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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... particular sweetness and his human nature is seen to be " Of quality and fabric more di- vine " than the nature in which he dwells . Wordsworth ex- presses the matter in a pun of childlike simplicity . When the shepherd and his dog have ...
... particular object . The pleasure of such encounters may be transient , but it springs from an instinct that ultimately seeks stability . Signif- icantly , it is after these delighted and appraising glances that the poetry begins to note ...
... particular scene noted on a particular visit : " along the smooth green turf / Our horses grazed . " Out of the shifting composite of memories , a single picture has separated itself . But this is not necessarily the same occasion as ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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