1985
First Published
3.78
Average Rating
80
Number of Pages
This volume is an excellent introduction to Wordsworth's poetry. His great autobiographical poem The Prelude runs to thirteen books in the text of 1805. But by 1799 the poet had already written a version covering his childhood and adolescence in under a thousand lines. This complete, self-contained work includes most of the beautiful poetry that has made the longer Prelude famous. The text of this two-part Prelude has been in print since 1973 but has not until now been readily available. It is prefaced by two poems that form a natural introduction: The Pedlar, the poet's first autobiographical work, and Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth's much more widely known meditation upon the continuing influence of nature in his life. This volume constitutes the first unified approach, at student level, to Wordsworth's mystic response to nature and the processes of growing up. Jonathan Wordsworth, the poet's great-great-great nephew, has written a full critical introduction to the selection. Notes at the foot of each page include glosses of difficult words, background material and useful comparisons with Wordsworth's own poetry, and that of S. T. Coleridge.
Avg Rating
3.78
Number of Ratings
85
5 STARS
24%
4 STARS
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3 STARS
25%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
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goodreads
Author
William Wordsworth
Author · 63 books
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years, which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously titled and published, prior to which, it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.
