Wordsworth: The Eternal Romantic

by William Wordsworth, K.E. Sullivan

Collects forty-six poems and extracts of poems by William Wordsworth, with a biographical introduction and a chronology

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published February 1, 1997

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

[Liel]

some of wordworth’s lines go hard i cant lie

[Sarah]

Some of these were really good. But I don’t think the romantic era is for me. Too dramatic & flowery? I like poetry that’s more straight forward. Didn’t feel like I understood this. In theory I should love it, with its focus on nature. Ahhhh idk. But want to read more Wordsworth to gauge better.

[Daniel Kukwa]

Aside from a few short and sweet entries (including a neat little defence of Shakespeare's sonnets), this is the type of work that reminds me why I'm not a fan of poetry in general. It's too over-written and far too florid for my taste. Poetry tends to make my eyes glaze over...and, for me, Wordsworth is archetypal eye-glazer.

[Holly Kocher]

I am a huge poetry person, and I even write poetry, so this was glorious. I loved his “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” poem especially, but there were very few in the collection I did not care for. An eternal romantic indeed.

[Lahari]

special for personal reasons but also furthers my will to go the UK and live a fantasy life ;_;

[Zelda of Lothlórien]

*3.5 stars.

[Carlagnt]

quasiment rien compris et quand je comprenais c’était nul

[Matt Ambs]

A compilation of poems from the forerunner of romantic poetry. I was a little disappointed at some of the extracts. Poems like "the Idiot Boy" need to be told in their entirety! However, any Wordsworth fan would be content to meditate on the pages of this book and recite the erudite rhyme in the midst of their nature walks! "Come forth into the light of things,/ Let nature be your teacher"- William Wordsworth.

[Jessica]

Amazing poet, a big influence on my own poetry. I love the natural romantics.

[Dane Cobain]

This is the perfect introduction to Wordsworth’s work, and so if you like Wordsworth then you’ll love it. My problem is that Wordsworth has had so many imitators over the years that it somehow diminishes his work, although I’m not arguing that he’s one of the greats. That’s why I bought this – I wanted to read a decent amount of his work, and this served that purpose perfectly. I’d recommend it to poetry lovers.