact with nature were he fell much comfortable. Into the wild the book the main character Chris McCandless also believes in going into the wild and finding peace. The reason I say this is in the book (Author�s Note) � McCandless dropped out of sight he changed his name, gave the entire balance of twenty-four-thousand-dollar saving account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet. And then invented a new life for himself, taking up residence at the ragged margin of our society, wandering across North America in search of raw, transcend experience.� He wanted to get away from society so he gave everything up and left his family to to go out to the wilderness. So in those aspects both the main characters of the poem and the book relate.
Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey parallels the main character, Chris McCandless, from Into the Wild in many aspects. For example, both sought an initial escape from society and then found love in nature. In the poem the speaker readily seeks escape from society, “but oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din of towns and cities, I have owed to them in hours of weariness” (lines 25-27), showing his distaste for the way his life was within society’s accepted realm of normal. Similarly, Chris McCandless wished to escape the life he had made him feel like he was, “running against the forces of darkness” (Krakauer, 112). But as they both escaped into nature, they both felt powerful bonds to it that made it so that they never wanted to leave. Chris had a great affection for the wild whenever people would tell him to settle down he would answer something like, “I have not tired of the wilderness; rather I enjoy its beauty and the vagrant life I lead, more keenly all the time” (Krakauer, 90), and then would continue living the way he wanted. The poem also shows a deep affection of the wild, “The tall rock, the mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, their colours and their forms, were…a feeling and a love, that had no need of a remoter charm” (lines77-81). From this we can see the sincere and profound attachment the poem expresses to nature and a scene uncorrupted by the hand of man or society. The love of nature and the hate of society make the mindset of the poem and Chris McCandless eerily similar.
The poem "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth is about a lonely man revisiting the banks of Wye. This is an important place because the beauty of it filled the speakers soul. He feels as if the nature has positively affected his personality and shaped his boyhood. As he returns to the banks five years later, he is filled with joy. Although he hasn’t been here recently, thoughts of this place always filled his mind, like his spiritual escape. He says that his relationship with nature has changed since he was a boy, but he still receives great gifts the world has to offer. In lines 83-88 the speaker says, "…time is past, and all its aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures./ Not for this faint I nor mourn nor murmur, other gifts have followed;/ for such loss, I would believe, Abundant recompence." When he was younger, he loved nature, but didn’t really appreciate the beauty of it. Now, just by being in the presence of the banks, he is overwhelmed with happiness from the beauty of the place. The view fills his spirit, and cures his loneliness.
Chris McCandles from "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer and the speaker in "Tintern Abbey" are very similar. Both have an extreme love for nature and its effect on the soul. The speaker in Tintern Abbey shows the impact nature has on him in lines 108-110. "In nature and the language of the sense, The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being." Chris McCandles adventure through nature shows how passionate he was about it. He would rather be there than anywhere else. "I have not tired of the wilderness; rather I enjoy its beauty and the vagrant life I lead…" "Do you blame me for staying here, where I feel that I belong and am one with the world around me?" (Krakauer 87) Nature made great company for both people, and helped them feel alive.
Chris McCandless and the speaker in "Tintern Abbey" also may have had similar relationships with their siblings. Chris was very close with his sister, Carine. Carine understood Chris, so when he went off to live in the wild and failed to keep in touch, she wasn’t offended. "But I didn’t really feel hurt by his failure to write. I knew he was happy doing what he wanted to do; I understood it was important for him to see how independent he could be." (Krakauer 125) The speaker in "Tintern Abbey" also wanted his sister to understand how he felt about nature. He wanted her to experience what he had, and appreciate the beauty of the world and all it has to offer. In lines 119-125 he says, "yet a little while may I behold in thee what I was once, my dear, dear Sister!/ and this prayer I make, knowing that nature never did betray the heart that loved her;/ ‘tis her privilege, through all the years of this our life, to lead from joy to joy:/"
One of the major themes presented in the poem Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey is nature. The reader can easily figure this out mainly because of the repetitious use of nature in the poem. The poet writes mainly about how he loves to be around nature and how it makes him feel calm. In the poem (line 9) he says, “The day is come when I again repose here, under this dark sycamore, and view these plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, which at this season, with their unripe fruits, are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves mid groves and copses.” He is describing how beautiful nature is and that he likes it. He also describes nature as an escape from society which relates to the travel essay, Into the Wild. Chris McCandless, the protagonist, is very alike to the speaker of the poem. Chris doesn’t want to conform to society and neither does the speaker of the poem therefore they find nature to be an escape from society. There reasons may be different but the general idea is basically the same. Chris wanted to be one with nature mainly to escape from his dad. “After Chris unearthed the particulars of Walt’s divorce, two years passed before his anger began to leak to the surface, but leak it eventually did. The boy could not pardon the mistakes his father had made as a young man, and he wasn’t even less willing to pardon the attempt at concealment.” (Krakauer, 122). In this quote the reader can see how Chris feels about his father after he found out about his other wife. Chris seemed really mad and he wouldn’t forgive his father. This is one of the main reasons as to why Chris left society and escaped to nature. The speaker of the poem also escaped society but not for the same reasons as Chris. The poet turned to nature to be happy and forget about the evils of society. In the poem (line 53) he says “Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, have hung upon the beatings of my heart—how oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, O sylvan Wye!” He is saying that he can turn to nature to escape the stress that he gets when he is in society. He believes nature is man’s ultimate happiness and escape. Chris McCandless believed the same thing. Both the poet and Chris McCandless liked to the fact of being isolated in nature with no one around. It made them happy and at peace with the earth. Both characters had a love for nature.
In William Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey”, the speaker is a lover of nature and of the world of sense which we half create, and recognizes in them both the guide and anchor of his moral being. In his absence images and feelings of this place (the abbey) have sustained him, guided his moral life, and even allowed him vision into the life of things. Similar to the narrative of Chris Mccandless in Into the Wild, the speaker of the Tintern Abbey shared the idea of seeking refuge in nature in horrid times. For example, Chris has always disliked the society and especially toward his parents. The narrator describes Chris’s dissatisfaction toward his parents, “He brooded at length over what he perceived to be his father’s moral shortcomings, the hypocrisy of his parents’ lifestyle, the tyranny of their conditional love.” (Krakauer 64). Because of his discontent in the people around him, Chris bolts out into the wild nature to escape from society in hopes to find his happiness, as the quote goes on, “Eventually, Chris rebelled—and when he finally did, it was with characteristic immoderation” (Krakauer 64).
Much like Chris, the speaker in Tintern Abbey also relied on the spiritual power of nature to take his burdens away, as the speaker describes in the poem: “that blessed mood,/ In which the burthen of the mystery,/ In which the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world,/ Is lightened/” (Wordsworth 37-41). This place is like daylight in the darkness of the world. When the speaker can stand no longer of the world, he turns his thought to the place he loves. The speaker talks about how he often turns his spirit to this wondrous place, “How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,/ O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro’ the woods,/ How often has my spirit turned to thee!/” (Wordsworth 55- 57). The repetition of “spirit” and “turned to thee” emphasizes that this beautiful area is incredibly important to him, it always refreshes the speaker.
To Chris and the speaker of Tintern Abbey, nature seems to hold magical powers in healing one’s spirit and moral. Both of them want to be away from problems and aggravations in society and thus both sought after nature to relieve the giant burden.
Wordsworth's "Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey" is about a lonely man who returns to the landscape he loves. This man is the speaker and the reader can tell that he is very passionate about nature. Throughout the poem, the speaker talks about how being in nature, or even just remembering nature, makes him feel better. In the "unintelligible world" (line 40) of the city, the "heavy and weary weight" (line 39) that the speaker feels "is lightened" (line 41). The speaker finds city society hard to understand and in that environment, he feels pressure. However, the thought of nature lightens the weight that he feels. When in the darkness and grunge of the city, memories of his experiences in nature cause "sensations sweet, / felt in the blood, and felt along the heart; / and passing even into my purer mind, / with tranquil restoration" (lines 27-30). Nature brings him sweet feelings from deep inside him and these feelings renew his peace of mind. For the narrator, nature is an escape from the worries and uncertainty of urban life that helps to purify his mind. The natural world, such as that he sees around Tintern Abbey, eases the tension he experiences when he returns to society.
This is very similar to the feelings of Chris McCandless. McCandless went out to the wilderness to escape from society. He felt that by traveling into the Alaskan forests he would "NO LONGER...BE POISIONED BY CIVILIZATION" (Krakauer 163). He was attempting to purify himself, as well as escape from the corruptions of society. He didn�t want to become the hypocrite that his father was when he cheated on his family. Like the speaker of "Tintern Abbey", Chris leaves in order to escape the corruptions of modern life and to rid himself of its dishonesty.
In the poem Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey a man is trying to escape from society. In trying so he finds himself in the wild where he feels this weight has been lifted from him. It has been five years since his return but yet he stills remembers the beauty and the important it holds.
This parallels to how Chris felt in Into the Wild. Chris felt free because there were no boundaries to be broken and no government to tell him what he could and couldn’t have done. “These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a soft inland murmur/”(Lines 3-4) As the character in Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey sits on the river bank and listens to the flow of the water which separates him from wilderness and civilization as he stares down at the green grass and farm. This parallels how Chris was trapped by the rivers rapid waters and couldn’t proceed to civilization. What this poem has displayed about rivers is although rivers separate wilderness and civilization at some point they well meet because no matter where one is if one was to follow a river down stream it will lead to civilization.
To recover from a traumatic event that has changed the rest of your life is a very lengthy and emotional battle that both Chris McCandless and William Wadsworth have witnessed first hand. For Wadsworth, it was the loss of his parents and a sister that he hardly knew until later in his thirties. For McCandless, it was the discovery of his father’s double life in which he had two different families. With these painful and disturbing instances taking place in each of their lives, they needed an escape from society’s emotional burden.
This escape route was taken through one of God’s grateful gifts to earth: nature, sweet and innocent nature. Through Wadworth’s “the Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” and the John Krakauer novel Into the Wild, we see the emphasis of nature and it’s escape and the need for deeper questions as to what life is really about. It all came from when they were adolescents, as Chris loved hiking through the woods and Wadsworth had a certain “feeling and a love”(Wadsworth 78) for playing around in such beautiful landscapes.
However, as both McCandless and Wadsworth have both matured in age and gone through tough exeriences, their interpretation of nature has altered and they now look as it as a place to escape to in the time of society’s faults. Nature has been an influence of purity to both, where McCandless feels, “No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.”(Krakauer 163) He can runaway to wild to ‘flee natures poison’. Wadsworth feels very similar when he writes, “Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,/ Wherever nature led: more like a man/ Flying from something that he dreads, then one/ Who sought the thing he loved./” He, just like McCandless, thinks that with all these beautiful attributes, nature may lead a man away from something that he dreads and into something the he loves.
Both of these men, in the time of emotional comfort, looked to Mother Nature for support and meaning. Support and deeper meaning were the two things these men were looking for when they were distraught. Without nature, they would not have recovered from their tragedies. Yet, without them, it would not have inspired both McCandless and Wadsworth to reach their goals.
The speaker in the poem “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern abbey” clearly shows great affection for nature. He believes that nature is the place where he is able to /relief weary weight of all this unintelligible world/. This shows the speaker’s attitude toward society. He feels as if there is tons of pressure in society because people expected certain responsibilities from each other. For example, people is not required to mow their lawn, however, their neighbors will expect them to mow it because it is part of society; the whole idea of conformity. As a young boy, he used to enjoy a peaceful walk in the forest. However, as he grows older and understands how society functions; he is disgusted. Is it corrupted to the point where he is /flying from something that he dreads/ instead of /sought the thing he loved/. He hates society so much that the only reason why he went to nature is to escape from society.
The speaker of this poem have the same view on nature and society as Alex McCandless from “Into the Wild.” McCandless believes that “we just have to have a courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living” (Krakauer 57). In short, he is totally against the idea or people living in society. He belives that everyone should at least live in the nature for couple of months, if not years to enjoy god’s creation. Like McCandless, the speaker of the poem also believes that he belongs in nature and not society. The speaker says /when like a roe I bounded o’er the mountains/ (Wordsworth line 67-68). He feels that he belongs in nature as how the deer belong in it.
For both McCandless and the speaker of Tintern Abbey, the nature is a symbol of home. Nature is the only place where they felt happiness and freedom. This is the whole idea of home.
Woodsworth poem “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey” is about a man who returns to the banks of Wye in order to escape from the city. The speaker in the poem is going through a rough period of time which is the Industrial Revolution. He becomes so stressed out that he starts to reminisce on his past of when he would be in the nature and how he would remember all the things that people take for granted.
After reading Woodsworth “Tintern Abbey” poem I have noticed many similarities to Jon Krakauer “Into the Wild”. Both chose nature as a way of an escape to get away from the city. And that also share a deep appreciation for nature almost in a worship kind of way. They both share the same views about society and their way of responding to there problems. For instance in the book “Into the Wild” Chris McCandless writes letter that states how he was enjoying the wild and was glad to be away from civilization. The letter states that: “two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, ‘cause “the west is the best.” And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climatic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the great white north. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become LOST IN THE WILD.” (Krakauer 163) Nature is Chris’ getaway from civilization where he can go to think, learn about life like find answers that he might not be able to get in the city. Also it’s an opportunity for him to be alone.
Like Chris the speaker in the poem decides to recapture the memories he had from when he would be at the banks of Wye. Unlike Chris though the speaker had what Chris was searching for all along. He grew up in nature, but when times gets rough in the city he just isolates himself from everything else and is taking back to the good times he used to have when he would look at the beautiful scenery. He always returns this place that no matter what as always been there for him. In line 123 he says that “Knowing that nature never did betray”; that meant he could always return to escape because he knew that nature would always be there for him. The connection between Chris and the speaker in the poem came to me when in lines 70-73 it states that: “ Wherever nature led: more like man/Flying from something that he dreads, than one/ Who sought the thing he loved.” From this I knew that there was something that was getting to him that was wearing him down probably physically but most of all emotionally, which lead him to escape back to the place where he feels most comfortable this is nature.
After reading the poem and looking back at Chris McCandless had me wondering is there a Chris McCandless no matter where you are or even no matter what time period you live in or is it that over time society is becoming more corrupt?
The poem “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey” is about a man's spiritual connection to nature and his pondering of his ventures. The author, Wordsworth wrote the poem to reflect on how the chaos of society has had a negative impact on his emotional and mental being and the only way for him to find any tranquility is to return to nature. By doing so, his admiration for the untamed beauty grew and as it says in lines 36 to 41 “that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the mystery, in which the heavy and weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened”, it helped him find an inner peace and felt the pressures of society being lifted off him. Yet in lines 52 to 56 “when the fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, Have hung upon the beatings of my heart – How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, O sylvan Wye.” when he is separated from his sanctuary and has to go back to civilization, he often reminisces of his stay in nature and misses his time in it. With his idealistic and romantic ideas, Wordsworth's style of writing heavily influenced Chris McCandless, the main character of “Into the Wild”. Both Wordsworth and McCandless are very alike form their fondness of nature and the wilderness and their scorn for society. McCandless' life having been influenced by writings such as “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey” not only gave him ideals of how to live but gave him the inspiration to act on his beliefs. With that and his need for isolation, leaving everything behind was too easy for Chris and as it says in the author's note “He changed his name, gave the entire balance of twenty-four thousand-dollar savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet.” By doing so, Chris would have made his idols proud so the parallels between Chris McCandless and Wordsworth are very alike. They both have an admiration for nature, they both despise society, they want to be isolated, and both are well educated. With those similarities Chris McCandless could really relate to Wordsworth and Wordsworth could have understood why Chris abandoned everything and only through their beliefs could they live out their idealistic lives.
The poem Lines Composed a few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth introduces a speaker who has missions for going into nature. This same perspective can be applied to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild because both McCandless and the speaker of Wordsworth’s poem share the common idea that nature is the true escape when they have become weary of society.
The speaker of Lines Composed a few Miles above Tintern Abbey, believes that his mission or goal of going into nature has changed with time. Because the first line of the poem says “Five years have past; five summers, with the length/Of five long winters,” the reader sees that the speaker of the poem is back into the woods after five long years. This poem sets a comparison between who the speaker was the first time he entered the wild, and the person he has become with his return. He has become a more positive person as line 61 suggests, “the mind revives again,” which allows him to reflect on his past self from an accurate perspective. His purpose before, as line 71 implies, was to get away from “something that he dreads.” The reader can say that what he “dreads” is society and that the speaker has become disenchanted by it. The narrator’s drive is to go far from the “sad music of humanity.” (Wordsworth line 91)
Jon Krakauer’s passion to write Into the Wild came from Chris McCandless’ journey that took place in the wilderness. During his first short trips to the desert and other secluded settings, the only thing Chris wanted was to get away from his family, from something described by the speaker of Wordsworth’s poem as “something that he dreads.” The reason, his father had a double life. Walt McCandless was a “bigamist,” and Chris certainly didn’t agree with that. (Krakauer 159) The impulse to get out, to take a break from the people we see everyday is shared by both of these characters. Both of their journeys can be compared to a Hermit’s. Chris and the speaker of the poem have chosen to live in solitude for some periods of time. The “Hermits sits alone” (Wordsworth line 22) for the same reason he travels to the desert, “to find reality.” (Krakauer 25)
“Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey” is about a lonely man revisiting a place that made a lasting impression on him as a younger person. When he does return after five years absence, he immerses himself in the scenery while leaning on a sycamore tree. Unlike when he was a boy who played in mountains near by and the river, he is now an older person he regards nature as sacred place where his most pure thoughts occur. It is in this setting, he hears the “sad music of humanity”(Wordsworth 91) Nature is his way to escape from society or what he describes as “the weary weight/ Of all this unintelligible world”(Wordsworth, 39-40) In his mind society puts stress on people to conform to the likings of the accepted social standards. If one is not in conformity with society, that person is likely to be shunned. Nature is his refuge from the world that man has created where he can be himself without the influence of society. He refers to nature as “the guardian of my heart, and soul/ Of all my moral being.”(Wordsworth 110-111) Just like a guardian would protect and take care of a child, nature does the same for his inner spirit. This is when he is truly happy.
Both McCandless and the speaker were entranced by a natural setting. McCandless when he traveled to Alaska during his junior year, he was “smitten by the vastness of the land, by the ghostly hue of the glaciers, by the pellucid subarctic sky. There was never any question that he would return.”(Krakauer 124) The speaker even states that as a boy “The mountain, and the deep gloomy wood,/ Their colours and their forms, were then to me/ and appetite” (Wordsworth 78-80) Their respective natural settings have moved them so much that they decided returning was by all means a guarantee. In addition, both saw their parts of nature as a refuge from the society that they wanted to escape from. From both of these experiences both McCandless and the speaker realize one thing; “Happiness only real when shared”(Krakauer 189) The speaker is in the company of his sister for whom he loves dearly. In lines 124 to 125, he says “Through all the years of this our life, to lead/ From joy to joy.” During this experience with nature he is sharing his joy with his sister. From the time together with his sister away from society, the speaker finds the most happiness. McCandless also realizes that spending time in the wilderness alone is not quite as fulfilling as if he had shared it with another person. That was partly why McCandless made an attempt to return back to civilization.
From childhood to adulthood, the main character of the poem goes to a beautiful scenic area. As a young boy, he used to play freely and carelessly in the woods, not noticing the true beauty of nature, and its splendors. After many years passed, he transformed himself from being an immature, wild boy, to a mature, tranquil, man. This change came about because nature had more of an impact on him as an adult who was appreciative, as apposed to when he was a young boy, who took advantage of nature. Later on in his life he created an unbreakable bond with nature, and ended up developing a true passionate and spiritual relationship as well.
Just like Chris McCandless, the speaker of this poem finds nature and the wilderness to be almost a therapeutic escape from the hectic, monotonous life style that one lives in the city. Both characters feel as if they need to go to the wild to escape from all the madness that comes from the city, and to prove that observation, in line 26-29, the speaker says, “But oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din of towns and cities, I have owed to them in hours of weariness, sensations sweet, felt in the blood, and felt along the heart.”
That quotation translates into saying that when the speaker feels overwhelmed with everything in the noisy city, he feels obligated to return to nature, and he has a good feeling about it, and his soul is even telling him to go as well. Just like Chris McCandless, he felt as if the only way to escape the life he used to have was not as much to return to nature, because he’s never gone, but go out into nature. Another connection that can be made between the speaker of the poem to Chris, is that later on when they are in the wild, they both live an extremely solitary life.
Hermit: one that retires from society and lives in solitude especially for religious reasons.
In the poem, there is a part, where from lines 21-22 the speaker talks about,
“Hermit’s cave, where by his fire the Hermit sits alone.” This is obviously referring to the speaker, because it's known that he’s a loner, that description can also be used to portray Chris.
Hermit Crabs are solitary creatures, they have their house on their backs, and they are constantly moving. They can be viewed as nomadic animals because they only settle in a certain area for a short amount of time. They don’t really bond with other animals, and just keep to themselves.
The Hermit Crabs are extremely closely related to the speaker of the poem and Chris, because they spend time by themselves, and they move around. Going back to saying how the speaker seemed to have a spiritual connection with nature, well, in the definition it also says, “especially for religious reasons.” They all have a purpose, and connection with nature, and they way they appear to get that one-on-one connection is by being by themselves. The part in the definition where it says, “retires from society” also associates the speaker and Chris because their purpose fro going into the wild is exactly to escape from humanity.
As one can see, the speaker from the poem by Tintern Abbey, and the main character Chris, from Into the Wild, by John Krakauer, have a unique bond. Although they are separate characters from different texts, they both share the same views on life, and their way to break away from society.
There is something about William Wordsworth’s Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey which feels a lot like Christmas. When Wordsworth writes about nature in the poem, he describes it as the greatest gift a person can have. On lines 26-28, the speaker explains how his memories of nature make him feel, writing, “I have owed to them, / In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, / Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart.” However, the speaker goes on to claim that it was only recently that he realized the true value of the gift of nature; in his younger days, he had simply viewed nature as an escape from society, going to nature “..like a man flying from something he dreads…”(Wordsworth, 70-71). Now, as a more mature person, he views nature as a destination to be used for meditation on the world and claims on lines 88-91, “For I have learned/ To look on nature, not as in the hour/ Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/ The still, sad music of humanity…” Finally, the topic of the poem moves to The Sister, a character that is likely a parallel of Wadsworth’s real-life sister. The narrator of the poem appears to be “giving” nature as a gift to his sister, as if he were giving her the greatest Christmas present of all time, in the hopes that the soothing effects of nature will help calm The Sister’s mind. In real life, Wordsworth’s sister was neurotic (see biography) and therefore would have benefited greatly from anything that could soothe her. The poem, then, is simply an explanation of how best to enjoy the gifts of nature, then a passing on of nature’s joys to the sister of the narrator.
An important parallel between Chris McCandless from Into the Wild and the speaker of this poem is the way in which they both attempted to lead others to the joys of nature. The way that the poem’s narrator urges his sister to go into nature and, “...Let the moon/ Shine on thee in thy solitary walk,” on lines134-135 is strikingly similar to the way that Chris urged Ron Franz to take up a nomadic lifestyle and, “…to have an endlessly changing horizon,”(Krakauer,57). By imploring people they care about to reevaluate their views of nature, Chris and the poem’s narrator both have shown that they are not simply seeking personal fulfillment, but also seeking to make others happy by sharing their philosophies.
Chris McCandless has been accused of being a non-conformist because he decided to leave society. However, he is not a non-conformist so much as he is a seeker of happiness, as is the speaker of the poem. In a letter to Ron Franz, Chris tells him to, “Move around, be nomadic,”(Krakauer, 57)—in other words, take up the same kind of lifestyle Chris had been living. It goes against the very definition of being a non-conformist to beg others to join your lifestyle. Instead of calling Chris a nonconformist, therefore, we must instead simply call him someone who has found a life that he loves and is attempting to show it to others, in the same way as the man at Tintern Abbey is. That narrator of that poem does not hate society, on lines 91-92 calling the “…sad music of humanity, nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power to chasten and subdue.” In those lines, the “sad music of humanity” is society, which the speaker calls “nor harsh nor grating”, showing that he does not find society to be distasteful. However, his objection to society is that it has, “ample power to chasten and subdue,” meaning that society makes men weary because of its restrictive nature. The narrator, like McCandless, is not trying to rebel against society as a non-conformist, but is simply looking to nature as a calming alternative to the harshness of society. Therefore, Chris McCandless and the narrator of the poem are very closely related.
“Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer and “Lines composed a few miles above the Tintern Abbey” both allude to two characters facing an unbearable, horrific world in which they no longer wish to be a part of and separate from their former lives. Both the book and the poem describe the woes that both Chris and the narrator share.
In the poem, the narrator wants to get away from the “real” world and live a life where society cannot reach him. He refers to society as “…the fever of the world…” (line 52) and refers to himself as “more like a man flying from something that he dreads.” (line 72) These lines are used to indicate his dislike of society and to show his idea of escape. Throughout the poem, nature is personified as something physical, as it is constantly referred to as a “…dear, dear Sister…” (line 121) and a “…dearest Friend…” (line 15). In the narrator’s line “…an appetite; a feeling and a love…” (line 80), the narrator expresses his insatiable lust for his bond with nature. He craves more and begins to develop emotion. After referring to the world as a “…fever...” (line 52), the narrator continues on to say “How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, O sylvan Wye!” (line 55) This line refers to how he would rather turn towards nature than look back upon his ideas of a disgusting society.
Just as the narrator in the poem, Chris McCandless shared the same sentiments. Chris refers to society as a poison, stating that he is “No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees…” (Krakauer 163) This goes to show how Chris has a negative view upon society and is partly the reason why he decided to “become lost in the wild.” (Krakauer 163). In a letter to Ron, Chris mentions how “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism…” (Krakauer 57) In order to escape such hated ideals of society, Chris uses this reason partly to run free and separate himself from the world.
The narrator and Chris are very similar in that they share near identical reasons to want to run from society and leave it behind. To them, society was an idea they could never understand and therefore formed their conclusions about it, and rallied off into the wilderness. The two maladjusted men are used as objects of separation between their respective parallel societies and want of nature.
“Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798”, a poem written by William Wordsworth, embodies a man who appreciates nature for the experiences, escapes, and memories that it gave him. Similarly, Chris McCandless, the protagonist from Into the Wild, a novel written by Jon Krakauer, furthermore values nature as an escape from his extreme childhood life, where conflicts between him and his parents were evident and shaped him to the way he is, in the novel he said, “…once the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action I'm going to completely knock them out of my life. I'm going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live. I'll be through with them once and for all, forever.” (Krakauer 64) As a result of his rage over his parents, McCandless travels into the wild, hoping for an adventure and "…intended to invent an utterly new life, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience." (Krakauer 22-23) On the way, he receives additional life experiences but also his journey resulted in his ultimate death. In both cases, the speaker in “Tintern Abbey” and Chris McCandless both fought for an escape from society through the seeking of nature, and only through nature did they fully had the prosperity towards finding their true inner selves.
Chris McCandless had the opportunity to live in luxury, but instead, he settles on throwing away his whole life for a journey into the wild and everything that is unknown to him. Alternatively, the speaker of “Tintern Abbey” anxiously waits for the moment of his return to nature which is predictable through his words from lines 1-2, “Five years have past; five summers, with the length/ Of five long winters!” By standing on the “banks”, “The picture of the mind revives again: / While here I stand, not only with the sense/ Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts/”, the speaker says on lines 62-63 as he revisit Tintern Abbey, the speaker is able to remember and backtrack on his childhood and re-experience happy and sad moments of his life. Conversely, McCandless seeks to the wild in order to reevaluate his life and to live a truly satisfying life with nothing pulling him back. However, due to the fact that both Chris McCandless and the speaker from “Tintern Abbey” coming to nature to inquire happiness, it comes to show that through nature and its purity, one could find their true selves and obtain the pleasures of life.
In William Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey”, over time the speaker grew to understand the importance of nature. As a youngster he viewed his trips as an adventures for the day, something he could go back home and brag to his friends about. For example, when the speaker says “for nature then (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days… /” (Wordworth 72-73), this shows the reader that he was not ready for the experience nature was trying to feed him. He states, “And their glad animal movements all gone by/”(Wordworth 74), the speaker compares his youth to an animal because he wants the reader to remember that animals do not have any emotions. As a child Chris McCandless loved going on backpacking trips his grandfather and family because he enjoyed the time he spent with them outside the home. There he was able to see his family together and bonding. As a boy McCandless was satisfy with what life presented him at the time meaning that he found what he as looking for at that moment in time. For example, “Chris loved those trips, the longer the better.”(Krakauer 108) when he was in the wild with people he cared about he felt as if he had everything he very wanted; attention because everyone listened to each other and his parents were not working 24/7, connection because he wanted a normal family and freedom because he did not have to work so hard in nature it proved him with everything. However, as he got older he came to realize that he was feeling empty, as did the speaker of the poem. Both wanted to escape their past life and search for a new meaning. For example when the speaker says, “And so I dare to hope, / though changed, / no doubt, / from what I was when first I came among these hills, /”(Wordworth 66-68), the speaker wants all the feelings of completion to come back; wants to feel whole again. He wants nature to help him stay focus; guide him through life. He says, “more like a man/” /”(Wordworth 71) meaning that a man knows what he wants in life; stable, wants to be mature. McCandless reflects the same qualities left his parent s to be his own man; learning to stand on his own two feet. McCandless ventures into the wild in search of whom he is and what he has to offer the world. Even though the two never got the chance to meet, both understood that they could not wait around to seek guidance, both really had to take time to further advance their knowledge about their future selves.
It’s strange to look at the meaning people put into things, as well as the variety of different things they put meaning into. It can range from something as small as a ticket to a person’s first baseball game, to something as vast as nature.
“These beauteous forms, through a long absence, have not been to me as is a landscape to a blind man’s eye…”
The narrator of William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” describes the immense beauty he sees in his surroundings, having not been there after, what seemed longer than, five long years. At first, he is very aware of all that is going on around him, commenting on the cottage grounds before him, surrounded by only green and orchard trees.
“These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts, which at this season, with their unripe fruits, are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves ‘Mid groves and copses. Once again I see these hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines of sportive wood run wild.” (Wordsworth 11-17)
This man is taking in every detail he can pick out, lost in a ‘pre-trip’ down memory lane. He soon does, however, find himself drowned in memories of this beautiful place he had once grown up with. He continues on to say that he often found himself revisiting this place spiritually in times of hardship, and even in the most casual of times, as well. With his breath taken away, he explains how this beauty is so powerful that he has been affected by it even when unaware of the fact, and how certain acts of kindness and love were perhaps subconsciously the result of the pleasure he received from this heaven of his.
“To them I may have owed another gift of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, in which the burthen of the mystery, in which the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world is lightened…” (Wordsworth 36-41)
The weight of world, the man describes, could be lifted from the mere sight of this place. His mood throughout the poem is, though, as Wordsworth describes himself, is sadly perplexed. He’s torn between the sorrow of knowing that the days of his past—when he spent his time running through the wild before him—and the joy of the memory he is presently creating. It’s almost a pure example, and a rare one, of a human being actually moving on from something in their past.
This, however, is where Tintern Abbey strongly connects to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, more appropriately his main character Chris McCandless. Young Chris, as does the narrator in “Abbey”, has a strong connection with the wild, but this is obvious to every living thing on this Earth. It can be further analyzed than this, for there’s more than just a strange connection to Mother Nature.
“And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution.” (Krakauer 163)
Interesting the way Chris words his present state, and what he labels his journey as. “The false being within”, he describes is inside him, with is journey appropriately titled a “spiritual revolution”. Most will, of course, laugh at this, as has been proved by reactions to Krakauer’s article on McCandless, but what people fail to understand is that this is what nature meant to him, as well as the narrator in “Abbey”. There’s more to the beauty of the seemingly never-ending mountains; there’s more to that annoying cry of that annoying bird you want to shoot down from above the treetops.
“While with an eye made quiet by the power of joy, we see into the life of things.”
This quote is the answer to every question whose basis is “Chris McCandless is insane”. How ironic it would be if he truly was, yes, but let it be known that if this young man was in fact insane, it is, in no way, fair to use his journey into the wild as the main source of evidence.
Now, the narrator of “Abbey” is having this experience with himself, as was McCandless, but there’s more to it in “Abbey”. This man, unlike McCandless, is sharing this journey with another human being: his sister.
“…And in thy voice I catch the language of my former heart, and read my former pleasures in the shooting lights of thy wild eyes. Oh! Yet a little while may I behold in thee what I was once…” (Wordsworth 117-120)
This man sees a similar future for his sister; a future filled with running free through green fields and under skyscraper trees. Though despite the joy he has received from this place as a youth, he does not want his sister to go about it in the exact same way, for when he was younger, he did not see the magnificence of this phenomenon in the way he should have. Back then, the mountains were just huge piles of land, not pathways to God, as they are now; the trees were just wood with leaves and were fun to run under, not a never-ending cluster of life, which serve as homes to many other living creatures throughout the wild; and the light from the setting sun meant nothing more than the simple fact that nighttime was coming, and was not appreciated for the beauty it withheld. These types of things, that very few will ever think about, are the things the man in “Abbey” sees now, and are the things he wants his sister to see from the beginning. These types of things are what attracted twenty-four year old Chris McCandless, a man who was so against anything that wasn’t pure to the root. The wild was where he could find such purity. It was in those mountains, those trees, and in that light from the setting sun. The meaning is there in the horizon, where the sky and land meet and bind the Earth as a whole. It’s there; people just need to look for it.
"Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey" is a poem by William Wordsworth about a man who returns to a place where he had been to five years before. This place is at a riverbank surrounded by a natural environment. The speaker of the poem is lonely, and compares himself to a hermit, “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.” and uses this location as a retreat where he connects his spirit to this natural environment, away from the everyday civilized life. This character explains that the thought of nature helps his mind survive in the rushed life in a city, he states, “…I have owed to them/ In hours of weariness, sensation sweet,/ Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;/ And passing even into my purer mind,/ With tranquil restoration:…” It is implied that this man’s life is very stressful and unhappy and he goes to nature, not only physically but also in thought in order to find this inner peace, “In which the burthen of the mystery./ In which the heavy and the weary weight/ Of all this intelligible world,/ Is lightened….”
Both the speaker of the poem and Chris McCandless, main character from the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, retreat to nature in order to escape civilization and its treacherous ways of carrying on life. But they both do it for different reasons. The speaker of the poem escapes to nature in order to see something he has loved ever since he saw it for the first time and has always had it in his mind, which is nature itself, “The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,/ Their colours and their forms, were then to me/ An appetite; a feeling and a love,/ That had no need of remoter charm,/ By thought supplied, nor any interest/ Unborrowed from the eye.” Once the speaker saw that side of nature for the first time, he fell in love with it and sought to see it again often. As for Chris McCadless, he wanted to run away not only from society itself, but also mainly from his father, who led a double life with two different families and only played his role as a father to enforce parenting laws. Chris had a very powerful personality, which is why he reached a point where he needed to escape. The author states what happened to Chris, “He brooded over length over what he perceived to be his father’s moral shortcomings, the hypocrisy of his parents’ lifestyle, the tyranny of their conditional love. Eventually, Chris rebelled – and when he finally did, it was characteristic immoderation.” (Krakauer 64). Chris’ escape to nature was considered to be a way for him to rebel against he’s parents actions. Both characters, Chris and the speaker of the poem, had the same view of nature as this great wonderful titan that was capable of making people feel better, but their reasons to escape to nature was of different need.
Wordsworth's poem, Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, captures the narrator's thoughts as he returns to Tintern Abbey, after five long years of absence. As he ponders about the pleasure the place has bestowed upon him, Wordsworth makes several claims about Nature. In doing so, Wordsworth also encapsulates ideas that Christopher McCandless, from Into The Wild, had adhered to.
The narrator, in the second stanza, describes the feeling that Nature grants him. He claims this, "serene and blessed mood, / ... / Until, the breath of this corporeal frame / And even the motion of our human blood / Almost suspended, we are laid asleep / In body, and become a living soul" (Wordsworth, Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey 37-46). The narrator says that the feeling he receives puts him through a process of physical removal. His physical body ("corporeal frame") and his physical lifeforce ("motion of our human blood") become suspended; they cease to exist or they are literally lifted away from himself. All that is left of him is the "living soul". Wordsworth continues on by saying that in this spiritual state, "We [are able to] see into the life of things" (Wordsworth, 48). Because he is spiritually in tune with himself, the narrator is also able to peek into the life of other objects. In a sense, he is spiritually in tune with everything around him; Nature and himself. Wordsworth, in writing this, claims that Nature is the catalyst for spiritual unification or true spiritual discovery. Likewise, McCandless concurs with that idea. In the nascent stage of his Alaskan adventure, McCandless writes as Alexander Supertramp, "AND NOW AFTER TWO RAMBLING YEARS COMES THE FINAL AND GREATEST ADVENTURE. THE CLIMACTIC BATTLE TO KILL THE FALSE BEING WITHIN AND VICTORIOUSLY CONCLUDE THE SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION" (Krakauer, Into The Wild 163). McCandless ventured into the wild to complete his "spiritual revolution", which is essentially the removal of socially-adherent Christopher McCandless with the true McCandless, the conqueror of his own destiny and soul, "Alexander Supertramp". Both McCandless and Wordsworth's narrator saw Nature as a place where one could find one's true self spiritually.
The narrator continues onto the third stanza where he remembers how he used to view Nature. He writes that he was, "more like a man / Flying from something that he dreads, than one / Who sought the thing he loved" (Wordsworth, 70-2). In a sense, five years ago (or whenever he turned to Nature), the narrator confided in Nature's vast boundaries out of stress; Nature was his walled castle, rather than a sweet little abode (he went to Nature out of stress, not love). Though it can be argued that Christopher McCandless also loved Nature (maybe more than Wordsworth), McCandless's true motive for wandering into the heart of the wild was the idea of an escape from society, just as Wordworth's narrator. In the same declaration by "Alexander Supertramp", McCandless writes that he is "NO LONGER TO BE POISONED BY CIVILIZATION HE FLEES, AND WALKS ALOVE UPON THE LAND TO BECOME LOST IN THE WILD" (Krakauer, 163). McCandless admits that his journey was meant to be an escape from society, indicated via the use of the word "FLEES" and "POISONED", both of which ultimately register in the reader's mind as fear and danger. Thus, McCandless saw Nature as a refuge, an escape from society, as the narrator in Wordsworth's poem once had.
Finally, long before the narrator makes his prayer, he notes that Nature attracts him like a magnet. Its features gave him an appetite, a desire, a drive, a reason to go after Nature: "The sounding cataract / Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, / The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, / Their colours and their forms, were then to me / An appetite; a feeling and a love" (Wordsworth, 75-80). Here, Wordworth claims that Nature invokes a primal passion, a passion for adventure, natural beauty, and relief. Though McCandless does not necessarily go on his adventure primarily for aesthetic reasons, he does find himself compelled by the same masculine drive the Wordsworth's narrator owns, though for a different aspect of Nature. In his letter to Ronald Franz, he advocates the fact that "They very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon" (Krakuaer, 57). Though these words are for Franz, they hold true for Chris himself because he expresses this same joy throughout his journey with exclamatory notes chronicling adventurous achievements such as "CLIMB MOUNTAIN!" (Krakauer, 164). Thus, the adventure Chris seeks is sated by Nature, as is the passion of Wordsworth's narrator. Nature, for both of them, is able to satisfy their masculine desires.
Though Wordsworth and Christopher McCandless lived in very different time periods, they both, within their respective texts, expressed an agreement about several ideals concerning Nature.
“Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer and “Lines Composed a Few Miles above the Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth both demonstrates two characters turning to nature to seek comfort that can only be found there. Chris McCandless turns to nature to purify himself from the poison of civilization and the narrator from “Tintern Abbey” seeks comfort that nature provides him. In these instances, the characters believe that nature will aid them in their journeys, whether it is for self cleansing or revival for a lost love.
Wordsworth poem began by setting a time period from the last time he has been in nature, “Five years have past/ five summers, with the length of five long winters/” (Wordsworth, 1-2) Here, he sets the tone of the poem by displaying the longing for nature. His lamination of how the five summers had felt to be five winters demonstrates his complete love for the wild. It is almost as if he is reminiscing about a lost love and how life would be meaningless without it. Also, the imagery Wordsworth uses helps the reader understand the full extent of his pining for nature. “Summers” is a season usually associated with life, happiness, and joy, however, since Wordsworth did not feel the heat of summer, “five summers, with the length of five long winters/” (Wordsworth, 1-2) but rather the cold frost of winter shows how much he yearns to return back to Tintern Abbey.
Wordsworth feels that living outside of nature and immersed in civilization is painful and unbearable. In fact, he can not wait to leave as he views himself as someone as “more like a man flying from something that he dreads.” (Wordsworth, 72) The narrator continues to explain how nature heals his wounds from society when he said, “In which the burthen of the mystery, in which the heavy and the wary weight of all this unintelligible world, is lightened” (Wordsworth, 38-40) He sees society as a burden that weighs down on him everyday. The weight from living in civilization compresses the narrator to the point where fleeing is a necessity. Therefore he turns toward nature to alleviate the weight. When the reader sees the word “lightened”, it will be connected with happiness and freedom because the chains of the weight have been taken off. Wordsworth and he is left unbound and liberated. William Wordsworth viewed nature with great love because it freed him from the pains of society, which holds the same principles as Chris McCandless from Into the Wild.
Just like the narrator in the poem, Chris McCandless shared the same beliefs. McCandless sees society as a poison that held him back from completing his spiritual revolution. He states that he will “… kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution. …No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone on the land to become lost in the wild.” (Krakauer 163) Much like Wordsworth, McCandless saw that society as a hindrance to achieve his goal, which is why he traveled to Alaska where he was separated from society to complete his spiritual renewal.
Chris McCandless and William Wordsworth shared the same ideals when it came to nature. They both saw it as an escape from society but for different reasons. Wordsworth saw it as for comfort because it provided him with the means to lift the burden of civilization and Wordsworth saw it as means to shed the poison of society and adapt a purer form of himself.
Lines composed a few miles about Tintern Abbey by the British poet William Wordsworth is the narration of a man who has revisited the Banks of the Wye during a tour on July 13, 1798. Upon returning, the speaker elaborates on the drastic change in mentality that he acquired about nature form his first visit, five years previous to the present. The speaker also shows an infinite amount of appreciation and devotion towards nature, connecting with it on both a spiritual and emotional level. “Well pleased to recognize/ In nature and the language of the sense/ the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse/ the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/ of all my moral being” (Wordsworth line 107-111), the narrator becomes dependent of nature and holds a strong personal and intimate relationship with the wild.
The ideas expressed throughout Wordsworth poem are relevant to the ideals held by Chris McCandless in Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. The speaker and McCandless both share a passion for the isolation of oneself and nature. “He was alone and young and willful and wild hearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the sea harvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight.” (Krakauer 31) This conveys McCandless passion remaining in solitude to become more in touch with nature, to absorb the beauty held within nature and develop a significant appreciation for it. Krakauer portrays McCandless as a person content with his choice of isolation because he chose to be independent and withdraw himself from human attachment. “For I have learned/ to look on nature, not as in the hour/ of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/ The still, sad music of humanity/ nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power/ to chasten and subdue” (Wordsworth line 88-93), in this quote Wordsworth shows the speakers change of mentality about nature from his previous visit five years ago and how now he has an intimate appreciation for nature. Before when visiting the Wye, his mentality seemed pessimistic and cynical. The speakers cynicism is implied by the word choice of Wordsworth within the first page such as “secluded” (line 6), “absence” (line 24), “darkness” (line 51), and “joyless” (line 52). Returning as a more optimistic character, the speaker develops a positive and devoted opinion towards nature.
Another parallel between McCandless and the narrator of the poem are how they both viewed civilization and development on society. “The day is come when I again repose/ Here, under this dark sycamore, and view/ These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts/ which at this season, with their unripe fruits/ are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves/ ‘Mid groves and copses; One again I see/ These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines/ of sportive wood run wild/ these pastoral farms/ green to the very door…” (Wordsworth 10-17). This quote conveys the narrator’s perspective of how nature itself and the environment have changed due to civilization and society, also how humans invaded nature and destroyed its beauty. This reflects the idea that McCandless opposed society greatly because he felt the conformity invaded society as a whole. This could also imply the public’s uneasy reactions toward McCandless’ journey, because society has conformed to believe that anyone who would sacrifice materialistic items for months enduring cold and famine is ridiculous. All in all, McCandless and the narrator of Wordsworth poem have interesting ideals and parallels.
Nature is a calming religious entity. Both the narrator in the poem, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, by William Wordsworth, and Alex Supertramp from, Into the Wild, by Jon Kakauer, view nature in this way. This is clear in both the identical feelings felt by these characters when in nature and the religious implications in each text.
The fact that both the narrator and Alex have similar soothing feelings when around nature can prove that nature is a calming being in many ways. First, both people are drawn towards nature because they are both running away from an aggravating life. The narrator speaks of being drawn to nature “like a man/ flying from something that he dreads” (Wordsworth 70-71). Alex also is drawn to nature in a similar fashion. Alex explains why he runs away from this life as he says, “think about all the evil in the world, all the hatred, and imagine [oneself] running against the forces of darkness” (Krakauer 112). The ‘forces of darkness’ would be the corruption of society as Henry David Thoreau, Alex’s hero, explains in this essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” So both Alex and the narrator find refuge from the wicked things in their worlds. Also, the narrator says, “To them I may have owed another gift,/… that blessed mood,/ …In which the heavy and the weary weight/ Of all this unintelligible world,/ Is lightened” (Wordsworth 36-41) to show how nature has given him not only protection from those wicked things, but also lightened the weight and pressure of the world. Alex also finds serene experiences along his journey. This can be seen when he says, “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (Krakauer 57). By traveling on nature’s road Alex gets to experience joy from an ‘endlessly changing horizon’ every day. Further, the narrator speaks of the peace he acquires from nature as he says, “The day is come when I again repose/ here, under this dark sycamore” In those lines, the narrator speaks of the repose, or relaxation, under nature’s shade. Alex also speaks of the tranquility of “the great work that God has done” (Krakauer 58) all along his journey. Therefore, the fact that both the narrator and Alex have similar thoughts when around the natural world proves that nature is a relaxing thing.
First of all, in the most deep implication of religion, the narrator says, “Once again I see/… wreaths of smoke/ sent up, in silence, from among the trees!” (Wordsworth 14-18). In the time of the ancient Romans, when one wanted to sacrifice an item to the gods, one would have to burn the item. This, the Romans believed, would send the sacrifice to the gods. Also in the time of the ancient Romans, wreath symbolizes strength but the wreath may be an indication upon a Christian halo over nature’s head. Taking these facts into consideration, one may infer that nature is truly religious. Next, when the narrator says, “I have owed to them [nature],/ In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,/ Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart” (Wordsworth 46-47), he means that he has a moral obligation, felt from within himself, to go to the forests in times of exhaustion. This is quite similar to the Christian idea of the Holy Spirit, the spirit that gives one vigor in difficult times. Alex mentions God many times through his journey when talking about nature. He calls nature “the great work that God has done” (Krakauer 58) giving a further religious view to nature. In Into the Wild, Jon Krauker often parallels Alex to monks, prophets, and other religious figures when he walks into the natural world. These monks and prophets are credited for their sanctity and serenity. The spiritual inferences of both texts support the idea that nature is a calming religious entity in many ways.
To sum up, both the narrator in the poem, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, by William Wordsworth, and Alex Supertramp from, Into the Wild, by Jon Kakauer, view nature as a spiritual and pacifying element in their lives. This is important because nature may have a strong influence on one’s life in the future.
In the poem, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Titern Abbey”, by Williams Wordsworth, the speaker expresses his appreciation of nature and his connections to it, conveying the ideals of Romantic poetry. When children are young, they are in their own little worlds with a care free and innocent mindsets. They do not realize the pressures of the society. This is also true of the speaker as a child. In lines 68 to 72, the speaker expresses how he recognized the value of the adventure in nature in his “boyish days” (Wordsworth,72), bounding “o‘er the mountains, by the sides/ of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,/ where ever nature led” (Wordsworth, 68-70). Five years later, the speaker appreciates nature for more than just the adventurous aspect to it. In lines 89-91, the speaker tells how he “learned /to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth;”, stating in lines 109-111, that nature is “/the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being/”. This suggests the speaker believes that nature is the foundation of who he is, in other sense his understanding of himself is through nature. In lines 93-97, the speaker says, “I have felt/ a presence that disturbs me with joy/ of elevated thoughts: a sense sublime/ of something far more deeply interfused,/ whose dwelling is light of the setting suns”. From this quotation, it can be inferred that the speaker views a nature as a companion. Nature is also a companion to the speaker. In lines 147-151 direct the poem towards his sister asking, “wilt thou then forget,/ that after many wanderings, many years of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,/ and this green pastoral landscape, were to me/ more dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!”. This suggests that the speaker not only appreciated nature because of itself but also because of his sister.
After reading both the poem and an essay, titled “Into the Wild”, by Jon Krakauer, readers can see some similarities between the Chris McCandless and the speaker of the poem. McCandless liked nature for its physical attributes, which lead to the his father-son tradition of climbing the old rag mountain. This is similar to the speaker’s enjoyment in wandering around Titern Abbey. Also, like the speaker, McCandless views nature as a companion. In a letter to his friend, named Franz, McCandless writes “You are wrong if you think joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us” (Krakauer, 57). It is believed that God created . If companionship is not principally from human relationships it must also come from nature, because that is what God placed all around humans.
William Wordsworth is revisiting the banks of the Wye near Tintern Abbey that brings back memories about nature and what it has done to him. He composes a poem, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”, to express how his connection with nature had brought him joy. He is secluded in the wild to have deeper though. In loneliness, nature makes him feel at peace and he remembers all the little things in life that seem to look important now. His inspirational view of life had now made life easier because of his positivity. The powers of joy and harmony are seen to make life seen in a positive view. In spite of all things bad, Woodsworth returns to nature for help, restoring tranquility in himself. He is no longer as joyful as he once was five years ago. He is, though, happy that with his happy presense, there is hope for a happy future. If nature had made him happy before and he comes back to find out that it still makes him happy, then this is how he viewed life. The landscape is mentioned in great detail to emphasize that he is happy that such a landscape exists for him to see. He had a strong passion for nature. Now he is older, and he doesn’t feel a strong joy as he had before. He has learned how nature had affected him when he was younger and compares it to how it makes him feel now. He still feels somewhat of a joy for the presense of nature again after thinking so much about it. He is amazed how everything is created but everyone views things differently. He thinks he understands nature through how he has seen and heard it and it affects him greatly. Woodsworth mentions that nature is his friend and also mentions his sister in the poem. Nature and his sister, Dorothy, are the two most important things in life to him. He wants her to feel how he used to feel when he was younger. He thinks nature will affect her the same way it has affected him. When she is older, she will have similar memories just like he is having memories now about himself. He also wants her to feel that nature will always be some sort of medicine to her, in case she is hurt, in fear, alone, or upset. After so long, nature had made him peaceful and joyful. It makes him a better person as he remembers what great experience he has had with nature.
Wordsworth explains that nature affected him deeply with a passion, “The sounding cataract/Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,/The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,/Their colours and their forms, were then to me/ An appetite: a feeling and a love…”(Woodsworth 76-80) . Passion is what Chris McCandless had. McCandless had wrote to Ron Franz, “The very core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences…”(Krakaeur 57). They both had a love for adventuring into nature and loved how nature had affected what they felt and though. This had brought them much joy. They were both very spiritual people. Woodsworth and McCandless both tried to escape evil to motivate them through life. Woodsworth traveled “more like a man/Flying form something he dreads, than one who sought the thing he loved” (Woodsworth 70-72). McCandless had told his friends to “ think about all the evil in the world, all the hatred and imagine ourselves running against the darkness, the evil wall that was trying to keep us from running our best” (Krakaeur 112). They both also had a close relationship with nature. In the back of a book McCandless is reading, he writes, “All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you”(Krakaeur 168). McCandless is right because life is all different and everyone has different views on life based on the experiences one has had through life. Woodsworth had lost his mother and father when he was younger and was to be separarated from his sister for a couple of years. Because of this isolation from life, he had felt that his friend, nature, would help him recover. He feels this healing from Wye and wants his sister to feel the same too. Wordworths writes, “ then,/ If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,/Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts/ of tender joy wilt thou remember me,/ And these my exhortations!” (Woodsworth 142-146). This is the same thing idea that McCandless had. McCandless wants his sister to feel the happiness that he felt from his experience with nature. He had even said, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (Krakaeur 189). Nature has brought McCandless and Woodsworth closer to themselves. The relationship with nature has deeply affected their views on life.
Lines Composed A Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Woodsworth describes the speaker’s deep connection with nature. The speaker had once been previously there five years before and now returns to this place and explains how his views have changed about nature. Five years before when he visited this place he didn’t seem to appreciate it as much as he does now and before he didn’t recognize the importance and significance of nature. As the speaker says in lines 66 to 67, “Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first I came among these hills”, he admits to having changed from before. Before he seemed to care very little about his surroundings or his environment but, now he has come to realize that a connection with nature is a very important thing to have and the ability to appreciate nature is a good one. In Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer the main character Chris McCandless seems to come to the same realization as the speaker of the poem. Chris McCandless goes on this extravagant adventure into the Alaskan wilderness. Through his adventure he seems to appreciate nature more and he gains the same connection to nature as the speaker of the poem does. McCandless parallels with speaker in that they both seem to become “one” with nature.
In the poem the speaker also speaks of a faith in nature almost as if nature is a god of some sort. The speaker explains in lines 100 to 105, “A motion and a spirit that impels all thinking things, all objects of all thought, and rolls through all things. Therefore am I still a lover of the meadows and the woods, and mountains; and of all that we behold from this green earth; of all the mighty world”, his beliefs of nature and faith in nature is very obvious from the text. It seems that the speaker views nature as a god and questions his ideas and thoughts of his “god”. In Into the Wild this is also seen by McCandless. Chris seems to view nature as a god as well which directly parallels to the speaker of this poem. McCandless views nature as if it is a god or all powerful being and swears by it almost just like the speaker of the poem.
In conclusion the speaker of the poem and Chris McCandless of Into the Wild share many thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. They seem as almost mirror images of each other regarding nature and what they believe in. They connect on a great level and it is very obvious that they are extremely similar.
In the poem “Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth, the way he expresses him feeling towards the nature is very similar to the way Chris McCandless does in the book Into the Wild. The narrator in the poem uses the nature as his escape from the world and so does Chris. /But oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din/ of towns and cities, I have owed to them/ in hours of weariness, sensations sweet, // (Wordsworth lines 25-27). The narrator doesn’t like being in the cities because it causes his sadness and the fact of being there makes him unhappy. For Chris he hates the society and he wanted to be left alone to experience the world, the nature that God made for us to love. “No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild” (Krakauer 163). The nature was their escape from the unhappiness of the world. Here in the nature they both feel as if its their home. /Wherever nature led: more like a man/ flying from something that he dreads, than one/ who sought the thing he loved. // (Wordsworth lines 70-72). He loves this place because this place brings him happiness. When he’s here he can think of the deep meanings of life and the happiness he once had with the nature. The narrator feels relaxed being here this is paradise to him, especially when its away from the society. “God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.” (Krakauer 57). Chris knows that the nature is his home. It’s the place which he feels like he’s free, free from the world. The wild of the nature is a place which God made for people to go to, to experience life beyond the materialistic things. Nature to them isn’t just a place where there are trees, wild animals and rivers. Instead the nature is so much more to them. Its their home, a place they feel free and peaceful at. /therefore am I still/ a lover of the meadows and the woods,/ and mountains; and of all that we behold/ from this green earth; of all the mighty world/ of eye, and ear, --both what they half create,/ and what perceive; well pleased to recognize/ in nature and the language of the sense,/ the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/ the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/ of all my moral being.// (Wordsworth lines 102-110). The narrator thinks of the nature is his homeland, the place that gives him comfort, the place that brings his happiness and warmth. At this place he can think of so many things of life and how everything is happening, but it also frees his mind of off the sadness the world brings him. Here in the nature the view of the world is totally different to the narrator then it is when he’s in the city. Chris McCandless feels the same way about the nature as the narrator in the poem does. The two of them uses the nature as their escape from the unhappy world.
In "Line composed a few miles above tintern Abbey," the guy has a deep pasion for where he grew up. He isolates his life in the city with the working class, and the people who fly by eachother on the streets rushing to get to work and asks " is nature the meaning of life?" Chris McCandless was also this way. He shut out everything else and went into the nature.
The guy in the poem grew up in this beatiful evirment. Therefore his love and Chris McCandless love for the nature is alike because Chris was looking for the kind of beginnning this guy had. Chris sets off on a journey through nature for six years to find himself. This guy was already made into what Chris wanted to be. They find the Nature purifing and it's their escape.\\ The day is come when I again repose/ here, under this dark sycamore, and view/ these plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,/ which at this season, with their unripe fruits,/ are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves/ 'mid groves and copses.// (Wordsworth lines 9-14) This guy is reconnecting with himself in the same way Chris does. " It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it's great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you." ( Krakauer 37) They are both so deeply passionate about the nature it brings a whole to their life. They see it as it is and embrace it. Make it so much more than anyone else can see. They make it one with them. Their other half.
// For i have learned/ to look on nature, not as in the hour/ of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/ the still sad music of humanity,// ( Wordsworth 88-91) When the city life gets to this guy he reconnect in so many ways with nature just thinking baout it. He will never forget it no matter how long the time or how far the distance. // There beauteous forms,/ through a long abesence, have not been to me/ as is a landscape to a blind man's eye: // ( Wordsworth 23-24)
This poem is about a man who grew up in an area that he loved. Throughout his childhood he became more and more attached to this place. He then moved away to the city. The speaker will often travel spiritually and physically back to this place. When he does it brings good memories and it's like he's home.
The speaker and Chris McCandless relate greatly in the poem and "Into The Wild". Both the speaker and Chris use nature as an escape from society. "But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din of towns and cities, I have owed to them in hours of weariness, senssations of sweet, felt in blood, and felt along the heart;"(lines 25-28) This shows how the speaker still thinks of his "escape often". He uses it to get away from his troubles and worrie. Or, just the city in general. Chris did no have a good family life as a child. His father was living a double life for a great period of Chris' childhood. At one point his father still tried to control Chris and he aslso tried to "buy" his way into Chris' heart. After a while Chris got fed up with his father and society. He then traveled to Alaska and walked into the wild. He used nature as an escape from society also. Although the speaker and Chris had differnt reasons for escaping the tough life in society through nature, they did it for different reasons. The speaker uses it both spirituall and physically. Chris only uses the escape physically. Yet they still both use nature as an escape from society !
Post a Comment