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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... cloud - capped towers and solemn palaces that will fade , the insubstantial pageant will dissolve in rain or be blown ... clouds represented the permanence of spiritual life , while " earthly memory " pertained to " life's unspiritual ...
... clouds , certainly , and longer than the Wordsworths too . Yet hills , clouds , and people are all in reality " earthly , " and sub- ject to change . Precisely what the " immortal Mind " craves depends on what we mean by " objects ...
... clouds , is seen to be remarkably like the sea itself , studded with ships or islands . Neither au- thor actually ... cloud , on the blown surface of which a few high peaks ... seemed plunging about as if they were dragging their anchors ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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