Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...
Speaker
The speaker of "Tintern Abbey" is the poet, William Wordsworth, himself. This isn't always the case. Think about all the poems that use the first person, but for which the "I" doesn't necessarily r...
Setting
The setting is so important to this poem that Wordsworth gives us exact directions and even the precise date in the title. The poem takes place on the banks of the Wye River, which is in southeast...
Sound Check
When you read "Tintern Abbey," you might think that it's prose cleverly disguised as poetry. You hardly notice that it's in verse (see "Form and Meter" for more on that). It sounds like the speaker...
What's Up with the Title?
Everyone (including us) refers to this poem as "Tintern Abbey," but its real title is "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 179...
Calling Card
A lot of Wordsworth's poetry is concerned with the relationship individuals have with nature. Like the speaker in "Tintern Abbey," all individuals have the potential to reach a transcendental under...
Tough-O-Meter
The tone might be conversational in Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," but the vocabulary can get dicey in places, and the sentence structure sometimes ties itself in knots as the speaker tries to work...
Brain Snacks
Sex Rating
Sorry to disappoint you, but there's not a lot of sex in any of Wordsworth's poetry. If you want sex in Romantic-era poetry, you'll have to try Lord Byron.