The Prelude; Or, Growth of a Poet's Mind

by William Wordsworth

The Prelude, Wordsworth's great autobiographical poem, is crucial to our understanding of his life and poetry. Written between 1798 and 1805, the text was intensively revised in Wordsworth's later years. This volume contains the original version of 1805, which was read to Coleridge. The poem was first published in 1850, after the poet's death, and is available in Wordsworth's Poetical Works. To facilitate comparison, line numbers of the 1850 text have been placed in square brackets on the right-hand side of the page.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature, Nonfiction, Memoir, English Literature

372 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 1970

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

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little prosey for my taste, but some moments of beauty and real poetry.

[Giulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The mind of man is framed even like the breath
And harmony of music."

Read for uni.

Woah, this was a dense one. 😅

[R.F. Gammon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prelude, specifically, numbed my brain. But I put this in here because I can't just say I read the Wordsworth section of the Norton Anthology of English Literature (which I did do! There is just no way to mark it on Goodreads).

Wordsworth's poetry is beautiful. One should not read poetry straight through in blocks. It hurts the brain and numbs the senses to the beauty of the words. But especially in the early poems, before I was losing my mind trying to get through, I was struck by the pure beauty of what Wordsworth was communicating. "Nature is as beautiful as grand affairs between kings," he says in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads," and I think he did so much to demonstrate that. Truly a beautiful work and I am obsessed with him.

[Dani · Rating 1 out of 5]

These Wordsworth words weren't worth my time.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the earlier books -- lost patience with it in the second half.

[G 3 · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were elements I enjoyed, the French revolution, certain passages, but I just haven't found a long form poetry collection I can get on with and this was no exception

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still just don't get this guy. The simplicity and innocence I should be enjoying just feels trite.

Best and worst line, and by far most lol-worthy moment:

The Shepherd's Cur did to his own great joy
Unearth a hedgehog in the mountain crags
Round which he made a barking turbulent.

If that's not mediocre I don't know what is. Reading Wordsworth feels like watching an unbearably fake soap opera. In the dental office. Strapped to the chair. Being operated on by Dick Cheney.

[m · Rating 5 out of 5]

came into this book annoyed at the amount of pages i had to read for class tomorrow and came out peaceful, happy, and feeling better about the state of this country after the election. did not anticipate feeling like wordsworth understood my post-trump moral crisis and yet he absolutely did. what a guy.