Julie's Essay

Julie Philippe
Mr. Hamilton Salsich
English 9
26 May 2009

Tranquility:
An Essay Based on William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”

As children, we play, we discover, we observe, we learn, but most importantly, we change (Parallelism). For Williams Wordsworth, a simple passion for nature, the tranquility of a mountainous landscape, and the attachement to the abandoned church he never forgot, changed the way he looked at life. For me, an unexceptional, yet tranquil classroom has helped me mature. Whatever changes we may go through, whether it is in “the deep and gloomy wood[s]” or a placid English classroom, a place never changes, it just waits.

TS In William Wordsworth “Tintern Abbey”, Wordsworth speaks of the peace and the tranquility that this church still holds after “five years have past”. SD The beauty of the “secluded scene” is nothing but relaxing to the mind of Wordsworth, as he looks around to appreciate the “soft inland murmur” and the “quiet of the sky”. CM Perhaps it is with the soft voices of nature that he is able to feel passion for this ruined, desolate (FAST) church. CM It is with simple love for “quietness and beauty” that he is able to reflect on his past through the church’s abandoned walls. SD After “five summers, with the length of five long winters”, Wordsworth was not the little boy running through the woods picking flowers anymore, he had become a grown man. CM Though he changed, the place where the “dark sycamore” laid stayed the same, surrounded by the same mountains and embellished by the same silence “from among the trees” and enclosed in the same sweet smell of the “orchard tufts” (Polysyndeton). CM Perhaps, Wordsworth found himself in the peacefulness and calmness of the woods, it is what shaped him. CS It is with the peacefulness of the “deep rivers” that he was able to finally hear “the beatings of [his] heart”.

SD In five years, I want to come back to Pine Point and sit in the brown plastic chair in Mr. Salsich’s English Class. SD The English classroom is not just an ordinary classroom filled with posters and silly pictures of the day, but rather a vast cloud of peace, filled with “pleasing thoughts” and limitless “harmonies”. CM It is in this classroom, that one is able to express themselves through the “motions and spirits” of reading and writing. CM Similarly to “the light of setting suns”, English class gives life to all pensive (FAST) minds. SD Perhaps, the first day we walked into the English class, we were still little boys and girls wanting to dance around all day long, but in this classroom, we have grown. CM We have changed, however, the classroom stayed the same, filled with the same calmness that we are now able to appreciate and the same silence that took us on our blossoming journey. CM Perhaps, this classroom has become “the anchor of [our] purest thought[s], the nurse, the guide, the guardian of [our] hearts, and soul” of a tranquil piece of our day.

We should not judge a church by its ruins or a person by their flaws or a room by its appearance. The tranquility of what once seemed like a dull looking English classroom, permitted our ideas to flow like the water “rolling from [the] mountain-springs” of Tintern Abbey. Perhaps, when we let go of a special place, we are able to better appreciate it. The memories are “more dear” to our hearts.