What Are the Three Stages of Growth that Wordsworth Refers to in “Tintern Abbey”?

Answer

What are the three stages of growth that Wordsworth refers to in “Tintern Abbey”?   

Tintern Abbey (1798) is a testament to Wordsworth’s attitude to Nature, Man, moral vision, and philosophy of life. This poem was written on 13th July 1798 and published in the same year in the volume Lyrical Ballads. In the poem Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth (1770-1850) represents three different stages of thought regarding nature.

Three stages are

• Boyish or animal pleasure of nature
• Physical or sensuous beauty of nature
• Spiritual or intellectual beauty of nature 

Boyish or Animal Pleasure of Nature: In the first stage of Wordsworth’s boyhood, he enjoyed the presence of nature. The first stage in the development of Wordsworth’s attitude to nature was marked by a simple delight in freedom and the open air. Wordsworth found pleasure in roaming about in Nature. Like a deer, he roamed about over the mountains, by the side of the deep rivers, and along the lonely streams. 

He describes his roaming in Nature as glad animal movements. The pleasure he enjoyed in Nature is called an insensitive pleasure. He felt more like one who flees from something he dreads than seeks the thing he loves. He wandered about wherever Nature taught him. He said, 

like a roe

I bounded o’er the mountains, by the sides

Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,

Wherever nature led:

Physical or Sensuous Beauty of Nature: In the second stage, Wordsworth’s relationship and love for Nature were purely physical. Nature now appealed chiefly to sensuous beauty to him. He felt pleasure in watching the colors of Nature, smelling the fragrance of Nature, touching the objects of Nature, and hearing the sweet sounds of Nature. To him, the colors and shapes of mountains and wood attracted him. The fountain haunted his heart with passion. Wordsworth said, 

Haunted me like a passion: the tall rocks,

The mountain and the deep and gloomy wood

Their colors and their forms, were then to me

An appetite

Thus, he loved Nature with an unreflecting or thoughtless passion. He experienced joy and delight in his contact with Nature. It was the outward or external sensuous beauty of Nature that delighted Wordsworth.

Spiritual or Intellectual Beauty of Nature: Wordsworth’s love for Nature ultimately became spiritual and intellectual in the third stage. He had now seen the sufferings of mankind and heard the sad music of humanity. Now, he became thoughtful. Therefore, he was filled with deep thoughts when he looked at Nature. He now found a deep meaning and a hidden significance in Nature. So the poet rightly says,

A motion and spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought

And rolls through all things.

He still appreciated the external beauty of Nature, but it was the inner or hidden significance of Nature that mainly attracted him and moved him into thought. 

Now, he found a divine spirit inside all the objects of Nature. He found that divine spirit in the light of the setting sun, the round ocean, the blue sky, and everything. At this stage, he also developed the educative influence of Nature. He looked upon Nature as the nurse, the guide, the guardian of his heart, and the soul of his moral being. Thus, in the third stage, Wordsworth was a “pantheist” who believed in a spiritual communication between man and Nature. So, Wordsworth advises his sister Dorothy to cultivate friendship with nature because nature never betrays it. Wordsworth remarks,

Nature never did betray

The heart that loved her.

In conclusion, there are many disputes about Wordsworth’s philosophy of nature, but his philosophy of nature and life greatly influences human life. In his Tintern Abbey, the poet explores nature, its philosophy, and spirituality in a way that develops his thought.