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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... immediately grasp the significance of the figure before them ; when they do , he is described in terms which the disciples might have used of the crucified man whom they saw across the water , standing on the lake shore : “ a Man worn ...
... immediately and fruitfully associates places and past events ; in this respect there is no poem quite like Childe Harold . But if we think of Byron as typically the poet with a sense of history , we may well miss the value of ...
... immediately alerted by " to St Mary's honour built , " an obvious link with " Once to Our Lady dedicate . " The connection is mildly disturbing because the difference between Furness Abbey and the Lady Holme shrine has been plainly ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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