Tuesday 3 March 2009

Postcard 22: Wordsworth at Tintern


Tintern Abbey on the River Wye

Chris Tally Evans has been presenting a four-part BBC Radio programme on the River Wye, called 'My Mile of the River'. This may be what sowed our seed of thought to revisit Tintern Abbey. We left the traffic on the M4 behind us, and drove on through beautiful countryside until we dropped down into the village. Wordsworth (1770-1850) was much on our minds, and his lines were ringing in my ears, as we enjoyed the 'wild green landscape' he described in Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey (13 July 1798). The poem was penned on the poet's second visit to the site. He was in a buoyant frame of mind and was accompanied on this occasion by his beloved sister, Dorothy. Wordsworth's previous visit had not been under such auspicious circumstances. He had travelled alone some five years earlier in the summer of 1793, after the French had declared war on England, shortly after the death of Louis XIV on the guillotine. Wordsworth's daughter, Caroline, had been born to Annette Vallon in 1792: Wordsworth had returned home, leaving his daughter and her mother in France.

A few facts about Tintern

3 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

I love Tintern Abbey. In my middle aged life (!!) I used to visit friends in Brecon from Wolverhampton and we used to pass Tintern Abbey each time, mainly because I used to love it so. Such beautiful countryside and I do so love the poem.

Mistlethrush said...

Your photo captures the height and majesty of the abbey - like it.

Susan Richardson said...

I always love going to Tintern, Caroline. And I've been enjoying the Chris Tally Evans programme too.