![]() Wordsworth’s near-quietism rises to drama in his verse by its aspirational quality, just as his deathless hope, or hope in deathlessness, finds no secure basis in faith and doctrine until late in the poet’s career. Still, tangible things seen, and recalled, can also be our home if we live alongside them with humility and self-distance, welcoming what is given and craving no more. A collection of 23 poems set in rural England during the late eighteenth century first published anonymously in 1798. “Our destiny, our nature, and our home, / Is with infinitude-and only there / With hope it is, hope that can never die, / Effort, and expectation, and desire, / And something evermore about to be” (6:538-42). While admiring the patriotic magnanimity and modesty of his French acquaintance Michel Beaupuy, Wordsworth also claims that our destiny lies with things unseen and-less conventionally-with an indeterminate, ever-receding future. ![]() What abides on earth is the cardinal virtue related to hope, magnanimity, the greatness of soul that aspires to great things, as well as the countervailing virtue of humility. ![]() ![]() Wordsworth engages with the Christian wisdom of his day, wherein worldly wishes-for glory or wealth, permanence or improvement, adequate sensory pleasure-give way to super-sensual hope in eternity and infinity. The full title of this poem is Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. On this day in 1798, the English Romantic era was launched with the publication of Lyrical Ballads the seminal collection of poems, mainly by William. ![]()
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