Show how Wordsworth's relation to Nature matures through stages in "Tintern Abbey."

The poem itself neatly divides Wordsworth's relationship
with and understanding of nature into two neat stages. When Wordsworth first came and
contemplated the view that is before him now, he says that his appreciation and
understanding of nature was very different. Note how he describes his reaction to the
view in his youth:

readability="17">

...when like a
roe

I bounded o'er the mountains, by the
sides

Of the deep rivers, and the lonely
streams,

Wherever nature led: more like a
man

Flying from something that he dreads, than
one

Who sought the thing he
loved.

Wordsworth's youthful
reaction to nature was all about movement and energy, not quiet contemplation. As he
says, it was about emotion and passion. Nature was to him "an appetite." Now, however,
he has matured and changed. The "aching joys" of nature have passed, but this is not
something that makes Wordsworth sad, because the way that he contemplates nature now
reflects his maturity and wisdom:

readability="15">

For I have
learned

To look on nature, not as in the
hour

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing
oftentimes

The still, sad music of
humanity,

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample
power

To chasten and
subdue.

Now, when he
contemplates nature, the speaker feels "a sense sublime" and is filled with the joy of
"elevated thoughts." Nature now is about far more lofty thoughts and ideas than the
passionate appreciation he had of it in his youth. Now, in his maturity, contemplating
nature allows him to listen to the "still, sad music of humanity" which has the power to
"chasten and subdue" us if we have ears to hear it.