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 17
... energy they generate . A great deal of this energy is produced by a predominant and almost unceasing conflict between the mind's hunger for immutability and its percep- tion of an organic , changing , external universe . But more ...
... energy to the business of present living , she would have dismantled this shrine . As Sheats has said , " The image records the decay of her industry and ... of the self - preserving energies of her mind . ” 5 The dominant feeling ...
... energy and devotion . Then towards the cottage I returned ; and traced Fondly , though with an interest more mild , That secret spirit of humanity Which , ' mid the calm oblivious tendencies Of nature , ' mid her plants , and weeds ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown