William Wordsworth: The Poems, Volume Two [2]

by William Wordsworth, John O. Hayden (Editor)

To read the collected poems of Wordsworth is to defeat the myth of the divided man, the revolutionary youth whose ardent idealism gave way to the tired rhetoric of the Tory place-holder.Wordsworth's life-work is a coherent whole, the parts of which are a single and organic opus of autobiographical confession depicting the growth of a poet's sensibility.

In this two-volume edition, containing Wordsworth complete works (apart from The Prelude, which appears seperately in this series), the editor has returned, as Wordsworth had himself wished, to the final copy of the texts prepared in the poet's lifetime. The poems, arranged in chronological order and showing the development of Wordsworth's themes and forms, are illuminated by the editor's extensive notes and by the inclusion of the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, 19th Century, Fiction

1104 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2013

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

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to read this particular volume of Wordsworth’s poetry to accompany a book on Scottish folklore I had read recently. Wordsworth wrote some of the poetry in this volume as a response to a trip he made to Scotland with his sister Dorothy and friend and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Unfortunately the trip strained the friendship of the two poets. A number of the poems in this volume are lackluster. The best have a strong nature focus and the worst a soppy romantic attitude towards Scottish children.

It’s always good to reread poetry that you’ve forgotten about, but I’d take Keats, Shelley, or Byron any day. A better choice for my purposes might have been the travel book written by Dorothy Wordsworth after the Scottish trip debacle.

[Illiterate · Rating 5 out of 5]

The delightful freshness of a summer breeze. The revolutionary force of a hurricane.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Wordsworth was a gentle person, his poetry is filled with joy for the simple life.

[Michael Vawser]

First edition 1977

[Martin Mcgoey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and moving poetry by Wordsworth.