In lines composed above tinturn abby longfelow

When describing nature, one must look at the speakers past experiences. The speaker talks about his past experiences of the "deep rivers," "lonely streams," and large "mountains." He rather carefully describes the process of his seeing as it unfolds, like the "landscape to a blind man's eye". He put into words that nature is not firm, rather it is free flowing and unique. It does not go by certain rules but is random and yet …

…subtle, powerful, and fundamental in the light of the setting suns, the ocean, the air itself, and even in the mind of man; this energy seems to him "a motion and a spirit that impels / All thinking thoughts.... / And rolls through all things." For that reason, he says, he still loves nature, still loves mountains and pastures and woods, for they anchor his purest thoughts and guard the heart and soul of his "moral being."