Change: Loss and Gain /// Emily Thullesen

Change is undoubtedly one of the scariest and most uncomfortable, emotionally challenging aspects of life. Wordsworth goes into great detail in his poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” of how revisiting a specific place brings back memories of the past and reveals what one has truly lost and gained in the time passing. In the way Wordsworth relates the character’s memories back to the nature surrounding him, he suggests that change is an inevitable part of life in which individuals experience pain and growth without losing sight of the past. 

Wordsworth uses lines such as, “That time is past, and all its aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures,” to describe how the speaker reflects on his youth. In one of the most meaningful lines of the poem, the speaker directly addresses both the positive and negative affects of change in that, “…nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts have followed; for such loss, I would believe, abundant recompense.” Wordsworth reveals an incredible theme of how change brings both benefits and sorrows in one’s life. Although the speaker reflects on what was lost, he chooses to see the goodness that he had also reaped from the naturally changing course of life. 

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