Time and Mind in Wordsworth's PoetryWilliam Wordsworth was fascinated by the relationship of the creative mind to the created world, and by the effect of time on both of them. In this important new study, Jeffrey Baker explores the significant ways in which the theme of time is manifested in the imagery and diction of Wordsworth's major poetry. He discusses the poet's preoccupation with "clock" and "natural" time, as well as his escape from time through "deliberate holiday" and in the famous visionary "spots of time." Throughout his analysis, Baker concentrateson the texts which the poet himself approved for publication, asserting that the growing practice of citing poetically inferior versions for biographical or other extra poetic reasons misdirects a reader's attention. Only by reexamining the familiar poems as poems, rather than as philosophical or psychological statements, is it possible to appreciate how Wordsworth's changing concepts of the creator, the poet, and the ambiguities of time function as works of art. The volume includes a selected bibliography and an appendix describing the early Christian shrines alluded to in The Prelude. |
From inside the book
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... believe , demonstrate throughout the superiority of the 1850 version . It is also necessary to defend my use of The Excursion , book 1 , for my discussion of " The Ruined Cottage . " The chief concern of Jonathan Wordsworth's Music of ...
... -And did not wish her mine -and Leonard of The Brothers , and Michael , she exists to show that the Wordsworth of 1797-1800 did not believe in a consolation springing " From sources deeper far than deepest pain Introduction 27.
... believe at the time ; she exists for a host of more complex and more important reasons . Poetry itself does not exist to show what the poet believed or didn't believe ( though it may reflect these matters ) ; it exists to show the ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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