The Art of Travel

by

Alain De Botton

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Spots of Time Term Analysis

Poet William Wordsworth’s term for scenes from nature that people can relive in order to help them gain perspective and overcome problems that they face in their daily lives (and particularly issues like frustrations over social status that are specifically tied to life in cities).

Spots of Time Quotes in The Art of Travel

The The Art of Travel quotes below are all either spoken by Spots of Time or refer to Spots of Time. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Familiar and the Foreign Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

What though the radiance which was so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.

Related Characters: William Wordsworth (speaker), Alain de Botton
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in one’s life. There is an urge to say, “I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.”

Related Characters: Alain de Botton (speaker), William Wordsworth, John Ruskin
Page Number: 214
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Art of Travel PDF

Spots of Time Term Timeline in The Art of Travel

The timeline below shows where the term Spots of Time appears in The Art of Travel. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: On the Country and the City
Art, Travel, and the Search for Happiness Theme Icon
The Receptive Self Theme Icon
...people “both a contrast to and relief from present difficulties,” and he called these scenes spots of time . This explains Wordsworth’s “unusually specific” subtitles, which usually name a location and an exact... (full context)
The Receptive Self Theme Icon
De Botton had a “ spot of time ” too, when he and M. ate chocolate bars near Ambleside and he noticed a... (full context)
The Familiar and the Foreign Theme Icon
Art, Travel, and the Search for Happiness Theme Icon
...M. stayed, Wordsworth saw daffodils “dancing in the breeze” and kept them alive as a spot of time , writing: “For oft when on my couch I lie / In vacant or in... (full context)