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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... final summation of his argu- ment for MS D supports my suspicion . Commenting on Wordsworth's 1845 revision of the poem to insert an or- thodox religious reflection at the end of the Pedlar's narra- tive , he says : However , the reason ...
... final confidence that establishes itself in the reader's mind , but the sadness and fear . The misgiving is recurrent . In the first 49 lines it is expressed , in the next 4 lines denied , in the next 100 both expressed and denied , in ...
... final acknowledgment of capitulation , for the evidence of defeat is there long before his flight . At the door he stood , And whistled many a snatch of merry tunes That had no mirth in them ; or with his knife Carved uncouth figures on ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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