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‘Tintern Abbey’ as a Record of Wordsworth's Spiritual Growth through Discernible Stages of Development

The poem, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey , popularly called Tintern Abbey, is the testament of
Wordsworth’s attitude to Nature, his attitude to Man, his moral vision and his philosophy of life. This poem, written on 13 th July,
1798 and published in the same year in the volume, Lyrical Ballads, came to the poet spontaneously and he wrote down as he had
composed it in his mind. “I began it,” the poet says, “ upon leaving Tintern, after crossing the Wye and concluded it just as I was
leaving Bristol in the evening after a ramble of four or five days with my sister. Not a line of it was altered, not any part of it written
down till I reached Bristol.” Tintern Abbey, a monastery, now in ruins, stands some ten miles above the place where the river Wye
meets the Severn. The poet visited the place first in 1793 and revisited it in 1798. The poem was composed immediately after his
second visit to the place.

Basically, the poem’s importance lies as a record of the several stages of the development of the poet’s attitude towards Nature.
Wordsworth loved nature not for its external beauty manifest in the hills, the rivers, the meadows and the woods, but as the visible
embodiment of the sublime glory. This attitude Wordsworth could not develop at the boyhood or even in his youth. This mood came
to him when he was a mature man. While the annals of the development of this attitude to Nature are given elaborately in The
Prelude, which the poet calls ‘the Poem of my own Life’, it is also revealed in a condensed form in Tintern Abbey.

In the first stage, when the poet enjoyed the elementary pleasure of living in contact with nature, the poet was in his boyhood or in his
adolescence. At that time, he derived from Nature ‘coarser pleasures’ through glad animal movements. When the poet first came
among the hills, like a roe he bounded over the mountains, by the sides of the deep rivers and the lonely streams, wherever Nature led.
At that time he behaved more like a man ‘flying from something that he dreads than one / Who sought the thing he loved.’ This is
quite possible as while the beautiful objects of nature fascinated the poet, the deep caverns, the chasms and sky-high cliffs could
produce a feeling of awe in the poet, a boy. The poet confirms that at that time, to him ‘nature was all in all.’ The poet’s pleasure was
so high that he declares his inability to paint what then he was. The sounding cataract haunted him like a passion; the tall rock, the
mountain, the deep and gloomy wood, their colours and their forms, were then to him an appetite. At that stage, he had ‘a feeling
and a love, that had no remoter charm than what thought supplied nor any interest that the mortal eyes could not gather for him. In
other words, the poet at that stage enjoyed the sensuous pleasures in contact with nature, and did not have a reflective mind, fully
ripened.

In the second stage, the poet no longer finds the aching joys supplied by coarser pleasures and the dizzy raptures:
That time is past,
And all its aching joys and dizzy raptures.

The poet, however, does not ‘mourn’ the loss, because against the loss, he had ‘abundant recompense’ in the shape of other gifts that
followed. Now the poet looks on Nature not with the eyes of a thoughtless youth, but takes shelter in her being depressed by the
‘still, sad music of humanity’ that goes on perennially afflicting the human soul. The poet now becomes a universal man sharing the
Weltschmerz ( word sorrow).With a mind made sober by the experience of life, he now becomes reflective and hears from nature the
‘harmonious and cathartical music’ welling up from the heart of the universe. This music is not harsh or grating though powerful
enough to chasten and subdue a mind that runs wildly enjoying the sensuous pleasures afforded by nature. The music is not joyous as
the mortal men are innately sorrowful, and practically ineffaceable (indelible, ineradicable, ineffaceable) sorrow lies deep-rooted in
their hearts. Happiness, as Thomas Hardy says, is an occasional episode in the general drama of pain. To Wordsworth, nature is,
therefore, not a distinct and separate entity having no connection with man who suffers from countless afflictions, but the poet
discovers Nature responding to the sadness of Man and empathises with him.

The chastened and subdued poet, resultantly indrawn, slowly passes into mystical realisation as he feels a presence that ‘disturbs’ him
with elevated thoughts and a sublime sense of something far more deeply interfused. The dwelling of this ‘something’ is the light of
the setting suns, / And the round ocean and the living air, /And the blue sky and in the mind of man.’ It is ‘a motion and a spirit, that
impels/ All thinking things, all objects of all thought, / And rolls through all things.” This pantheistic experience that speaks of God
being immanent in and transcendent from this universe constitutes Wordsworth’s mystical philosophy. Moreover, as the poet heard
Nature echoing the still, sad music of humanity, he felt the cosmic, hence natural, spirit present in the mind of man as well.

The poet announces that he is, at this mature stage of his life, still a lover of the meadows and the woods and mountains and all that is
green on earth, the sights and sounds of this mighty world, which require the aid of imagination for a full appreciation. And finally, he
acclaims Nature as the anchor of his purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of his heart, and soul of all his moral being.
Thus to Wordsworth, Nature not only offers sensuous pleasures, the rocking delights, but enables him in his mature years to discover
not only a bond between Nature and Man but a bond that ties up the whole creation. This is the third stage of the development of the
poet’s attitude towards Nature.

In the final stage, the poet acknowledges the influence of Nature shaping his moral vision. He owes to nature feelings of
unremembered pleasure that have no slight or trivial influence on the best portion of a good man’s life and that inspire one to do ‘little,
nameless, unremembered acts of sympathy and of love.’ The poet owes to nature another gift, of aspect more sublime:

… that blessed mood,

In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened.

Wordsworth explains the character of this blessed mood too:

…..that serene and blessed mood,

In which the affections gently lead us on, –
Until the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Is almost suspended, we are laid asleep
 In body, and become a living soul.

This state of trance is a mystic experience, and is called in Indian philosophy Samadhi. Sri Ramakrishna went into that state off and
on, and Professor Hastie advised Swami Vivekananda, then Narendrath, a student of Scottish Church College, to visit Dakshineshwar,
meet Sri Ramakrishna and see for himself what that state means. This mystical experience endowed the poet with an eye made quiet
by ‘the power of harmony and the deep power of joy’ that helps a man ‘see into the life of things.’ This is the highest stage of the
gradual development of Wordsworth’s attitude to Nature, the stage when a man discovers unity in diversity, the oneness of the whole
estate of creation. This experience is spoken of in Bhagavad-Gita:

Sarvabhutastham atmanam sarvabhutani ca atmani;

Ikshate yogayuktatma sarvatra samadarshanah. VI.29

The Yogi whose mind is in the Self thus absorbed,

Discovers unity among diverse things everywhere;
He feels the presence of everything in himself,
As much as his own self in every object and sphere. VI.29

It sounds quite appropriate when the poet calls himself a lover of nature – the meadows and the woods, and the mountains; and all that
he sees on this green earth; of all the mighty world of eye and ear. The poet loves nature as much for what he sees and hears with his
mortal eyes as for what his imagination supplements. So he proclaims that nature is the anchor of hi purest thoughts, the nurse, the
guide, the guardian of his heart, and soul of all his moral being.

The poet is not only a lover of nature for what nature has gifted him with, shaping his mind gradually into that of a mystic who enjoys
trance and who discovers the presence of a spirit in all things including the mind of man. The poet finally proclaims that he is a
worshipper of nature who came to visit the place unwearied in that service of worshipping with warmer love. This expression, the
poet thinks that he came to visit the place with warmer love to worship nature would be inadequate; it would be better to say that he
came on his mission with a far deeper zeal of holier love.

It would not be out of place to say a few words about Wordsworth’s attitude to nature vis-à-vis Thomas Hardy’s. To Hardy, nature is a
malevolent force, the symbol of the gods that like wanton boys kill men for their sport. To Wordsworth, it is a benevolent entity that
soothes the care-stricken man, gives him peace, offers him solace, raises the level of his mind and ultimately fills his mind and heart
with divine bliss.

Ode to Immortality
1)

‘The Immortality Ode’ is one of the most famous poems in English literature. It is the greatest poem in the whole series of
Wordsworth’s poems. Wordsworth reached one of the highest peaks of the English poetry of the Romantic period with this ode. In
fact it is the land mark in the history of English poetry.

The theme of the poem is very simple but thoughts conveyed are great. It deals with the theme of the immortal nature of human spirit
which is intuitively known by the child and partly forgotten by the growing man. But this spirit is to be known once more in maturity
through intense experience of heart and mind Wordsworth’s philosophy of nature is beautifully expressed in this poem. According to
the title, the poem deals with the knowledge of the immortality of the soul, or recollection of childhood. Wordsworth believed in the
divine origin of the soul. The child is aware of this divine origin and had a direct touch with divinity. His soul is in direct communion
with the divine spirit. As he grows up, he goes on losing the touch with spirit because of his attachment with material world. In fact
this is beautifully explained in his sonnet “The World Is Too Much with Us”. The loss of childhood glory is recurrent theme of
Wordsworth’s poetry.

‘The Immortality Ode’ contains three different sections. The first section consists of the first four stanzas containing a reference ‘to
the childhood light’. It speaks about childhood glory.
The objects of nature are the same now when the poet has grown up, but he has realized that ‘There hath, past away a glory from the
earth’. While he looks around him as the joy spread over the earth and he hears the shepherd boy shouting. The poet describes the
joyous atmosphere of nature round the happy child and expresses his own joy at hearing the voices of happy children. The joyous
atmosphere of nature also reminds him of ‘Something that is gone’. The poet left wondering about where that ‘visionary gleam has
fled and where it is now’. The first section ends with this question. The poet has described the beauty of nature. He has also described
his perception and enjoyment of this beauty. He is conscious of a ‘celestial light’ enveloping all objects of the earth. He sees the
children at play and tries to feel happy with them. But very soon his happiness is cut short by his sense of the loss of glory. The first
section ends with the poet’s questioning about the loss.

The second part of the poem moves from childhood memory to the theme of immortality. The poet speaks about the idea of
immorality of the soul and pre-existence. The poet tells where the glory has gone. According to him the child enjoys the real glory,
which gradually fades as he grows up. Earth is kindly foster mother of man. She tries to lure the child away from heave n by offering
all the pleasures and pleasant, pursuits. Nature makes him forget his desire for the spiritual home. But very soon he finds himself
absorbed in the worldly pursuits. He starts speaking the language of business, the language of lovers and the words of dispute. Then he
takes up different roles till he grows old. The poet describes the life of the child whom, he calls ‘Mighty Prophet I see blest’. The child
is unaware of the vastness of his soul. He is the best philosopher. This fact is interestingly reasserted by Tagore in his poem
‘Playthings’. However the child despite his divine nature loses this power gradually when he gets absorbed in worldly affairs. He goes
on losing his vision of glory and his ‘heaven born freedom’.

The third part of the poem is an attempt to vindicate the value of a life from which ‘vision’ has fled. The poet offers a consolation for
the anguish felt over the loss of divine glory. The theme of the recollection of early childhood is introduced here. According to poet
‘the glory has not entirely gone’. It lives in our memory and can be revived through recollections of childhood.

Though the poet is old and his recollections are shadowy, he feels happy even though he can not get back to the real splendor of
former years. He decides not to grieve and to find ‘strength in what remains behind’. The poem grows philosophic and tries to see
things positively. The poet reaffirms his love of nature which has taken a sober colouring because of his growing awareness of the
human destiny. He is conscious of man’s limits but offers his thanks for the tenderness, joys and fear of the human heart which sustain
him inspite of the loss of glory in this mortal world. Thus Wordsworth has developed his themes and ideas related to childhood, pre
existence and immorality carefully. The three parts of the ode are not harmoniously blended together. The irregularity of structure is
not due to his carelessness but due to an immediacy and powerful nature, outrush of the thoughts which could not be fixed in limited
frame. The famous critic Bowra says, “The three parts of the ode deal in turn with a crisis, an explanation and consolation and in all
three Wordsworth speaks of what is most important and most original in his poetry”.

‘The Immortality Ode’ can also be called an autobiographical poem. In this poem the poet unlocks his heart and describes a crisis in
his intellectual development. The ode deals with his childhood glory and the poets loss of ‘vision’ in his advancing years. The ‘Ode’
marks the beginning of decline in his poetic power.

Like ‘Tintern Abbey’ in this poem the poet appears to be a philosopher. The first four stanzas of the poem are lyrical and emotional
but in the fifth stanza the poet embarks upon philosophy. The middle part of the poem gives Wordsworth’s philosophy of childhood.
But the poet’s philosophy is direct and simple. In fact Wordsworth could not become a successful philosopher though he tried to be
one. ‘The Ode’ deals with two childhoods, the childhood everyone experiences as a child after birth and the childhood which we carry
within us like memory. These two childhoods may be called ‘visible childhood’ and ‘invisible childhood’. The poet describes the
experience of both these childhoods and contrasts with material world.

The poem is written in an irregular form though it looks like a ‘Pindrric Ode’. There is no definite rhyming. The diction of poem is
comparatively not very simple because it deals with complicated thought, the diction is little serious.

Despite of the structural disintegrity ‘The Ode’ remains the greatest of Wordsworth’s poems. The fusion of philosophy and poetry in
this poem is perfect. It received worldwide appreciation for its sheer beauty of language and thought.

‘The Immortality Ode’ is one of the greatest of Wordsworth’s odes. It is a poetic account of immortal nature of the human spirit. So
we can say that ‘Immortality Ode’ is the immortal ode in English literature.
 2)
Childhood

The Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood is a poem revolving mainly around the theme of
childhood and the journey towards maturity. To explain the child’s progression, as well as the poem’s, Wordsworth uses
characteristics referring to different chronological periods in the life of the child. For example, flashbacks are utilized in terms of the
memories recollected in early childhood, when he describes the adult man’s past. Additionally, present and future references, which
are a tool to delineate the intimations of immortality, also have a role to play in the child’s development towards adolescence.

Nevertheless, although it can be concluded that Wordsworth exploits space and time to illustrate adultness, commentary on his
poetical child has been often limited to its relationship to three-dimensional nature, avoiding referring to spirituality. In other words,
there have been only a few attempts to synthesize the poet’s depiction into one organic vision of childhood.

Hiers indicates that when one focuses mainly on the child’s responses to nature's stimuli, one forgets to consider the child's
transcendental mind: “A comprehensive examination, however, reveals the child's” four-dimensional transcendental mind and that is,
“his innate powers to unify the world of natural mutability and to envision the eternal beauty of all life” (Hiers 8). Given these points,
this section will analyze the concept of childhood in chronological order, while discussing the discrepancy between a naturalistic and a
spiritual view.

To begin with, although the poem indicates the existence of the child’s soul prior to birth, the earliest stage of being mentioned after
birth is known as infancy. During this period, infants can respond to a wide range of environmental stimuli, especially through the
sense of touch, but vision is not richly developed (Piaget online, n.pg.). Oddly, Wordsworth’s poetic spirit, or the ability to experience
visions, seems to develop at this time, when newborns explore the world and create bonds with nature through playing. Hiers,
however, suggests that nature cannot be the sole or “ultimate source of the child’s intuitive wisdom” (8) that Wordsworth mentions
when he refers to the child as ‘a prophet’ (115). Rather, Heirs states that “the child enters the world with the ability to create and
unify” (8). Additionally, Jean Piaget, who is a pioneer in the study of children’s thinking following the ideas of Freudian
psychoanalysis, explains this scientifically in terms of cognitive development. His belief is based on two dynamic processes that every
behavioral act requires: assimilation and accommodation (Piaget online, n.pg.). The first is a description of the process of acquiring
new information about the world that is perceived through the child’s senses, and positioning it in parallel lines, or in unity with
already existing information in the brain. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the intimation of the happiness of childhood is the
reminiscence of blessedness in a former state that the prophetic child has recollected in his memory (Piaget online, n.pg.). This would
then lead to the consideration of “the doctrine of pre-existence” (Hiers 10), which will be discussed in a later section, or to the
conclusion that the child’s “transcendental mind not only unifies”, as Hiers claims, “but it also inwardly envisions the eternality of all
existence” (10). More specifically, Rader explains that “the child's intellect functions on another level - an innate vision into absolute,
eternal beauty” (qtd. in Hiers 9). He states that in the poem the child deserves the title of ‘best philosopher’ not “by virtue of
intellectual penetration, but by reason of those powers which inject sensation with absolute beauty, a possession inborn” (qtd. in Hiers
9). Piaget names these powers as accommodation and describes them as a process of creating concepts that are able to bear new
information, and thus allow the child to grow (online, n.pg.).

However, although growing is an inevitable experience in the poem, it is definitely not a pleasant one according to Wordsworth. As
approaching adolescence, the once ‘joyful child’ is weighed down by the troubles of this world and the perplexity of daily life, that
remembering his youth’s blessedness is feasible only through visions of memory which appear dimmer by the passing of time. More
specifically, the child cannot escape the natural maturation that follows childhood; he cannot avoid what is called “the paradox of the
child’s causing his own vision” (Hiers 8). Moreover, he cannot keep away from suffering the loss of “his primitivistic, intuitive
powers of natural morality” that finally leads to “detrimental complexity of vision, understanding, and moral judgment” (Hiers 8).

This retrospective phenomenon of a yearning for the past is nostalgia and is clearly evident in Wordsworth’s description of a lost
childhood. His child of nature becomes in the middle of the poem “one from whom the subject felt sadly distant” (Austin 76).
However, what is of greater value to Wordsworth is the fact that the vivid visionary perception of an exalted childhood fades with age
and thus “severs the being of the child from that of the adult” (Austin 83). Childhood is shown to be the “one period in which
everyone’s genius seems to have glimmered”; a period filled with “endless emotional spontaneity and endless potential”, while the
latter is “an image of all mature estranged minds” (Austin 83). Either way, the poet implies that “the quality or affect of early
experiences does not much matter: “be they what they may,” they become “a master-light of all our seeing” (Austin 84). What is
more, Austin suggests that Wordsworth’s greatest argument lies in that “the passing of infancy and early childhood brings a loss of
extraordinariness; even a prosaic existence mourns this passing because, as the poem implies, the existence of everyone beyond such a
childhood is prosaic” (84). Hence, the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood illustrates by means of
the child’s journey towards maturity the type of unromantic memory which nostalgia represents, that is, “inorganic, unconducive to
maintaining a sense of self and impersonal despite its significant private application” (Austin 84).

In conclusion, if the poem is read based on a naturalistic view that excludes spirituality, it is deprived of the intimations of immortality
from recollections of early childhood. “The extraordinariness of the ordinary childhood” with all its jollity, festive spirit, and bliss is
nothing but a bittersweet memory to him who views the poem merely as one that “treats the loss, awe, and estrangement framing the
adult's sense of childhood as features of a common psychological profile” (Austin 83). For instance, Austin names childhood as “one
contained in the adult's perceptual and memorative field and best summarized as a lost sense of potential”, conveying to the reader the
“unrecoverability of the condition of childhood” and “the inevitable forgetting of the remoteness of the condition of childhood”
(Austin 83).

Notwithstanding that this naturalistic perspective of childhood has been dominant, it is important to consider the spiritual aspects of
childhood that attach to it eternal value. Joseph W. Beach for example, who believes that life on earth is a short shaping journey
towards eternity, when referring to the poem emphasizes “the importance of spiritual legacies upon the child's imagination, with
indifferent concern for the soul's literal existence before birth” (152). His theory states that “whether or not the individual soul has had
an existence before the human birth, a man comes into this life endowed with a spiritual essence which is not from nature but from
God. And it is this divine faculty which bestows upon natural objects the glory with which they shine to a child's imagination” (Beach
152). More clearly, as Hiers notes “the child enters this world with innate spiritual qualities bestowed on his mind by God” (10).
Piaget explains the function of these qualities, which are the imaginative powers of the child's mind, when presenting his theories of
assimilation and accommodation, as mentioned previously. Hence, “it is these qualities of the transcendental mind which allow the
child to rise above the objective world of nature and which in turn provide the man with visions into the eternal beauties of life and the
overall unity of his environment” (Hiers 10).

More analytically, the eternality of childhood visions is rooted in the origin of the child’s soul. Wordsworth claims that it comes from
‘elsewhere’ or ‘heaven’, another ‘home’, which is ‘God’:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy! (59-67)

In addition, the poet implies that it specifies the child’s life for as long as he retains the memory of it, until the vision is overwhelmed
by adult duties and roles: “Shades of the prison-house begin to close / Upon the growing Boy” (68-69), “A wedding or a festival, / A
mourning or a funeral; / And this hath now his heart, / And unto this he frames his song: / Then will he fit his tongue / To dialogues of
business, love, or strife;” (94-99). During adolescence, “the growing child finds himself distant from the glory of heaven as inexorably
as the sun lies distant from the dawn and levels all in a uniform clarity, ‘the light of common day’” (Taylor 634). Wordsworth
illustrates this when he writes that “The Youth, who daily farther from the east / Must travel, still is Nature's priest, / And by the vision
splendid / Is on his way attended; / At length the Man perceives it die away, / And fade into the light of common day.” (72-77). In
fact, the man “travels in the sea of his immortal ‘elsewhere’ until the moment he is interrupted by the voices of a new generation of
children far on the shore, which reminds him of heavenly blessedness” (Taylor 634). The poet states that “Our souls have sight of that
immortal sea / Which brought us hither, / Can in a moment travel thither, / And see the children sport upon the shore, / And hear the
mighty waters rolling evermore.” (168-172). Thus, his hope remains in that since he came from ‘elsewhere’, this place will
await him at the end of his life; and with new eyes he will see the image of this ‘home’ he has collected in his memory: “We will
grieve not, rather find / Strength in what remains behind; / In the primal sympathy / Which having been must ever be; / In the soothing
thoughts that spring / Out of human suffering; / In the faith that looks through death,” (184-190). In this passage Wordsworth
emphasizes even more that faith in immortality “that looks through death” is the only source of strength founded in the recollections
of memory, and hence the only source of hope to return ‘home’.
Furthermore, the reason for longing of ‘home’ is not only due to the recollections of early childhood memories, but also because of the
hostility the child’s soul feels as it is alien to this earth:

Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind, And, even with something of a mother's
mind,
And no unworthy aim,
The homely nurse doth all she can
To make her foster-child, her Inmate Man, Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came. (78-85)

Simply put, according to this argument, the soul never becomes acclimated to the earthly world that is time-limited, because it was
designed to exist in eternity. Instead, this world is a temporary home that shapes or prepares the soul for eternity. Wordsworth calls the
earth “the nurse” (82), or “the foster-mother” (80), who tries in vain to solace the child that yearns for his only mother, eternity.

To sum up, in this chapter I have discussed the different stages of contentment a person can experience throughout the course of life as
the theme of childhood in the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood depicts. At first, as a soul
existing in eternity he is filled with God’s life and joy until the moment he is born and is forced to grow. Subsequently, as he matures
he becomes engaged to the troubles of earthly life, and the glory he once beheld is gradually lost as he departs further from the source
of contentment, God. His life then is transformed into a continual circle of longing for the former ‘home’ and early childhood, or the
nostalgic memories of it. Last but not least, the adult man’s desire is the redemption of the soul by returning to ‘home’, heaven, and
God, where he comes from.

Immortality

The following equally crucial theme in the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood that has been
neglected in the past is that of immortality (Hiers 8). Taylor best exemplifies the reason why immortality has been overshadowed by
the theme of childhood, by explaining that interpreters of Wordsworth’s poem “often avoid its religious references, choosing to see it
as a description of individual growth to maturity, as a process of loss and wise acceptance of loss, of growing up and growing old”
(633). Although the validity of their readings is not questioned, Taylor insists that “Wordsworth's own full title precisely and
deliberately indicates that he has immortality in mind, and that he plans to argue for it from some aspect of the recollected memories
of early childhood, either their content, their promise, or the unease which their loss arouses” (633). Consequently, she suggests that
“the ode is transcendent, but that, in addition, it provides a more complex argument for immortality than one resting only on memory's
promise” (Taylor 634), which I aim to examine. However, immortality and childhood are strongly interrelated; therefore, in order to
analyze either of them, one must study one in light of the other. This section will thus discuss the spiritual aspects of immortality in
the poem, in correspondence with the previous chapter analyzing childhood.

Initially, when searching for commentary on Wordsworth’s Immortality, one can notice that while reading former scholars’ skepticism
reversely into the Ode, a valuable part of its meaning and of its reverberations of afterlife is neglected. Yet, the argument for
immortality lies in a simple fact: “since children remember the eternity they come from, the same place may await for them once they
have grown old and are released from the body” (Taylor 633). Hence, the idea of a ‘home’ resting in the memories of earliest
childhood based on the theory of pre-existence in theology informs the poem’s underlying themes:

The soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Hath had elsewhere is setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory we come From God who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy! (60-67)

Why is it so important to discuss immortality in the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood? What
does immortality add to our understanding of the poem? The answer lies in the words of the poet himself. In the first stanza,
Wordsworth states that he can fully perceive the beauty of nature shown in celestial light only through the eyes of the child that has
not yet lost the memory of ‘home’. As a boy he can still see a reflection of the dream of heaven in nature, but when he reaches
adolescence, the light fades away. At this point, he can be partially charmed by nature, as the second stanza implies, “And I again am
strong: / The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; / No more shall grief of mine the season wrong; / I hear the echoes through
the mountains throng. / The winds come to me from the fields of sleep, / And all the earth is gay; / Land and sea” (24-30); but the
glory through which he used to intensely experience the natural world has passed: “But there's a tree, of many, one, / A single field
which I have look'd upon, / Both of them speak of something that is gone:” (52-54). The following stanzas then depict his struggle to
revive the memory of immortality’s glory that clothed the earth, “Which we are toiling all our lives to find,” (117), and which comes
from ‘home’, from ‘God’, as a means to relieve the yearning soul: “Whither is fled the visionary gleam? / Where is it now, the glory
and the dream?” (57- 58). However, the ease that memory brings to the poet is temporary, and his only hope to return to this glory lies
after death: “In the faith that looks through death,” (190). In other words, there is no cure for him during his life on earth: “Though
nothing can bring back the hour” (182).

This argument of discontentment, drawn from traditional theology is “less subject than the first to the vagaries and distortions of
memory, and arises from deeply felt experience, another point explained by depth psychology” (Taylor 635). As mentioned in the
previous section, according to this idea, the child is an orphan soul surrounded by “Earth’s inadequate playthings” that struggles to
adapt to the earthly lifestyle (Taylor 635). As a result, he is “increasingly ensnared in the drag of the quotidian” and “conspires in his
own entrapment” (Taylor 635). The child thus “seeks to obliterate the pain of loss by self-suffocation, hurrying toward the inevitable
yoke and accepting the weight of custom” (Taylor 635). In other words, by quickly burying himself, he would gradually forget the
loss. Regardless of his effort to cope with the reality of earth, his yearning never vanishes entirely. This yearning however does
provide additional proof of man’s immortal past and, moreover, his immortal future. For this reason, in the poem Wordsworth “gives
thanks not for the recollections themselves, but for the dissatisfaction they arouse when the recollections are contrasted with present
realities” (Taylor 635). That said, the poet appreciates immortality more than all earthly objects and pleasures:

The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed
For that which is most worthy to be blest— Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:— Not for these I raise
The song of thanks and praise;
But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings;
Blank misgivings of a Creature Moving about in worlds not realized,
High instincts before which our mortal Nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised: (138-152)

More specifically, he questions the significance of the physical world and nature, which are affected by the “fallings from us,
vanishings”, or the fragility of the flesh (Wordsworth 148). What is worthy to be blessed? Is it delight or liberty? Or, is it the fact that
the memories of the child’s immortal past lead to a noncompromising desire to explore unknown worlds? The poet mentions: “The
thought of our past years in me doth breed” (138), “But for those obstinate questionings / Of sense and outward things,” (146-147)
Moving about in worlds not realized,” (150). That being the case, humans are eager to have more, and do not settle for what they
already possess. Taylor adds that “even the human community of feeling that develops under the stress of mortality does not ease the
insistent undertow but rather may increase it” (Taylor 636). Wordsworth justifies this belief in immortality more decidedly in his
Essay Upon Epitaphs I:

For my own part, it is to me inconceivable, that the sympathies of love towards each other, which grow with our growth, could ever
attain any new strength, or even preserve the old, after we had received from the outward senses the impression of death, and were in
the habit of having that impression daily renewed and its accompanying feeling brought home to ourselves, and to those we love; if
the same were not counteracted by those communications with our internal Being, which are anterior to all these experiences, and
with which revelation coincides, and has through that coincidence alone (for otherwise it could not possess it) a power to affect us. I
confess, with me the conviction is absolute, that, if the impression and sense of death were not thus counterbalanced, such a
hollowness would pervade the whole system of things, such a want of correspondence and consistency, a disproportion so astounding
betwixt means and ends, that there could be no repose, no joy. Were we to grow up unfostered by this genial warmth, a frost would
chill the spirit, so penetrating and powerful, that there could be no motions of the life of love; and infinitely less could we have any
wish to be remembered after we passed away from a world in which each man had moved about like a shadow. (51-52)

In this passage, Wordsworth suggests that immortality “gives meaning to the pathos of human suffering and allows one to endure it”,
and hence, without it life is meaningless. Taylor interprets his words by stating that the voice of the authentic “internal being”
reaffirms that “we do not die, despite the fact that our experience disagrees; and that love is valuable,
despite the fragility of its objects” (Taylor 637-638). Moreover, Wordsworth’s sense of the disproportion between the needs of reality
and the spirit results in a longing for immortality, since without it “hollowness would pervade the whole system of things” (Taylor
637). In other words, both in the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood and the Essay Upon Epitaphs
I, Wordsworth argues for immortality from the perspective that it is vital to humanity, “because it gives meaning to a life beset with
sorrows” (Taylor 638). Therefore, the fact that we experience the need to seek for, or imagine an ‘elsewhere’ suggests that
‘somewhere’ it does exist (Taylor 638). We may not remember exactly what this ‘elsewhere’ is and where it lies, but, the “residue of
regret left in our memory” is so powerful that from “the depths of our insufficiency we hunger for it continuously” (Taylor 638).

Furthermore, the poet’s argument for immortality, which was traditionally formed by Anselm and elaborated by Ficino in his
Theologia platonica, answers certain queries of the post-enlightenment period. Their ideas combine “the ontological argument that
what we conceive must exist, with the teleological argument, that our feelings must have a purpose” (Snyder online, n.pg). In
particular, Taylor states that Anselm believed that “because we yearn for immortality it must exist, since we could not conceive of it if
it were not” (Taylor 639-639).

In conclusion, the Ode is irrefutably a spiritual poem which Wordsworth uses to claim deliberately his faith in eternity. Through the
flashbacks to his own life and childhood, he creates the imagery around the child, who represents all children. The poet takes
advantage of this fact to provoke nostalgic emotions in the reader because of their lost childhood, but also because of their lost ‘Eden’.
More importantly, in the ninth stanza (lines 138-152) Wordsworth challenges the Ode’s readers to reexamine the value of worldly,
natural objects in comparison with love and immortality: “And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,/ Forebode not any
severing of our loves!” (192-193). Last but not least, it can be said that the poem’s beauty lies in this paradox: some attributes of life
become more precious since they are ephemeral (Hiers 8-10). The poet writes: “The clouds that gather round the setting sun / Do take
a sober colouring from an eye / That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; / Another race hath been, and other palms are won. / Thanks
to the human heart by which we live / Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears” (201-206), and “We will grieve not, rather find /
Strength in what remains behind; / In the primal sympathy / Which having been must ever be;
/ In the soothing thoughts that spring / Out of human suffering;” (184-189).

Biblical Allusions

Having concluded that the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood is a spiritual poem, this raises a
need to discuss its themes from a biblical perspective. The significance of this type of biblical reading of the poem is based on
Wordsworth’s own selection of biblical references, which will be presented later in this section. However, to achieve such an analysis,
it is necessary to use the Scriptures, that is, The Bible, as the main source of information. Therefore, this last chapter’s purpose is to
explore the biblical allusions and symbolism that Wordsworth has included in his poem, which will reveal the hidden truths about
childhood and immortality, and which will further explain the abstract concept of immortality.

To start with, the first stanza of the poem is a comparison between what the poet ‘saw’ as a child and what he ‘sees’ as an adult, which
I have previously explained in the section of childhood. He describes the beauty of the earth with all its fields, streams, and trees,
which appear like heaven, in contrast with the different perception of the world he has during adolescence. Now, although there is still
much beauty around him, e.g. roses, rainbows, the moonlight, the sunlight, these sights lack the glory of what he once ‘saw’ as a child,
“The things which I have seen I now can see no more” (Wordsworth 9). However, what brings this concept into perspective is the
sentence “That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth” in the second stanza (Wordsworth 18). When studied in depth, these two
stanzas symbolize Eden, the garden that used to be ‘heaven’, and the fall of man with all its consequences. To clarify this symbolism,
the book of Genesis describes the creation of the earth with all its beauty, trees, flowers, waters, stars, etc., and everything that humans
needed (Genesis 1: 1- 31). “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and
good for food” (Genesis 2:9). However, Wordsworth mentions “there’s a tree, of many, one/ A single field which I have look’d upon,
/ Both of them speak of something that is gone:” (52-54).

In Genesis God commanded “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will
certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). Indeed, the protoplasts ate from the fruit and what followed was ‘the fall’, or their exit from Eden, their
‘home’. To put it another way, Wordsworth does not only imply that the child is an eternal being that remembers ‘heaven’, but, also,
that this innocent creature represents humanity before the fall, before the glory of God’s life passed away with man’s sin that brought
spiritual death, and that adolescence illustrates humanity after the fall.
Further on, as the poet continues to praise spring and nature, the birds and their song, the lambs that dance, he is suddenly afflicted by
a ‘thought of grief’ (Wordsworth 22). He remembers the ‘tree’, ‘sin’ and its wages, the glory with which man used to be clothed, and
the fact that it is no more. Even so, he realizes that there is a solution to ‘sin’, ‘death’, and the ‘loss of glory’, and that is through
“Thou Child of Joy, / Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy/ Shepherd-boy!(Wordsworth 34-36). In fact, Wordsworth is
using biblical allusions to Christ, the ‘child of joy’, the ‘shepherd-boy’, and the promised ‘lamb’ that was slain to redeem humanity
from the power of sin, as it is written: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Therefore, the first allusion refers to Christ as the Savior, or as the second Adam
that would be crucified to restore eternal life. The Bible explains:

“Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned […] For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace
of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many![…] For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man,
how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one
man, Jesus Christ! (Romans 5: 12-17)

Simply put, Wordsworth finds the cure for his grief in Christ, who as the second Adam obeyed God, and therefore allowed those who
believe in Him to experience triumph, joy, and hope in life; but, who also restored the hope of returning ‘home’, and that means
‘heaven’.

The second allusion refers to Christ as the “Child of Joy”, or the baby-born Jesus (Wordsworth 34). According to The Bible, an angel
appeared to some shepherds to guide them to the manger where they would meet for the first time the Savior, “And the angel said unto
them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11). What this passage says in plain words is that this child would bring joy
to the people, for He is the Savior of the world, and thus Wordsworth calls him the “The Child of Joy” (34). The third allusion refers
to Jesus as the “Shepherd-boy” and it can be interpreted in two interrelated ways (Wordsworth 36). Initially, the shepherd boy in The
Bible, who is a prophetic representation of Jesus, is King David. David ruled successfully over Israel, although he was just a shepherd.
In the same way today, Jesus is the shepherd of the church, which symbolizes the spiritual Israel that consists of the believers, and He
reigns over his sheep: “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:14). The latter regards David
as Jesus’s physical ancestor.

In The Scriptures it is written that “The Lord God will give him (Christ) the throne of his father David,” (Luke 1:32) and that
“regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David” (Romans 1:3). Conclusively, in the stanzas mentioned,
Wordsworth utilizes the various biblical profiles of Jesus to create the poetical character of the child. Similarly, the rest of the poem
follows the same pattern of biblical parallelisms.

For example, in the fifth stanza Wordsworth portrays birth as the awakening from a momentary sleep in which the soul existed in the
celestial realm. He writes: “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, / Hath had elsewhere
its setting, / And cometh from afar: / Not in entire forgetfulness, / And not in utter nakedness, / But trailing clouds of glory do we
come/ From God, who is our home:” (Wordsworth 59-66). The poet uses this picture of a blurred memory to claim that the soul’s
existence is preordained and originates from God, just as The Bible mentions “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the
world” (Ephesians 1:4a); and “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans
8:29a). Yet, as in the sixth and seventh stanza, Wordsworth states that the memory fades as the child becomes a boy and is attracted by
earthly desires, pleasures, and promises:

Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind, And, even with something of a mother's
mind, And no unworthy aim,
The homely nurse doth all she can
To make her foster-child, her Inmate Man, Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came. (78-85)

More analytically, in this passage Wordsworth refers to these natural pleasures as a representation of fleshly desires, which try to
captivate the child and urge him to forget of God and eternity. According to The Bible, after the fall of man, humanity has been
enslaved under the yoke of sin and has been victim of its desires. It is written: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so
that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present
yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:12-18). That
said, the poet depicts the perpetual battle between the spirit and the flesh; the will of God and the will of sin:

Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy,

But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,

He sees it in his joy;

The Youth, who daily farther from the east Must travel, still is Nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day. (68-77)

Some fragment from his dream of human life, Shaped by himself with newly-learnèd art;
A wedding or a festival, A mourning or a funeral;
And this hath now his heart, And unto this he frames his song:
Then will he fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love, or strife; But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside, And with new joy and pride
The little actor cons another part; (93-103)

Nonetheless, Wordsworth repeatedly presents the young child’s image as one that incomes ease. Some specific characteristics of the
child also reveal that it is an allusion to Christ. For instance, The Scriptures refer to Christ as “the firstborn among many brethren”
(Romans 8:29c). Likewise, Wordsworth writes “Behold the Child among his new-born blisses” (86). In addition, Wordsworth
indicates that this child is filled “With light upon him from his father's eyes!” (90), and mentions “Some fragment from his dream of
human life,” (92). In the same manner, The Bible refers to God’s satisfaction with the work of His Son, Jesus, who had to live a
human life on earth for the sake of the world. He says: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” (Matthew 17:5). Hence,
it can be assumed that ‘The Child’, Christ, is also the solution to the adult man’s strife that Wordsworth describes. Moreover, in the
Ode:

Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood the poet calls the child “Thou best philosopher,” (111) and “Mighty
prophet!”(115), which are attributes of Jesus. The Bible ascribes to Jesus the title of ‘the best philosopher’ because “the wisdom of
this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” (1st Corinthians 3:19-20).

By the same token, it ascribes to Him the title of ‘Mighty prophet’, as it is written “And there came a fear on all: and they glorified
God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.” (Luke 7:16).

Additionally, lines such as “thou eye among the blind,” (112), “On whom those truths do rest, / Which we are toiling all our lives to
find,” (116-117) and “thy Immortality” (119) suggest that Wordsworth does indeed use similes of Christ from The Scriptures.
Likewise, The Bible clarifies that Jesus is the one who possesses the absolute truth and thus the sole person who can lead humanity.
When referring to mankind, The Bible questions “Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?( Luke 6:39).
Obviously, the answer is negative and therefore the poet suggests that only He who is the way, the truth and the (eternal) life can guide
men, who toil all their lives to find this truth (John 14:6): “Mighty prophet! Seer blest! / On whom those truths do rest, / Which we are
toiling all our lives to find,” (115-117). Even more, The Scriptures summarize the different profiles that Wordsworth ascribes to Jesus
in a few verses:

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him,
and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15-17).

These verses reveal the greatness of Jesus as the image of God, the Creator, “Nature’s priest”, the everlasting, “the eternal mind”, and
the one who was, is, and will be (Wordsworth 73, 114). In the same way the poem shows the greatness of the child who preexisted:
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, / Hath had elsewhere its setting, / And cometh
from afar:” (59-62); who was born with the ability to create and unify: “And by the vision splendid / Is on his way attended;” (74-75),
“Shaped by himself with newly-learnèd art;” (93); and who will live eternally both in terms of the memories and of the afterlife: “O
joy! that in our embers / Is something that doth live, / That nature yet remembers / What was so fugitive! / The thought of our past
years in me doth breed” (134- 138), and “Our noisy years seem moments in the being / Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, / To
perish never: / Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, / Nor Man nor Boy, / Nor all that is at enmity with joy, / Can utterly
abolish or destroy!” (159-165).

Eventually, after referring to desire’s destructive power, Jesus’s solution through His cruciform sacrifice, and God’s attributes,
Wordsworth reaches the zenith of biblical allusions: Jesus’s burial and resurrection. In the eighth stanza, he depicts men’s or Christ’s
battle with darkness and the grave, meaning death. He writes: “In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave; / Thou, over whom thy
Immortality / Broods like the Day, a master o'er a slave, / A presence which is not to be put by;” (Wordsworth 118-121). However, he
emphasizes that the child’s, or Christ’s immortality, leads to the resurrection and victory over the slavery of death. The Bible
concludes this allusion by saying that “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion
over him.” (Romans 6:9).

Last but not least, the Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood ends with stanzas encouraging the adult
man to endure all earthly sufferings, because at least the natural surroundings manifest a glimmer of celestial light and of God that

lies within him: “We will grieve not, rather find / Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy / Which having been must
ever be; / In the soothing thoughts that spring / Out of human suffering; / In the faith that looks through death, / In years that bring the
philosophic mind.” (184-191). The poet continues:

And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves, Forebode not any severing of our loves!
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might; I only have relinquish'd one delight
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I love the brooks which down their channels fret, Even more than when I tripp'd lightly as they; The innocent brightness of a new-born
Day
Is lovely yet;
The clouds that gather round the setting sun Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality; Another race hath been, and other palms are won. Thanks to the human heart by which we
live, Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. (192-208)

The biblical truth and Romantic sentiment that Wordsworth alludes to is the revelation of God through nature, as The Scriptures state:
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Wordsworth writes:

“The innocent brightness of a new-born Day / Is lovely yet; / The clouds that gather round the setting sun / Do take a sober colouring
from an eye / That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;” (199-203).

In these lines he refers to God’s eye that is upon humanity, as it is written in the Psalms: “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees
all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth” (33:13-14). This knowledge allows him to rejoice with the
songs of May and to forget that a time would come when all the flowers and fields of spring would be forever gone; because he is
aware that greater glories await humans beyond death: “To me the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too
deep for tears” (207-208), as The Bible writes, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2nd Corinthians 4:17).

3)

William Wordsworth was one of the dominant figures in English Romanticism. He is one of the central figures and gave the manifesto
of the Romantic period. He is considered to be the poet of spiritual and epistemological speculation. He brought the paradigm shift in
diction, subject matter of poetry, meter, rhyme scheme and the concepts established by neo-classists. The son of John and Ann
Cookson Wordsworth, William Wordworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, situated in the Lake District of
England: a zone that would turn out to be intently connected with Wordsworth for more than two centuries after his death. He started
composing poetry as a little youngster in Grammar school, and before moving on from school he went on a voyage through Europe,
which extended his affection for nature and his compassion towards the common man: both significant subjects in his poetry.
Wordsworth is best known for Lyrical Ballads, co-authored with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and The Prelude, a Romantic epic poem
chronicling the “growth of a poet’s mind.” A focus on simple, obscure people, use of every day language and an emphasis on nature as
an antidote to the corrupting influences of society are three main features on Wordsworth’s poems. He reacted against neoclassical
poetry, popular in the eighteenth century, which emphasized heroic figures, heroic themes and heroic couplets. His reactions opened
up a new horizon in thinking and insinuated the mind with the ideas of imagination negating the ideas of reason.

It is widely acknowledged that the Greek philosopher Plato laid the foundation of western philosophy. He is a mathematician and
philosopher. As A.N Whitehead states that the western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. As a support to this claim Plato
gave initial formulation to the most basic questions and problems of Western thought. Plato was born in 428 B.C in Athens to a family
of long aristocratic lineage a fact which must eventually have shaped his philosophy at many levels. The controversial thinking and
teaching of Socrates who questioned the established customs of then Athens have inspired him. Plato’s thought was mainly influenced
by a number of pre –Socratic thinkers who rejected the physical world known through our senses as mere appearance. Plato adapted
dialectic method from Socrates that means to converse. Plato contributed and the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms
in philosophy.

Plato is regarded as the founder of western political philosophy. His theory of forms is one of the main contributions to the world of
philosophy which is also known as pure reason. Plato has found the solution to the ambiguity of platonic realism or platonic idealism
with the concept of pure reason. Platonism and its theory of forms denies the reality of the material world, considering the existing
world as the copy of real world. The theory of forms is first introduced in the phaedo dialogue, also known as on the soul.

The concept of theory claims that there are at least two worlds: the apparent world of concrete objects, grasped by the senses, which
constantly changes and an unchanging and unseen world of forms or abstract objects grasped by pure reason. This argument also
leaves one with the notion that there are three worlds, with the apparent world consisting of both the world of material objects and
mental images with the third realm consisting of the forms.

Plato proclaims and believed in the immortality of the soul also insisted life after death. Plato also greatly acknowledged the
preexistence of soul, which wandered over the real world observing and gaining the knowledge of the real world. He insists that soul
is immortal whereas the body, matter is mortal. The contact of the soul with the matter makes the soul to lose its purity and leaves it in
a forgetting state. Socrates argues that knowledge is not empirical but it is from divine insight. This is an indication of rationalism.

A detail analysis of William Wordsworth leaves one with the notion that he has mainly concentrated on childhood and recollection of
thought. The ideas of preexistence of soul are vividly seen in the lines

of Wordsworth from the poem Ode to Intimations of Immortality. The first four lines explain the forgetting stage of a human which
makes him to recognize or understand not in a clear state. This is a pureidea which has the influence of the theory of the pre existence
of soul.

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.It is not now as it hath been of yore;— Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day.
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Wordsworth explains the concept of pre-existing soul through the lost elements of nature. Wordsworth mainly uses the concept of
recollection. It centers mainly on the core theme of innatism advocated by Plato and his teacher Socrates. According to Plato
knowledge is not empirical. It is a gift of divine. Reason is a tool to gain knowledge. He denies the idea of empty state of mind in
which experience writes it. Thus Plato contradicts with Aristotle who stated that mind is an empty slate and knowledge comes out of
experience and through senses.

The lines of Wordsworth touch upon the epistemology of Plato.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:

The word ‘birth’ indicates the blending of spirit and matter that is the unification of soul and body. The soul, which resided in the ideal
world, enriched it with the knowledge but the contact with the matter leads it to remain in a forgetful state. Thisis the theory of Plato
and platonic epistemology.

The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting and cometh from afar

Wordsworth also concentrates on the recollection. Socrates promotes the idea that knowledge is a matter of recollection of the state
before one is born, and not of observation or study.

Not in entire forgetfulness,And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we comeFrom God, who is our home:

The soul is in the forgetful state and it gains the knowledge of ideal world by thinkingand recollecting. Wordsworth sets reminiscence
as the concept of many of his poems. The ethics of Plato promulgates the notion that knowledge is virtue. In the protogorasdialogue it
is argued that virtue is innate and cannot be learned. Knowledge is innatetherefore virtue is innate. Thus the knowledge of senses, the
knowledge of the copiedworld does not keep one pure state.

Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind, And, even with something of a Mother's
mind,And no unworthy aim,
The homely Nurse doth all she can
To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man, Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.

Wordsworth points out the innocent nature of oneself. A person is near to God through innocence and the worldly knowledge gained
by experience separates and moves far away from the Supreme Being. It also makes him to forget the glories in which he had dwelled.

As A.N Whitehead states that the western philosophy is a series of foot notes to Plato. An idea evolves and contradicts and finally
strives for attainment of development. The influence of Greek philosophy could be traced in writings of eighteenth century. The
theory of innatism, pure reason, the pre existence of soul, the innate idea of virtue and the recollection as the means of knowledge
have been well established in the writings of William Wordsworth.