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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... simply told that Wordsworth and Jones did not know its chiming code ( 11. 693–4 ) . The moonlight similarly is simply named without epithet or qualifying phrase ( 1. 695 ) . At this stage , Wordsworth and Jones are mistaken but do not ...
... simply a way of describing Johnny's lunatic joy in his ride - his " glory " may be simply delight in seeing what he thinks are familiar objects in excitingly different guises . Such a view might adequately explain Johnny's glee , but it ...
Jeffrey Baker. and the optimism ? Can one in fact say simply that it was a source of figurative language rather than a creed ? Unfortu- nately , no ; not simply that , as lines 121-34 of " Tintern Ab- bey " reveal . this prayer I make ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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