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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... objects that endure . " And yet we are not really much further forward . For what are " objects that endure " ? The Hambleton Hills , for example ? These endure longer than the clouds , certainly , and longer than the Wordsworths too ...
... Objects , and of those Objects to it , and of both to the well - being of the Humane or Rational Nature . " 14 And Wordsworth plainly echoes Hale . How exquisitely the individual Mind ... to the external World Is fitted : -and how ...
... object , wore Its customary look , -only , it seemed , The honeysuckle , crowding round the porch , Hung down in heavier tufts ; and that bright weed , The yellow stone - crop , suffered to take root Along the window's edge , profusely ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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