1. What is Wordsworth’s attitude toward nature? Does it undergo a significant change in the course of The Prelude? If so, how? (Books 1, 2, 8, 12, 13) 2. What was Wordsworth’s feeling for history in general? What was his attitude toward the French Revolution? Does it undergo a change […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Wordsworth’s Poetic Theory — Preface””
By way of understanding and appraisal, it must first be asked what Wordsworth set out to do and then to what degree he succeeded. It has been remarked that he was one of the giants; almost single-handedly he revivified English poetry from its threatened death from emotional starvation. What Burns, […]
Read more Critical Essays Wordsworth’s Poetic Theory — Preface””Critical Essays Wordsworth’s Literary History
Even the very earliest of Wordsworth’s poetic efforts were addressed to his “dear native regions.” They remained a lifelong source of inspiration for him even though, in his later years, he tended to forsake nature as a direct source for subject matter. Perhaps his favorite pursuit at Cambridge was the […]
Read more Critical Essays Wordsworth’s Literary HistoryCritical Essays Analysis of The Prelude
“The Prelude is the greatest long poem in our language after Paradise Lost,” says one critic. Its comparison with the great seventeenth-century epic is in some respects a happy one since Milton was (after Coleridge) Wordsworth’s greatest idol. The Prelude may be classed somewhat loosely as an epic; it does […]
Read more Critical Essays Analysis of The PreludeWilliam Wordsworth Biography
William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, a small quiet market town in northwest England, on the edge of the Lake District. Thus from the very beginning he was associated with that region which he loved more than any other, and except for brief sojourns in […]
Read more William Wordsworth BiographySummary and Analysis Book 14: Conclusion
Summary The poet recalls one of his walking trips in northern Wales. He and his friend rose early, intending to see the sunrise from Mount Snowdon, the highest point in Wales. They proceed to the base of the mountain and wake the shepherd who is to be their guide. After […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 14: ConclusionSummary and Analysis Book 13: Imagination and Taste, How Impaired and Restored (Concluded)
Summary As he continues his theory of the development of poetic genius, Wordsworth turns to one of his favorite themes: emotion recollected in tranquility. He says the strength of nature lies in the fact that it can deliver moods of emotional excitement as well as of tranquility. Both are essential […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 13: Imagination and Taste, How Impaired and Restored (Concluded)Summary and Analysis Book 12: Imagination and Taste, How Impaired and Restored
Summary Wordsworth says he has spent too long a time contemplating human ignorance and guilt. The poem began on a more lofty note, and it must end thus. In a gush of emotion, he praises the breezes, the brooks, and the groves for healing his spirit: Oh! that I had […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 12: Imagination and Taste, How Impaired and RestoredSummary and Analysis Book 11: France (Concluded)
Summary Much of this book deals with political science, and it shows the change which is beginning to take place in Wordsworth’s political philosophy. In particular, it features the poet’s account of his struggle to find a middle road between the sanguine radicalism of the revolutionary movement in France and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 11: France (Concluded)Summary and Analysis Book 10: Residence in France (Continued)
Summary On a captivating day, the poet pauses and surveys the Loire countryside in anticipation of returning to Paris. During his absence from the capital, King Louis XVI has been dethroned and the republic pro-claimed; the first coalition of foreign powers against France, at first aggressors, have been routed and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 10: Residence in France (Continued)