Tintern Abbey

Commentary
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       The Poem

1. Crisis: Wordsworth returns to visit Tintern Abbey -- he has been there five years ago as well. During that five years, Wordsworth fell into a deep pit of depression while in France, experiencing the Reign of Terror. He describes his despair in Book 10/11 of The Prelude. So many intellectuals had expected the French Revolution to inaugurate the Millennium, a thousand years of peace. The Terror dashed their hopes.

      

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