For information about the Cornell Wordsworth series, please visit the series website at http://CornellWordsworth.BookPub.net

In 1798, Coleridge persuaded Wordsworth that it was his destiny to write the first truly philosophical poem, a project Wordsworth dubbed 'The Recluse, or Views of Nature, Man and Society'. It was, as Wordsworth eventually conceived it, to be a poem in three Parts, each of many books. This is the first ever edition of all the poetry intended to form part of the great work. It includes two poems already written in 1798, 'The Old Cumberland Beggar' and 'A Night Piece'; 'Home at Grasmere' (1806), designated 'The Recluse, Part First, Book First'; four other short poems written for 'The Recluse' in 1808 and 1826; and 'The Recluse, Part Second', otherwise known as 'The Excursion' in the text of 1814. (This is the only reading edition of the original text of 'The Excursion'.) The texts included are selected from 'The Poems of William Wordsworth: Collected Reading Texts from the Cornell Wordsworth', edited by Jared Curtis and first published by Humanities-Ebooks in 2009.

This is a collection of William Wordsworth's poetry.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The publishing history of William Wordsworth's writings is complex and often obscure. These two volumes set out, for the first time, a comprehensive, detailed bibliographic description of every edition of Wordsworth's writings up to 1930. The great variety of forms in which readers encountered both authorized and unauthorized texts by Wordsworth is revealed, not only as produced during his lifetime but also during the years of his largest sales, popularity and influence, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The bibliography provides new information about hundreds of printings and their internal and external designs, processes of production, sales, contents and variant texts and illustrations. More than a record of the transmission and reception of Wordsworth and his writings, it offers invaluable new data for the study of British publishing history and the reception and readership of British Romantic literature.

The Cambridge Companion to Wordsworth provides a wide-ranging account of one of the most famous Romantic poets. Specially commissioned essays cover all the important aspects of this multi-faceted writer; the volume examines his poetic achievement with a chapter on poetic craft, other chapters focus on the origin of his poetry and on the challenges it presented and continues to present. The volume ensures that students will be grounded in the history of Wordsworth's career and his critical reception.

This is a collection of William Wordsworth's poetry.

William Wordsworth's creative collaboration with his 'beloved Sister' spanned nearly fifty years, from their first reunion in 1787 until her premature decline in 1835. Rumours of incest have surrounded the siblings since the 19th century, but Lucy Newlyn sees their cohabitation as an expression of deep emotional need, arising from circumstances peculiar to their family history. Born in Cockermouth and parted when Dorothy was six by the death of their mother, the siblings grew up separately and were only reunited four years after their father had died, leaving them destitute. How did their orphaned consciousness shape their understanding of each other? What part did traumatic memories of separation play in their longing for a home? How fully did their re-settlement in the Lake District recompense them for the loss of a shared childhood? Newlyn shows how William and Dorothy's writings — closely intertwined with their regional affiliations — were part of the lifelong work of jointly re-building their family and re-claiming their communal identity. Walking, talking, remembering, and grieving were as important to their companionship as writing; and at every stage of their adult lives they drew nourishment from their immediate surroundings. This is the first book to bring the full range of Dorothy's writings into the foreground alongside her brother's, and to give each sibling the same level of detailed attention. Newlyn explores the symbiotic nature of their creative processes through close reading of journals, letters and poems — sometimes drawing on material that is in manuscript. She uncovers detailed interminglings in their work, approaching these as evidence of their deep affinity. The book offers a spirited rebuttal of the myth that the Romantic writer was a 'solitary genius', and that William Wordsworth was a poet of the 'egotistical sublime' — arguing instead that he was a poet of community, 'carrying everywhere with him relationship and love'. Dorothy is not presented as an undervalued or exploited member of the Wordsworth household, but as the poet's equal in a literary partnership of outstanding importance. Newlyn's book is deeply researched, drawing on a wide range of recent scholarship — not just in Romantic studies, but in psychology, literary theory, anthropology and life-writing. Yet it is a personal book, written with passion by a scholar-poet and intended to be of some practical use and inspirational value to non-specialist readers. Adopting a holistic approach to mental and spiritual health, human relationships, and the environment, Newlyn provides a timely reminder that creativity thrives best in a gift economy.

Charles Taylor delves into the poetry of the Romantics and their heirs, a foundation of his distinctive philosophy of language. Taylor holds that Romantic poetry responded to disenchantment: with old cosmic orders depleted, artists groped to articulate new meanings by bringing connections to life rather than merely reasoning abstractly about life.

In William Wordsworth, John Williams provides a detailed account of Wordsworth's evolution as a poet. This includes his earliest known writing while a pupil at Hawkshead Grammar School, and his later poetry, often virtually ignored by critics. Wordsworth's ambivalent attitude towards seeking out a public readership beyond his immediate circle of friends and admirers is a central concern of the book. This involves an assessment of the poet's shifting sense of his political allegiances alongside the pressures of personal relationships and circumstances.