Wordsworth's Memories by Derek Furr
In the following essay, the writer analyzes William Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.” As you read the essay, write down answers to the numbered analysis questions that accompany it. You can find the poem beginning on page 552 of your Holt Literature and Language Arts textbook.
from Poetry for Students
Memory: William Wordsworth and “Tintern Abbey” by Derek Furr
I
magine yourself five years from now. You’ve 1. How does the writer received an invitation to your high school reunion attempt to engage and, feeling a little anxious and nostalgic, you arrive audience interest? Who early to walk around your old stomping grounds. You do you think his wander into the empty gym, where you played your intended audience is? first varsity ball game; you sit in the back of your old chemistry class, staring at the board that once held puzzling equations; you stroll through a courtyard where you held the hand of someone you thought you couldn’t live without. Slowly you recollect how you felt as a teenager, how you saw the world around you—who was important, what made a difference. Doubtless you’ll carry both fond and troubling memories of high school, and when you return, both will re-surface at the sites where they originated. But when five years have passed, the emotions of your teen years may prove difficult to recover. Revisiting your past, you may be surprised not so much by
From “Tintern Abbey” by Derek Furr from Poetry for Students, edited by Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary K. Ruby. Copyright © 1997 by The Gale Group. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
1 Copyright© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
the changes in your old school—the gym will be in the same spot, the cafeteria will serve the same mysterious foods. Rather, as you recall your former self, walking through that courtyard, holding that hand, you may be struck—with melancholy and wonder—by how much you have changed. William Wordsworth returned to
from Poetry for Students
Memory: William Wordsworth and “Tintern Abbey” by Derek Furr
I
magine yourself five years from now. You’ve 1. How does the writer received an invitation to your high school reunion attempt to engage and, feeling a little anxious and nostalgic, you arrive audience interest? Who early to walk around your old stomping grounds. You do you think his wander into the empty gym, where you played your intended audience is? first varsity ball game; you sit in the back of your old chemistry class, staring at the board that once held puzzling equations; you stroll through a courtyard where you held the hand of someone you thought you couldn’t live without. Slowly you recollect how you felt as a teenager, how you saw the world around you—who was important, what made a difference. Doubtless you’ll carry both fond and troubling memories of high school, and when you return, both will re-surface at the sites where they originated. But when five years have passed, the emotions of your teen years may prove difficult to recover. Revisiting your past, you may be surprised not so much by
From “Tintern Abbey” by Derek Furr from Poetry for Students, edited by Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary K. Ruby. Copyright © 1997 by The Gale Group. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
1 Copyright© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
the changes in your old school—the gym will be in the same spot, the cafeteria will serve the same mysterious foods. Rather, as you recall your former self, walking through that courtyard, holding that hand, you may be struck—with melancholy and wonder—by how much you have changed. William Wordsworth returned to