Line by line explanation of the 5th stanza of the poem tintern Abbey
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Answer:
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first
I came among these hills; when like a roe
I bounded o’er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led: more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all.—I cannot paint
The speaker is “dar[ing] to hope” that even though he comes to this placed changed from when he was here last, that everything will still be to him as it once was.
He remembers how when he first visited this landscape and “came among the hills” he was like a “roe” in how he “bounded” over the rises and falls. He crossed “deep rivers” and followed nature wherever it “led” him.
These actions he took were less like those taken by someone enamored by a new love, but more like the wild, desperate decisions of a man escaping from something “he dreads.” When he was here last he knew immediately how important this place was going to be to him and fled into the hills in a futile attempt to completely escape from his own life.
At this time in his life, nature was to him, “all in all.” It was the end all and be all of his life. There was nothing of greater value or importance to the speaker. This is the state of mind he is once more seeking out.