Thoughts about Tintern Abbey

A brief moment out of the darkness is so nice. The positive purity of Wordsworth's poem "Tintern Abbey" is like a cleansing drink of holy water rather than the burning awareness of dark epiphanies. After reading the poem a couple of times and reading some notes about it, I feel that "Tintern Abbey" is a concentrated focus on the innocence of youth and the beauty that is still linked to nature after the loss of innocence that comes with age. When I first started reading this poem a part of Eliot's quartets popped into my head that goes, "We had the experience but missed the meaning, and approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form, beyond any meaning we can assign to happiness". I feel that this part of Eliot's poem is perfect for what Wordsworth was doing when he created "Tintern Abbey". A memory that shows both similarities as well as changes in one's character. In the beginning Wordsworth is telling us what he sees with his "old eyes"...

Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

In his youth these cliffs could have symbolized something very different than seclusion. And using the words secluded scenes really relates to the feeling that people have as soon as they realize just how big the world is, and how insignificant they are. In this case though, I would stress that this feeling in relation to the cliffs is reflecting on the peace that comes with seclusion. Furthermore, he later writes exactly how nature possesses us and "with an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things". Joy is referred to earlier on as a "sublime" and "blessed mood" which turns into a kind of nirvana, which we now know comes hand-in-hand with epiphanies.
Wordsworth then combines the notions of time into one moment of reflection, pleasurable presence, and hopeful a hopeful future saying,

"While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years...That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures".

This moment leads into a grand epiphany that could come only through personal experience (take that Eliot!) which emphasizes the loss of innocence and the gaining of knowledge.

"For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused"

It doesn't get much more epiphanic than that.