Five years have past; five summers, with the length/Of five long winters!”
-- The Speaker (1-2)

Importance: These opening lines are important because they establish the fact that this is a setting that the speaker is returning to after having visited it previously. This signals to the reader that the river has some sort of emotional significance to the speaker if they have chosen to return to it. It also sets up the juxtaposition of the present day speaker and their past self that they explore later on in the poem.

These beauteous forms,/Through a long absence, have not been to me/As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye.”
-- The Speaker (23-25)

Importance: These lines are significant because they more explicitly communicate the connection the speaker feels to the river. It was not simply a trip they took and promptly forgot about, but rather a trip they took and remembered fondly throughout the several...