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Wordsworth composed “Tintern Abbey” in blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter. (Recall that lines of iambic pentameter consist of five iambs, which have one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word “en-joy’d.”) By the nineteenth century, blank verse was firmly established as the meter of choice for English-language poets working on serious subjects. Five-foot lines were considered ideal because they approximated the cadence of natural speech and hence avoided the sing-song quality associated with tetrameter. Christopher Marlowe had been the first to popularize the use of blank verse in English poetry in the late sixteenth century. Shakespeare then masterfully showcased the versatility of the meter in his plays. Later still, John Milton used blank verse for his great epic, Paradise Lost (1667). In choosing blank verse, Wordsworth therefore adopted a metrical form with a renowned historical pedigree. Notably, though, instead of using it to write an epic of his own, he used it for a serene poem in which he reflects calmly on the everyday act of recollection.

The iambic pentameter Wordsworth uses in “Tintern Abbey” is quite regular, though with occasional rhythmic variations that approximate the shifting cadences of natural speech. As an example, consider the poem’s opening eight lines:

     Five years / have past; / five sum- / mers, with / the length
     Of five / long win- / ters! and / a-gain / I hear
     These wat- / ers, roll- / ing from / their moun- / tain-springs
     With a / soft in- / land mur- / mur.—Once / a-gain
     Do I / be-hold / these steep / and lof- / ty cliffs,
     That on / a wild / se-clud- / ed scene / im-press
     Thoughts of / more deep / se-clu- / sion; and / conn-ect
     The land- / scape with / the qui- / et of / the sky.

The poem’s opening lines are characterized by an overall iambic rhythm, though the first two lines have several substitutions that add emphasis and textural interest to the language. Admittedly, if we wanted to force the matter, we readers could indeed interpret the first two lines as strict iambic pentameter:

     Five years / have past; / five sum- / mers, with / the length
     Of five / long win- / ters! and / a-gain / I hear

But in forcing iambic rhythm, we would fail to register the subtle emphasis these lines place on the passage of time, as revealed by a slightly different interpretation of the stress pattern:

     Five years / have past; / five sum- / mers, with / the length
     Of five / long win- / ters! and / a-gain / I hear

This alternative scansion departs from regular iambic rhythm, for it includes three spondees (stressed–stressed) and two pyrrhics (unstressed–unstressed). However, this interpretation is arguably more appropriate for the way it gives stress to all three appearances of the word “five” and to both “length” and “long.” The speaker marvels, in these opening lines, on the passage of time, and the use of spondees and pyrrhics powerfully underscores his sense of wonder. Following these lines, the speaker settles into more regular iambic rhythm, varied only by the trochee (stressed–unstressed) at the start of the penultimate line: “Thoughts of.” Similar variations appear throughout the poet, modulating the speaker’s voice in subtle yet effective ways.

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