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
Results 1-3 of 20
... vision , whether accompanied by deep tranquility , as in the skating episode , or by supernatural terror , as in the incident at Cowdrake Quarry , all contribute to that " calm existence that is mine when I / Am worthy of myself ...
... vision in lines 66-67 as " the type / Of a majestic intellect . " ) Neither author represents his exalted moment as a conversion experience . For both of them it seems to be a matter of added conviction , of a deeper understanding of ...
... vision is a mind like that of a human artist , an intellect like that of the most majestic human intellect . But what is the " it " that ap- pears to be the type of such an intellect ? The immediate answer " the whole spectacle " -may ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown