The Rye Annotations
Lines 1-2
FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters!
• The speaker doesn't open with a description of the view or even an explanation of where he is, he starts by telling us how much time has passed since he was last here (and we know from the title that "here" is "a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey," on the "Banks of the Wye"). • And boy does he tell us. He doesn't just say "five years have past," he really emphasizes that five years is a super long time by adding up the seasons. Especially the "five long winters."
Lines 2-4
and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. – Once again
• But now he's there again! So, "once again," the speaker can …show more content…
He sure wants to emphasize the fact that he's seen all this before. • The "hedge-rows," or planted rows of shrubbery, used to mark property lines or the edge of a field, look like "little lines" (15) from his vantage point. • He also describes the hedge-rows as "sportive wood run wild" (16), which seems odd, given that hedges are planted to keep things in order, so that the fields won't "run wild." • The speaker then points out all the farm houses he can see, and then the little "wreaths of smoke" appearing here and there from the woods. • Hm, so it's not just a wild landscape. There are signs of human life here, too. • But no sounds of human life: the smoke goes up "in silence." Apparently the only sounds he can hear from his vantage point come from the "mountain-springs" he describes in line 3. • The farms he describes are "pastoral," which is interesting because the word "pastoral" can refer either to shepherds (so these are probably sheep farms), the countryside where shepherds are likely to live (like the "Banks of the Wye"), or to poetry about shepherds.
Lines 19-22
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless
FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters!
• The speaker doesn't open with a description of the view or even an explanation of where he is, he starts by telling us how much time has passed since he was last here (and we know from the title that "here" is "a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey," on the "Banks of the Wye"). • And boy does he tell us. He doesn't just say "five years have past," he really emphasizes that five years is a super long time by adding up the seasons. Especially the "five long winters."
Lines 2-4
and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. – Once again
• But now he's there again! So, "once again," the speaker can …show more content…
He sure wants to emphasize the fact that he's seen all this before. • The "hedge-rows," or planted rows of shrubbery, used to mark property lines or the edge of a field, look like "little lines" (15) from his vantage point. • He also describes the hedge-rows as "sportive wood run wild" (16), which seems odd, given that hedges are planted to keep things in order, so that the fields won't "run wild." • The speaker then points out all the farm houses he can see, and then the little "wreaths of smoke" appearing here and there from the woods. • Hm, so it's not just a wild landscape. There are signs of human life here, too. • But no sounds of human life: the smoke goes up "in silence." Apparently the only sounds he can hear from his vantage point come from the "mountain-springs" he describes in line 3. • The farms he describes are "pastoral," which is interesting because the word "pastoral" can refer either to shepherds (so these are probably sheep farms), the countryside where shepherds are likely to live (like the "Banks of the Wye"), or to poetry about shepherds.
Lines 19-22
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless