Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Pierce, Catherine

Committee Member

Kardos, Michael

Committee Member

Hagenston, Becky

Date of Degree

4-30-2021

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 2 years

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of English

Department

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Abstract

In Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" and Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight", internal restoration becomes achievable via the natural settings. In both poems, the narrators move through a three-step process to achieve this internal restoration: First, they begin with the act of acknowledging, like a mental note taking where the narrator lists and absorbs the various elements of the scene. Next, those elements are converted to memories where the narrator can tap into the preserved moments of pleasure while trapped in the city. Finally, the narrator shares their place of natural comfort with someone else to expand this preservation within a shared experience. Each of these three aspects allows for the mental preservation of a natural place to occur and bring about future moments of internal restoration. This critical introduction will be followed by an original collection of poems that is also in its own way dealing with the restorative powers of nature.

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