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William Wordsworth - The Major Works: including The Prelude (Oxford World's Classics)
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 in...more
This volume presents the poems in...more
Paperback, 784 pages
Published
September 1st 2008
by Oxford University Press, USA
(first published 1904)
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So the other day while killing time in a thrift store I saw this collection of Wordsworth poems and wondered if I'd find him as long winded, self absorbed and utterly pompous as I did when I was an undergrad.
Turns out I do.
And yes, before any of my friends email me, I do see the irony and being annoyed by someone who can be seen as long winded and utterly pompous.
I understand, I truly do, how important Lyrical Ballads was in 1798. And while I a...more
Turns out I do.
And yes, before any of my friends email me, I do see the irony and being annoyed by someone who can be seen as long winded and utterly pompous.
I understand, I truly do, how important Lyrical Ballads was in 1798. And while I a...more
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
“That men, least sensitive, see, hear, perceive
And cannot choose but feel.”
Yes, if you’re going to read Wordsworth you’re going to have to stomach stuff like the above. I read the entirety of the Prelude over the course of two years. At times I could not bear to read another stanza. To me, the poem veered wildly between passages of stunning beauty and clarity, longwinded lectures about politics, quaint discourses on “Man” and the “Ideal,” and a few others motifs. I could distil...more
And cannot choose but feel.”
Yes, if you’re going to read Wordsworth you’re going to have to stomach stuff like the above. I read the entirety of the Prelude over the course of two years. At times I could not bear to read another stanza. To me, the poem veered wildly between passages of stunning beauty and clarity, longwinded lectures about politics, quaint discourses on “Man” and the “Ideal,” and a few others motifs. I could distil...more
Wordsworth is a guilty dislike for me. So many poets don't only like him but credit him with their very inspiration as to what poetry is and should be. Last summer I endeavored to make peace with Wordsworth once and for all. I skipped the juvenelia, and went straight for the "young" Wordsworth. My complaints I can find very quickly--many many poems about A man wandering unhappy, ill at ease, or at least lonely--he encounters daffodils/a leech gatherer/nature's primal majesty and wh...more
There's just no getting around it - I can't stand Wordsworth's poetry. Dullness oozes from every tormented line. The author just seems like a crashing bore with way too much time on his hands, all the better to peer out at the damp English countryside and wax pompous.
I'll grant you - this may have something to do with my INTJ personality type, which involves a fair amount of obliviousness to my surroundings. As I tend to spend far too much time living in my head, my relationship with...more
I'll grant you - this may have something to do with my INTJ personality type, which involves a fair amount of obliviousness to my surroundings. As I tend to spend far too much time living in my head, my relationship with...more
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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 "...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 "...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.
Two poetry books I have ever been tempted to buy are Wordswoth's "The Prelude" and Byron's "Don Juan".
BUT they are so damn BIG!!!!
An excerpt of a stanza...or two may strike you.
But when there is page after endless page in a volume as thick as a brick, well, you know what I mean, the gold nugget just gets swept along in the flow of either too many gold nuggets or so few that you overlook it.
Get my drift.
So...I am going to read my Signet edition f...more
BUT they are so damn BIG!!!!
An excerpt of a stanza...or two may strike you.
But when there is page after endless page in a volume as thick as a brick, well, you know what I mean, the gold nugget just gets swept along in the flow of either too many gold nuggets or so few that you overlook it.
Get my drift.
So...I am going to read my Signet edition f...more
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 tim...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 tim...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.
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.
A couple of minor omissions I would’ve liked to see (Simon Lee, for example), but solid collection from one of the best poets ever. I especially like that this includes a healthy selection of The Prelude.
I've always had trouble reading poetry. I've never really enjoyed it...I just don't "get" it.
Maybe it's because of English/Language Arts class all through school where we had to disect the meaning of every line or stanza.
Maybe it's because of English/Language Arts class all through school where we had to disect the meaning of every line or stanza.
a beautiful ode to nature, he cpatures it beautifully and therea sre some really deep commentary/obersvations about human nature and politics. a must read and every home should have a copy.
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.
Certainly not my favorite poems, but there's a few winners, or at least things one must know to avoid embarrassing lacunae.
Not the whole thing, but a lot of the biggies (Prelude, etc.).
i can't help it. i love me some romantics.
Wordsworth's poems are absolutely beautiful.
Not much to say, his stylish writing and unique view of the main topics in life (love, hate, honor, etc) is just overwhelming.
"She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment´s ornament;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair;
Like Twilight´s, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From Maytime and the cheerful Dawn
A dancing Shape, an Image Gay,
To haunt, to st...more
"She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment´s ornament;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair;
Like Twilight´s, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From Maytime and the cheerful Dawn
A dancing Shape, an Image Gay,
To haunt, to st...more
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.
A very enjoyable Romantic poet, deals mostly with subjects that are more realistic and down-to-earth. The class I was in applied the lens of nostalgia/longing to the poems, and that proved to be very enjoyable, so I would recommend doing the same. I also recommend reading in conjunction with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and, to some degree, Keats.
"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.
I didn't read Wordsworth's complete works, just a few selected titles. Much of his verse can be read like prose. I don't mind poems that actually convey some coherent story. Wordsworth's "Michael" is a short story written as a poem. "Prelude" is his autobiography. I'll read more of his work if I ever have time.
I read this in bits. Wordsworth is beautiful and yet, somehow, amusing since I always remember the image of him my lit teacher (also the sponsor of my highschools magic the gathering club I must note), hiking through the mountains with Dorthy, his sister. I always got a giggle out of that.
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.
I understood this better than I usually understand poetry, maybe because many of the poems are more narrative. I loved some of the poems, like "Anecdote for Fathers" and "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," but I wasn't in love with the whole book.
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
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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 tit...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 tit...more
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“And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.”
—
6 people liked it
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.”
“Books! tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.”
—
6 people liked it
More quotes…
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.”
