Wordsworth's Historical Imagination (Routledge Revivals): The Poetry of DisplacementTraditionally, Wordsworth’s greatness is founded on his identity as the poet of nature and solitude. The Wordsworthian imagination is seen as an essentially private faculty, its very existence premised on the absence of other people. In this title, first published in 1987, David Simpson challenges this established view of Wordsworth, arguing that it fails to recognize and explain the importance of the context of the public sphere and the social environment to the authentic experience of the imagination. Wordsworth’s preoccupation with the metaphors of property and labour shows him to be acutely anxious about the value of his art in a world that he regarded as corrupted. Through close examination of a few important poems, both well-known and relatively unknown, Simpson shows that there is no unitary, public Wordsworth, nor is there a conflict or tension between the private and the public. The absence of any clear kind of authority in the voice that speaks the poems makes Wordsworth’s poetry, in Simpson’s phrase, a ‘poetry of displacement’. |
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... Excursion Talking through the rural life Education and religion 'A species of ventriloquism' Postscript: 'The star of eve was wanting' Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgements This study was carried out during an idyllic year.
... Excursion needs no apology, though it will surely sink the spirits of many readers. It is the longest published poem of Wordsworth's lifetime, and it was written at an important 'transitional' stage in his career. It was intended as a ...
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Contents
the case against urban life | |
Another guide to the lakes | |
In single or in social eminence? The political economy of The Prelude | |
The world of all of | |
Michael and Simon Lee | |
the politics of sympathy | |
The Excursion | |
The star of eve was wanting | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
Wordsworth's Historical Imagination (Routledge Revivals): The Poetry of ... David Simpson Limited preview - 2014 |
Wordsworth's Historical Imagination (Routledge Revivals): The Poetry of ... David Simpson No preview available - 2016 |
Wordsworth's Historical Imagination (Routledge Revivals): The Poetry of ... David Simpson No preview available - 2014 |