Wordsworth S Poetry 1815 1845

The later poetry of William Wordsworth, popular in his lifetime and influential on the Victorians, has, with a few exceptions, received little attention from contemporary literary critics. In Wordsworth's Poetry, 1815-1845, Tim Fulford argues that the later work reveals a mature poet far more varied and surprising than is often acknowledged. Examining the most characteristic poems in their historical contexts, he shows Wordsworth probing the experiences and perspectives of later life and innovating formally and stylistically. He demonstrates how Wordsworth modified his writing in light of conversations with younger poets and learned to acknowledge his debt to women in ways he could not as a young man. The older Wordsworth emerges in Fulford's depiction as a love poet of companionate tenderness rather than passionate lament. He also appears as a political poet—bitter at capitalist exploitation and at a society in which vanity is rewarded while poverty is blamed. Most notably, he stands out as a history poet more probing and more clear-sighted than any of his time in his understanding of the responsibilities and temptations of all who try to memorialize the past.

First published in London in 1888, this is the complete works of one of the great poets of English Romanticism in ten charming, compact volumes. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850), Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death, limned some of the finest verse in the English language, tender poetry on human love and the natural world-some of his most memorable lines describe England's beautiful Lake District, where he spent much of his life, as filtered through his sensitive and serious heart. Beloved of readers for centuries, Wordsworth's timeless verse is a treasure to enjoy for the nourishment of one's own soul, and to share with other lovers of language.

Many editions of William Wordsworth's mature work are available but general readers have never before had access to the poetry he wrote during his school and university years. This selection from the poetry he composed between 1785 and 1790 reveals him to have been remarkably accomplished from an early age and shows that from the time he began to write he was already preoccupied with precisely the themes that would later be explored more fully in The Prelude, the great poem of his maturity. The Earliest Poems offers a unique opportunity to examine something normally withheld from our gaze: the apprenticeship of a great writer. Duncan Wu's introduction and his comprehensive notes guide the reader through versions of Wordsworth's work to show how he graduated from the early experimentation of pieces such as 'Beauty and Moonlight' to An Evening Walk, an impressive poem of over 600 lines which was published in 1793. This book spans the first five years of Wordsworth's career, revealing how the traumas of his early life forged his vision and produced the sensibility that would make him a most gifted celebrant of the human spirit. In effect, they also chronicle the evolution of British Romanticism out of the aesthetic morass of the late eighteenth century. Book jacket.

A rich, illuminating study of how Wordsworth's late poetry reflects his lifelong engagement with the poetics and politics of peace.

Comprehensive reading of 'late' Wordsworth, considering his work in dialogue with the poetic, cultural and political battles of his day.