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 48
... experience which arises from it . The nature of this experience lies in an unexpected recognition . Through a thin veil of glittering haze was seen Before us , on a point of jutting land , The tall and upright figure of a Man . ( Ll ...
... experience . The lesson of that experience is more important than the wisdom of not speaking out before knowing all the facts ; the vital point taken by the ramblers is that , although nature may in some sense be a moral guide , man is ...
... experience which not merely suggests the notion of a timeless vantage point , but disturbs the emo- tions and imagination in a manner which suggests an actual experience of timelessness ? I must call on William James yet again . In his ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown