Timmy's Last Essay

Timmy O’Brien

Mr. Salsich

English 9

26 May 2009

Remembering is Everything:

An Essay on a Poem and My Experiences

Many things can happen in five years. People can die, or move, or get married, or even give new life [polysyndeton]. After five years, Wordsworth has decided to revisit an old Abbey in England with an old friend of his – his sister. I wonder what can happen to a place I love, such as Pine Point, in the short yet unpredictable time of five years.

In the poem “Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth, I see one main theme of remembrance. Wordsworth has come back to visit Tintern Abbey and says that “again [he] hear[s] th[o]se waters.” He remembers everything from five years ago. “The waters…th[o]se steep and lofty cliffs…the landscape…[and a] dark sycamore” are all familiar to him because of his memories. Also, as he sits with his sister along the river, he remembers his old life. “In [her] voice” he hears “the language of [his] former heart, and…former pleasures.” A simple trip into the woods with a dear, old friend helps to bring back not just former memories but even his whole life of childishness. Wordsworth is captivated by not just the beauty of the abbey but is also mystified by its power to bring back what had been lost to him – the thoughts of his old life [appositive].

If I came back to Pine Point in five years, I would hope to see the exact same hustle and bustle of daily life that I can see today. As my days wear on, I will remember Pine Point as a place that is always full of life. Even on the weekends, there are birds to be seen and heard, grass that is as green as ever, and, more often than not, people on the campus striving [FAST] to make the school a better place. People and things that are caught up in “its dizzy raptures” and “aching joys” that can’t help but be happy in the glorious place that is Pine Point. In addition to the desire to see life, I would wish joy upon the place that has given me so much joy. Wordsworth writes that he sometimes turns to Tintern abbey in “joyless daylight,” and I hope that, if for some reason I have lost my joy, I can turn to Pine Point and regain at least some of what I have lost. Pine Point has given me much of what I have, and I can only hope that I do not lose any of it. My only solace [FAST] is that I might be able to achieve “abundant recompence” and gain back the joy that I have lost.

Visiting memories of past places and people is a necessary part of life. It can be a church you once gazed at with awe, or a place that has helped you grow up into the person you are now. Either way, you must reflect on what you would be had they not impacted you. After all, what are you without your memories and past experiences, a simple soulless body with no evident purpose?