For five years Wordsworth travels about and writing his ballads and for five years he has not seen the very spot in which he stands. “Tintern Abbey” is about returning to a town after a five year exclusion into nature and the collision of past and present thoughts.
Yes – the number five represents the actual years Wordsworth has been gone. But as I have learned there is always a deeper more “wild” meaning to the words that Wordsworth puts to the page. The number five symbolizes human life, and for Wordsworth his life has been drastically altered by his experiences in the past 5 years. He understands the difference between escaping what he dreads and following what he loves. This ballad is a type of autobiography of his life in a mere 160 sixty lines.
As Wordsworth is looking down onto the town there seems to be a picturesque balance between the babbling stream, cottages, grand old cypress and pastoral farms. In the town there is balance between the natural world and society, and he seems to be greatly satisfied with his place in the midst of it all.
The harmonious balance reminded me of another symbolism of five in the Wheel of Being used in both Celtic and Druid societies. It represents the four powers or elements united by a fifth... balance in all.
The symbolism of five only strengthens Wordsworth’s ballad and I believe it was no mere accident.
Yes – the number five represents the actual years Wordsworth has been gone. But as I have learned there is always a deeper more “wild” meaning to the words that Wordsworth puts to the page. The number five symbolizes human life, and for Wordsworth his life has been drastically altered by his experiences in the past 5 years. He understands the difference between escaping what he dreads and following what he loves. This ballad is a type of autobiography of his life in a mere 160 sixty lines.
As Wordsworth is looking down onto the town there seems to be a picturesque balance between the babbling stream, cottages, grand old cypress and pastoral farms. In the town there is balance between the natural world and society, and he seems to be greatly satisfied with his place in the midst of it all.
The harmonious balance reminded me of another symbolism of five in the Wheel of Being used in both Celtic and Druid societies. It represents the four powers or elements united by a fifth... balance in all.
The symbolism of five only strengthens Wordsworth’s ballad and I believe it was no mere accident.
The five fold pattern of the Wheel of Being with the middle representing balance!
Nice use of the image to represent your reading of the symbolism in specific cultural terms.
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