Deist Pantheism in Tintern Abbey :: William Wordsworth Poetry

Tintern Abbey typifies William Wordsworths desire to demonstrate what he sees as the oneness of the human psyche with that of the universal sound judgement of the cosmos. It is his pantheistic attempt to unfurl the essence of natures sublime mystery that often evades understanding, marking his progression as a young writer firmly grow within the revolutionary tradition to one caught in perplexity about which way to proceed socially and morally, and further, to define for himself a new personal socio-political vision. Moreover, Tintern Abbey exhibits Wordsworths eclipsing of the Cartesian belief in a supernatural creator who stands beyond the universe, echoing the ideas of Burach Spinoza, and redefining late eighteenth century deism into a more personal, pantheist change of nature. The poems portrayal of the intimate connection with nature implicitly underscores Wordsworths view on conventional religious belief as one surpassing commonly held interpretations of the supernatural. It conveys Wordsworths exaltation of the universe as bound inextricably within the essence of all that is harmonious and natural -- a Oneness. It sympathetically depicts the inseparability of God from nature, the material-spirit of energy that, as Wordsworth portrays it, imbues the brio force with . . . a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. (96-103) In terms of Tintern Abbeys naturalistic exposure of natures interconnection with the universe and humanity, the poem reveals Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Thelwalls implicit influence upon Wordsworths development as both a writer and naturalist poet. Similar to Wordsworth, for instance, John Thelwall illuminates the radical spur of the human frame a nd other life forms in his scientific prose, such as found in his celebrated medical essay, Towards A explanation of Animal Vitality (1793). Thelwalls cosmic-monism fuses the workings of the human body to the movements of heaven and earth -- a holistic interconnection of the organic to the inorganic. His connection to Wordsworth through Coleridge serves to partially exempt the inherent pantheistic vision in Tintern Abbeys 1798 composition.