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Essay / Analysis of Tintern Abbey and the Frost at Midnight - 1486
For Wordsworth in “Tintern Abbey” this means wanting his sister to have the same experiences he had with nature. Coming out of his introspective state, Wordsworth suddenly focuses on his sister: “My dear, dear sister! and I pray this prayer / Knowing that nature has never betrayed…” (NAEL, D, 291, ll.121-22). Wordsworth draws on his past experience with nature that “never betrayed” and wishes his sister to do the same. Given his certainty about the goodness of nature, Wordsworth asks his sister to remember him and their shared experiences at Tintern Abbey: "Let the moon / Shine on you in your solitary walk... If loneliness, or fear, or pain, or sorrow / Should be your portion, with what healing thoughts / With tender joy will you remember me…” (NAEL, D, 291, ll.134-145). Even when Wordsworth is no longer around, he wants his sister to experience nature and remember him through her. By projecting his understanding of the world onto his sister, Wordsworth passes on his knowledge of the goodness of nature in the hope that she will care for it.