Role of memory in Wordsworth's poetry

Wordsworth's poems breathe on memory. He is one of the most important writers of the Romantic age. The writers in this age focused on the idea of humanity fusing in harmony with nature. When the French Revolution failed, it was like a pall of gloom on the ardent supporters of the Revolution. Wordsworth being one of them. He saw the revolution as something that would redeem mankind so when it turned to dust, it impacted him both mentally and spiritually. Further, the Industrial revolution completely changed the traditional relationships existing within the society. The cities became crowded, they stinked, they smoked, poverty revelled. Even next door neighbours became complete strangers and for Wordsworth who has lived in a warm enclosed community, it came as a shock. Wordsworth's famous poem "Tintern Abbey '' was written on a real place called "Tintern Abbey '' which saw setting up of iron industries in large numbers and the river "Wye" mentioned in the poem became thick with traffic of these industries. There are only poors, gypsies, wounded soldiers, factories, canals. The essence of life is lost. These changes led writers like Wordsworth to reminisce back their past lost "Glory". City is surely evil now and the countryside beautiful & picturesque. Someone has to mend it. All has to begin fresh, something new & original whether good or bad.   This is the very idea Wordsworth acknowledged in "Ode: Intimations of Immortality". Although he transitions away from radical ideas of his youth in his poems. He says that, he sees the sun, the moon, the rose like before but still feels that something is missing, something is lost. It is their "glory". His poems focuses on human feelings, time & the inevitable change from the lost childhood perception to that of the adult reasoning. "Childhood" is the favourite metaphor of Wordsworth. His recollections, his memory, his lost imagery all assimilates into this metaphor and poetry is certainly the medium. In the "Preface to Lyrical Ballads", he says, "Poetry is the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings. It takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility." He moulds his memory in a spiritual and philosophical way and fuse them all in his poetry. This makes him depict in his poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality", childhood as something naturally immortal. His memory takes him back to his childhood days and he feels sad & weakened because of its loss but he fuses this memory with nature. Nature he said, never betrayed his heart. Nature only provides him joy.  The chirping of birds and other sounds within nature cast away this grief of loss. Nature is like a mother & nurse to him. That brings optimism to the poem. He says that, childhood soulfulness may have faded but that is no reason to grieve. Strength can be found in nature. To invoke more on memory, he compares the blissful childhood visionary gleam with thoughtful adult inability to dream. By doing so, he, in no way, completely disregarded adulthood. He calls the transition from childhood to adulthood a spiritual journey that makes his heart heave whenever he is melancholy. This spirituality is his gain. It developed his personality, his poetic mind. He feels the sublime sense now. In the poem, he concludes this by writing that even an insignificant flower can inspire a mind & this creative mind can always find a way out. He wants to tell us that healing can only come from suffering. That is the true essence of life. "Tintern Abbey" too is such a spiritual autobiography of the poet. Though memory in it is evoked with a more subjective experience of the poet himself & traces the growth of his mind through different period of his life. To keep himself going, he compensates for the memory that is lost in nature again. He realizes that God is in nature. He gains a kind of sensuous delight in nature. He tells that in his times of weariness, the memories of the cataracts, the cliffs, the smoke coming out of the cave hermitages gives him sweet sensations. He feels them in his heart rather than in his waking consciousness & reasoning. He tells that in his past, the surroundings haunted him like a passion. Wood used to be an appetite. Now, he finds the sad music of humanity in nature. Nature fills his mind with lofty thoughts that no evil tongue could corrupt. 

Wordsworth's poems by making use of memory promotes universal brotherhood. The abstract ideas develop a kind of consciousness of perfect being. It provides us with a hope of rescue. The transition from a boy to a growing youth to a man describes the influence of passage of time. It also tells us how we respond to the changes in our surroundings. We might look at our past with a sigh due to what we have lost with time but Wordsworth taught us never to be depressed. If we keep on doing this then we would lose what we are experiencing now. This would bring us a more heavy loss in the future when this would be what we would call our past. We should take life as it is. Life is about experiences. We can even celebrate our death if we look at what we have gained. Real immortality comes from there. He might have endorsed Plato's ideas of soul existing beyond death & before life as an intelligible entity continually reborn in his poem but he doesn't believe so. He instead says that our experiences are what is true immortality. Immortality is not a notion that is of the other world but we should believe that what actions we do in sync with nature is what makes us naturally uncorrupted and that's immortality. This is the universality of life which is manifested in the physical forms existing around us. We just need to have an untainted heart to feel it. If you would be able to do so, then nature would embrace you and you would again be the same child who possesses prophetic qualities and is the true image of God.