Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
61st out of 977 books
—
1,011 voters
The Major Works
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) has long been one of the best-known and best-loved English poets. The Lyrical Ballads, written with Coleridge, is a landmark in the history of English romantic poetry. His celebration of nature and of the beauty and poetry in the commonplace embody a unified and coherent vision that was profoundly innovative.
This volume presents the poems i...more
This volume presents the poems i...more
Paperback, 784 pages
Published
November 9th 2000
by Oxford University Press, USA
(first published 1904)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Even at 28, I can understand both the joy and the longing that come from looking back on times when you have connected with nature in the past. One can only hope for more opportunities in order to build up a catalogue of such memories, so as to reflect on them all when much older and create a happiness in your imagination by revisiting them in your old age. I love the importance Wordsworth places on imagination and the role that it can take in taking control of our own state of mind and being. B...more
Oh, Wordsworth. I have read at least a little bit of the output of almost all of the great English romantics that are considered part of the traditional cannon. I enjoyed a lot of their work, but no poet of that age could ever speak to me like Wordsworth.
This volume is over 1,000 pages long, so not every poem collected here is great. And the conventional criticism that later Wordsworth is not as good as young Wordsworth is certainly true. But Wordsworth's view of poetry as "a man speaking to me...more
This volume is over 1,000 pages long, so not every poem collected here is great. And the conventional criticism that later Wordsworth is not as good as young Wordsworth is certainly true. But Wordsworth's view of poetry as "a man speaking to me...more
Mehhhhhh...I only read the Prelude. Once again, I learned how immature and impatient I am as a reader and how I don't appreciate nice things. I wish I was grownup enough to enjoy hearing about someone wandering around and around in nature and becoming more and more self-aware. Well, no, I don't wish that, but it probably would have helped.
I don't think I would have liked to have known Wordsworth. Not that there's anything wrong with him or that I dislike him on a moral level, but I feel like our...more
I don't think I would have liked to have known Wordsworth. Not that there's anything wrong with him or that I dislike him on a moral level, but I feel like our...more
Had to read this for a graduate class. Some really good passages, but I didn't truly like any of the poems as a whole. Wordsworth was simply too much into himself, and how the natural world was, or was not, in tune with Wordsworth, rather than whether Wordsworth was, or was not, in tune with the natural world. This blighted some otherwise ingenious poems.
Okay. I have a real problem with William Wordsworth, for a number of reasons.
1. He's totally ripping off Charlotte Smith.
2. He completely took over Lyrical Ballads with his trite sayings about daffodils, when Coleridge's poems are really what interests (me, at least) the most.
3. His hypocritical turn to hardcore Anglicanism and his seeming surrender at the end of his life really bug the revolutionary Romantic in me.
4. If I read "Tintern Abbey" one more time, I'm going to throw up.
That being said...more
1. He's totally ripping off Charlotte Smith.
2. He completely took over Lyrical Ballads with his trite sayings about daffodils, when Coleridge's poems are really what interests (me, at least) the most.
3. His hypocritical turn to hardcore Anglicanism and his seeming surrender at the end of his life really bug the revolutionary Romantic in me.
4. If I read "Tintern Abbey" one more time, I'm going to throw up.
That being said...more
I don't love Wordsworth, but I have to admit that he was on to something here. "The Prelude" is "self" as epic subject. What a concept! And we don't seem to have ever managed to get beyond it. Too bad for the world, but Wordsworth deserves a great deal of the credit/blame.
I just got this book so I haven't gotten very far into it, but it's excellent so far. Then again, it's Wordsworth. If you like the Romantics, then this is for you.
Words work like the brush, painting vivid pictures with hues shifting from one stanza to the other....
Not the whole thing, but a lot of the biggies (Prelude, etc.).
A great amount of wealth and beauty contained herein.
i can't help it. i love me some romantics.
4.5 Stars.
***Read For School***
***Read For School***
Incredible. Prolific. Poignant.
Love.
I like Wordsworth, and most of the Victorian poets. He is lyrical and evokes the English countryside and nature. I like many, many of his poems--check them out!
What though the radiance, which was once so bright,
Be now forever taken from my sight,
though nothing can bring back the glory of the flower,
the splendor of the grass,
we will grieve not,
but take strength in what remains behind....
A somewhat bowderlized version from my dim memory, but I couldn't resist. Look up the actual verse...
What though the radiance, which was once so bright,
Be now forever taken from my sight,
though nothing can bring back the glory of the flower,
the splendor of the grass,
we will grieve not,
but take strength in what remains behind....
A somewhat bowderlized version from my dim memory, but I couldn't resist. Look up the actual verse...
Poems like "The Ruined Cottage" and "Tintern Abbey" are as close to perfect as poetry can be. Unpretentious, intellectual, and evocative. Wordsworth takes the simple and common and makes it achingly wonderful. Our sneering, eye-rolling, nod and wink post-modern sensibilities could certainly use a little more of the earnestness exhibited in these poems.
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 60
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come"
Ode on Intimations of Immortality
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 60
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come"
Ode on Intimations of Immortality
This is possibly written for children, but it is just as enjoyable for adults. I like the illustrations. There are also small notes of explanation for words that people might not be familiar with now. It's a wonderful overview of his poetry and there is also biographical information that I found very interesting.
Not specifically this edition, but any collection of Wordsworth is as necessary as breathing to anyone who enjoys poetry. I can't live without my well-worn copy of collected poems and prefaces. Also check out the journal of Dorothy Wordsworth, his sister.
Baffling, but despite my praise for Romantic philosophy I can't put Romantic poetry on the same tier. Wordsworth wrote some great and challenging poems, but there were too many mediocre ones putting a chill on my cup of noodles.
Reading The Excursion has been a powerful experience. To speak about the big things in a way that is mystical and then not; deliberately confusing you, so you will think and feel it for yourself.Very beautiful.
wordsworth and his love of nature make me love nature.
his 'spots of time' is one of my favorite concepts ever. i sometimes measure my life out by his words. he's one of my favorite thinkers and writers
his 'spots of time' is one of my favorite concepts ever. i sometimes measure my life out by his words. he's one of my favorite thinkers and writers
i was really stoked about "She was a phantom of delight" but didn't care much for most of the others.
Reading the Lyrical Ballads in their entirety is surprisingly moving.
Romantic poetry was the worst part of being an English major.
Some great moments. His sonnets are my favorite.
May 19, 2013
Sally Sinn
marked it as to-read
May 19, 2013
Maripat
marked it as to-read
May 19, 2013
Heath Churchland
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
William Wordsworth was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads.
Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously titled and publ...more
More about William Wordsworth...
Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously titled and publ...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”
—
43 people liked it
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”
“And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.”
—
11 people liked it
More quotes…
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.”
Mar 22, 2008 09:25am