Remembrance after life
If I should be where I no more can hear
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past existence-wilt thou then forget
We stood together; and that I, no long
A worshipper of Nature, hither came
Unwearied in that service: rather say
With warmer love-oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!
These lines are from the “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On the Banks
of the Wye during a Tour on July 13, 1798,” a poem by William Wordsworth, a poet known
as the poet of remembrance.
He wrote this poem after visiting Tintern Abbey, with his sister, who was very close to him. This
visit made him remember all the feelings he had five years before in that beautiful Abbey, and
brought him to write this poem.
The part that I chose in the poem is the last 13 lines, where Wordsworth tells his sister how
he would like to be remembered, “A worshipper of Nature”. He also explains this as a moment
he wants his sister to remember, how he loved to contemplate nature and how nature filled him,
saying that he wants her to be able to feel the same.
The author leaves us with a question that we have all asked ourselves at some point. How are
you going to remember me after my death?
I think this is a very interesting theme to think about, how are we going to be remembered.
We don’t usually think about this in our daily life and we just live in the moment and let the days
pass without thinking about the consequences or the importance of everything we do. For example,
William Wordsworth didn’t know that his poems were going to be as famous as they are today,
but he wrote them and left a footprint in the world.
If you think about everything you have done, everything you said, and everything you felt. What do you want your footprint to be?
It’s a good exercise to think about all that in your life and reflect about what you are going to do
more and what you are going to do less, because that’s how people will remember you.
You did great on this Arnau! I loved how in depth your explanation is. I would love to have an imprint on the world just as much as anyone else. My goal is for people to see me and know that I strive to live mission-minded and eternally-focused. I'm not always perfect, and I often times mess up, but I want to be known as a girl who strived for something much bigger than herself.
ReplyDeleteI love your analysis of this passage. I hope that people see that I value hard work and dedication in my academics and passions. I hope to inspire other students around me to keep working to get the grade they want and find success in whatever they pursue in life, even if the process is difficult.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you brought up the fact that we often ignore out own mortality, having little thought of the impact it will have after we are gone. This is especially true for me, as I give little thought to my legacy. It is definitely something I should pay more attention to.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great interpretation of these lines. Your main idea is well put together and it leaves the reader with an insightful message. By considering our legacy, we begin to put more thought into our actions, goals, and relationships.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job analyzing these lines in the poem. I loved how you gave a little bit of background information on the poem. Also, I loved the fact that you brought up about how Wordsworth didn't write poems to become famous but to leave an imprint on the world through his writing.
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