First published in 1960, this book studies Wordsworth’s ‘simple’ poems, such as the Lyrical Ballads, as products of a sophisticated and powerfully successful literary genius. The author aims to approach the poems as perhaps Wordsworth expected his first readers to; but as they have never been in fact. The result of this approach is to discover a Wordsworth far different to that which he has previously been presented as — the ‘Sage of Rydal’ at one extreme and a naïve perpetrator of poetical blunders at the other — and, the author argues, a far more exciting one. This book will be of interest to students of literature.

This book provides the essential contexts for an understanding of all aspects of the major English Romantic poet, William Wordsworth.

This Is Perhaps The Most Comprehensive Book On Wordsworth, Having Discussions On Most Of The Different Dimensions Of The Poet As A Critic, A Poetic Theorist, A Great Lover Of Nature, A Humanist, And As A Philosopher. In This Book, Twelve Most Important Poems Of The Poet, His Five Lucy Poems And Also His Six Sonnets Have Been Thoroughly Discussed, And The Texts Of All The 23 Poems Have Been Given. In The Three Appendices, The Texts Of Wordsworth S Three Most Important Literary Essays Preface To Lyrical Ballads (1802), Appendix On Poetic Diction, And Essay Supplementary To The Preface Have Been Given For The Reader S Ready References. The Author Has Shunned All Pedantry Anywhere In The Book, His Primary Objective Being Introduction Of Wordsworth To The Generality Of Readers. References Have Always Been Cited Whenever Quotations From Critics Books Have Been Appropriated.Contents Vol. 1: Preface; Life And Works; Twelve Select Poems Of Wordsworth; The Five Lucy Poems Of Wordsworth; Six Select Sonnets Of Wordsworth; Wordsworth As A Romantic Poet; Wordsworth S Theory Of Poetry; Wordsworth As A Poet Of Nature.Contents Vol. 2: Wordsworth As A Poet Of Humanity; Wordsworth As A Philosophical Poet; Wordsworth S Style; Wordsworth As A Critic; Appreciation And Criticism Of Wordsworth; Residuary Discussions On Wordsworth; Wordsworth And Coleridge; The Prelude; The Excursion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

In his philosophic verse, Woodsworth identifies the history of poetry and geometrical thought as the two chief treasures of the mind and as main sources of his poetic inspiration. He assigns transcendental value to geometry and indicates that he attempts to apply its proportions to the laws of nature. In this book, Professor Johnson demonstrates how Wordsworth also employed geometrical patterns in the metrical construction of his verse and how the character of those patterns can be related to the poet's major philosophical values. Johnson shows how Wordsworth, when writing about the nature and significance of geometrical thought in The Prelude and The Excursion, designs his verse paragraphs in accordance with simple geometrical proportions which are thereby associated with the metaphysical value he attributes to geometry. Wordsworth finds geometrical forms to be hidden in the natural landscape and inherent in the structures of perception itself. This book is the first to make a sustained description of Wordsworth's symbolic patterns and metrical forms in his philosophic verse, with major examples drawn from Tintern Abbey, The Prelude, The Excursion, and the Immortality Ode. Although it presents an approach which differs radically from any in the established criticism of the poet, it is basically at one with the large body of work that concerns the nature of Wordsworth's imagination.

William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, English poet.

From the earliest reviews of his poetry, readers were deeply divided on the merits of William Wordsworth's work. John Williams looks in detail at the major poems and discusses the critical issues that have dominated discussions of Wordsworth's compositions since they first began to appear in print after 1798. Beginning with a fresh assessment of the controversies that developed around Lyrical Ballads, the chapters trace the evolution of both Wordsworth's poetry and his reputation through to his death in 1850. At each stage, Williams investigates the possible reasons why critics and readers responded as they did: enraged by his revolutionary 'Jacobinism' at the turn of the eighteenth century; insulted by the 'simplicity' of the Poems in Two Volumes of 1807; reassured by his commitment to Nature and his reverence for Church and State in the early Victorian period. In the twentieth century, Wordsworth has been subjected to a series of extensive critical reappraisals. With reference to a wide range of the poetry, Williams goes on to discuss the way Wordsworth has been variously reconstructed as a consequence of the main critical and theoretical initiatives of the last one hundred years. He also examines the Wordsworth we have inherited for the twenty-first century: a poet many still feel has important things to say to the contemporary reader about human relationships, nature, the environment, and our imaginative life.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) needs little introduction as the central figure in Romantic poetry and a crucial influence in the development of poetry generally. This broad-ranging survey redefines the variety of his writing by showing how it incorporates contemporary concepts of language difference and the ways in which popular and serious literature were compared and distinguished during this period. It discusses many of Wordsworth's later poems, comparing his work with that of his regional contemporaries as well as major writers such as Scott. The key theme of relationship, both between characters within poems and between poet and reader, is explored through Wordsworth's construction of community and his use of power relationships. A serious discussion of the place of sexual feeling in his writing is also included.

Wordsworth's Bardic Vocation, the most comprehensive critical study of the poet since the 1960s, presents the poet as balladist, sonneteer, minstrel, elegist, prophet of nature, and national bard. The book argues that Wordsworth's uniquely various oeuvre is unified by his sense of bardic vocation. Like Walt Whitman or the bards of Cumbria, Wordsworth sees himself as 'the people's remembrancer'. Like them, he sings of nature and endurance, laments the fallen, fosters national independence and liberty. His task is to reconcile in one society 'the living and the dead' and to nurture both 'the people' and 'the kind'. Review Comment: 'This erudite exposition, profligate with its ideas ... succeeds as few others have done in apprehending Wordsworth's career holistically, incorporating all its diversities and apparent inconsistencies into a unified vision. It justifies fully the notion proposed by Hughes and Heaney that he was England's last national poet.' - Duncan Wu, Review of English Studies

Probably the most famous of the Romantic poets, William Wordsworth worked with and influenced many of the leading poets of the age. This excellent introduction to his life and works sets his writing firmly in the context of his times. John Purkis provides an outline of Wordsworth's life and cultural background and their effect on his work, and examines his verse, from the earliest school poems to the final years.