The Salisbury Plain Poems of William Wordsworth

by William Wordsworth, Stephen Gill (Editor)

For information about the Cornell Wordsworth series, please visit the series website at

352 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1975

About the author

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) 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 published, prior to which, it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note Wordsworth’s evolution. Version 1 denounces tyranny. 2 is on a consciousness and its environment. 3 is less description, more narrative.

[Shawn Enright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too shabby. I didn’t fall in love but I liked reading Salisbury Poems and not his more known works; it really feels like I’m taking a 400 level course, not the shallow, best-of works I’ve read in the past.

I won’t lie, though: I had no clue what was going on most of time time, but I really liked his language (verbs, especially). It’s kinda southern gothic and eerie and desolate, and that atmosphere is so evocative to me.

Well done Willie! Won’t read again, but we’ll done

[abby murrill · Rating 2 out of 5]

ROMANTICISM. im sorry dr. mulligan, but its not doing it for me