Unity in the Valley: Transcendence and Contiguity in Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’

Abstract

The sublime was a favourite topic of eighteenth and nineteenth century philosophers and poets such as William Wordsworth and Immanuel Kant. The sublime occurs when one’s mind reels because it either is trying to imagine an aspect of infinity, or when it feels itself to be superior to nature. For instance, if one sees an enormous field of dandelions, the dandelions may seem to be infinite in number. The mind, then, may imagine that they are infinite, and thus holds an aspect of infinity in mind; nature is not infinite, therefore the mind feels superior to nature in this regard. The sublime can also occur when one witnesses something terrible and powerful in nature. If the person is removed enough to be out of immediate danger, such as viewing a hurricane from a few miles away, then they may feel a sense of power and accomplishment, since they have seen nature in all its might and lived. Critics such as Lyotard have called the sublime a negative experience. This is because while nature is the catalyst for the sublime to occur, whether it be a vast expanse of trees that appear to stretch away infinitely, or a roiling ocean full of might, ultimately the sublime takes place within the imagination, and therefore nature is left out. According to Lyotard, nature is to lead us to enlightenment. If nature is left out, then the mind turns only to itself, and cannot achieve enlightenment. This essay attempts to disprove Lyotard by looking at Wordsworth’s ‘Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey’ through the lens of Kant’s ‘The Critique of Judgment’. This essay will show that Wordsworth’s sublime is different because the mind, rather than turn on itself, becomes absorbed into nature, and therefore cannot be negative, since nature is still present for the narrator of the poem.

Keywords

• sublime, wordsworth, kant, poetry, philosophy