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. |
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... eye ; Where fairy water - breaks do murmur on For ever ... ( Ll . 14-21 , 30-34 ) The stars are not mentioned in this poem , but the " beds of matted fern , and tangled thickets " through which Words- worth has to force his way leave no ...
... eyes glimpsing the tide , and the senses filled with sea noises suggest a particular alertness that will not , on this occasion , consent to slumber . Every time the sleeper's eyes open , it seems , it is the sea they look on . And the ...
... eyes , and be consoled . ' ( 6 : 456-71 ) The stones of the convent and the cross of Jesus standing erect “ as if / Hands of angelic powers had fixed it there ” take their place with mountains , stars , and forests as things upon which ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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