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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... tion " than he does in the defeated Margaret of " The Ruined Cottage . " 10 There is indeed more to Wordsworth's concep- tion of the self in time than is suggested by weary platitudes about the human condition , and it is encouraging to ...
... tion of the nature and scope of my examination . The purely literary value of Wordsworth's beliefs and perceptions lies in the poetic energy they generate . A great deal of this energy is produced by a predominant and almost unceasing ...
... tion , 170-71 ; as release from natural time cycle , 36 ; of visionary moments , 149 ; visual , in " Michael , " 106-7 Metaphors , visual , 189 Meyerhoff , Hans , quoted , 77 " Michael , " 99-111 , 113 Mind : its attachment to human ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Ordered and Disordered Time | 29 |
The Nature and Status of the Mind | 51 |
Copyright | |
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