Summary

“Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” begins with the speaker looking back on a visit they made to the Tintern Abbey area five years previously. They rejoice now that they are once again able to “hear/These waters … behold these steep and lofty cliffs” and “see/These hedge-rows … these pastoral farms” (2-3, 5, 14-16). As they return to this landscape once again, they find the fruits of the trees unripened, and see “wreaths of smoke” rising above the trees, imagining them emanating from a hermit’s cave (17).

The speaker says that though it has been years since they have seen “these beauteous forms,” they have still held the vision of this place in their memories (24). “In hours of weariness,” these memories give them “sensations sweet” and “feelings too/Of unremembered pleasure” (28, 31-32). They also attribute to...