====== WILLIAM WORDSWORTH: Frequently Asked Questions ======
       ==============================================
         [Okay!--so they were asked at least ONCE!]

     -=- Compiled and Maintained by Thomas C. Gannon -=-
      First Created:  6/10/96 -=- Last Revised:  12/31/99

This FAQ was created in response to the repetitiveness of several common
email questions I've received from people who've visited my WWW Wordsworth
page*, in search of a specific tidbit of information--in vain, apparently.
(However, some of the following answers are/were available there, with a
little searching!) I have no illusions about being a Wordsworth expert,
though I'm now pursuing my Ph.D. in 19th century Romantic literature:
any biases or misinterpretations below are those of my betters & mentors,
scholars & critics I have read, not mine. Also, as a true amateur lover
of the Sage of Grasmere, I make no apologies for the elementary nature of
many of the questions that follow. (Believe me, I've been asked them all!**)

* "TCG's Wordsworth Page" is at
        << http://incolor.inetnebr.com/tgannon/words.html >>.
        
** REVISION/CORRECTION: Some unsolicited questions of a general-info or
        tongue-in-cheek nature have been subsequently added. . . .

NOTE: IF you use specific information below in a school paper, practice
        intellectual honesty and cite this page:
        
                http://incolor.inetnebr.com/tgannon/txts/wordsfaq.txt
                
        --in your Works Cited/Bibliography, following the documentation method
        recommended by your instructor.
        
_______________________________________________________________________

:::: QUESTIONS Summary ::::

   * [1] "William WHO?"
   
   * [2] "I thought it was William WADSWORTH?!"
   
   * [3] "Why is Wordsworth sometimes referred to as a Lake Poet?"
         
   * [4] "What is Romanticism? Flowers, candy, and candle-lit dinners?"
   
   * [5] "What is pantheism?"   
   
   * [6] "What's Wordsworth's greatest poem?"
   
   * [7] "Enough: where's that _SPLENDOUR_IN_THE_GRASS_ quotation??"
   
   * [8] "Whose this 'Lucy' chick Wordsworth is always writing about?"
   
   * [9] "What the %$#@ does 'The Child is father of the Man' mean?!"
   
   * [10] "So how many brothers & sisters DID the little girl have
             in 'We are Seven'?"
             
   * [11] "I'm so confused! Was _The_Prelude_ finished in 1805 or 1850?
   
   * [12] "What gives with that couch in the 'Daffodils' poem? Was
             Wordsworth undergoing intensive psychotherapy?"
             
   * [13] "Isn't a Hollywood movie of Wordsworth's life in the works?"
 
 NEW:
   * [14] "What does that sonnet 'The World is too much with us' mean?"
   
   * [15] "This is all very helpful stuff, Tom, but where can I find
             interpretations of (other) individual poems?"
             

   
:::: The ANSWERS ::::

   * [1] "William WHO?"
   
        William WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) was the greatest English
        Romantic poet and one of the greatest lyric poets England
        has ever produced. Once considered (and often scorned) as
        purely a "poet of nature," he is now acknowledged as a
        seminal influence on modern poetry: not only was he one of
        the first to make the workings of the poet's own mind a major
        subject of poetry, but his call for poets to use the "real
        language" of "real" people has been one of the rallying cries
        of contemporary literature. For more information, see my
        ON-LINE BIOGRAPHY of Wordsworth at
            << http://incolor.inetnebr.com/tgannon/txts/wordsbio.txt >>.

      
   * [2] "I thought it was William WADSWORTH?!"
   
        You're thinkin' of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a 19th c.
        American poet, author of _Evangeline_, _The_Courtship_of_
        Miles_Standish_, etc. Highly regarded in his day, Longfellow
        is now considered a relatively minor figure--though he was quite
        the virtuoso in metrical experimentation. Wordsworth, on the
        other hand, is now considered one of the four or five greatest
        poets to have ever written in the English language. (Ooh, the
        sparks'll fly now!)


   * [3] "Why is Wordsworth sometimes referred to as a Lake Poet?"
        Wordsworth grew up in the Lake District in northwestern
        England. When Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey--two
        other poets associated with the Lake District--and Wordsworth
        began to make names for themselves by writing a new type of
        "nature" poetry, their work was considered rather "yokel" by
        the important (big-city) critics. One of these latter derisively
        dubbed them the "Lake Poets," an epithet that is now applied to
        them without the original negative intent. Coleridge is a major
        figure in his own right, and collaborated with Wordsworth on the
        first major volume of English Romantic poetry, _Lyrical_Ballads_;
        Southey, while famous in his time, is largely unread today.


   * [4] "What is Romanticism?  Flowers, candy, and candle-lit dinners?"
   
    I have no idea. Okay, I'll try: a revolution in literature and the
        (other) arts that began in Germany in the late 1700's, in reaction
        to the dominant rationalism and classical formalism of the
        Enlightenment.
    A few (overgeneralizing) characteristics of "Romanticism" follow:
        
      ==== NOT THOUGHT, BUT FEELING! ====
    Rejecting the "truths" of logic and mathematics (and, often, common
        sense!), the Romantics praised instead the powers of the
        "underside" of the human psyche: imagination, emotion ("feeling"
        and "heart"), and intuition. Romantic art, then, was characterized
        by high-falutin' flights of imagination, not the charming & clever
        "fancy" or "wit" of the preceding age. For an immediate feel for
        the difference here, compare Shelley's passionate hysteria to
        Pope's measured verse, or Beethoven's later symphonies (and MTV, for
        that matter!) to the music of Mozart. When one speaks of Romantic
        excess, TOO MUCH emotion is the problem, as the poets tended towards
        sentimentality (Shelley: "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!"),
        melancholy, and teary-eyed nostalgia--for their childhood, for the
        days before the Age of Reason and the Industrial Age, for--well, do
        you really need a reason!? (Or maybe, for--MAMA!--as some recent
        psycho-analytical scholars have claimed.)
        
      ==== THE SUBJECTIVE "I" ====
    Against the Age of Reason's stolid absolutes of mathematical truth and
        scientific objectivity, the Romantics also championed the individual's
        subjective right to discover his/her own "truths" via the mental
        powers mentioned above, leading to some rather rebellious--and
        scandalous--lifestyles among some of its practitioners. (This
        aspect of Romanticism is evident today in the persona of the rock
        star.) The Romantics, more than anyone, are responsible for our
        notion of the artist as a special (sometimes bordering on insane)
        "breed apart" and the idea that the creative act involves an almost
        magical, spontaneous, inspired leap of imagination.
        
      ==== THE UNDER-CONSCIOUS UNDERDOGS ====
    The Romantic emphasis on emotion and intuition led, furthermore, to a
        (yes, racist & sexist) championing of those people deemed more
        emotional & intuitive & unconscious & closer to humankind's psychic
        roots--i.e., "primitives," women, children, and simple country folk.
        (These last two, especially, get lots of attention in Wordsworth.)
        
      ==== EXOTICISM & MEDIEVALISM ====
    Related to their attraction to the primitive (and to their reaction
        against the smug strait-jacket of 18th-century social constraints,
        perhaps) was a comparable attraction to exotic settings (e.g.,
        Coleridge's "Kubla Khan") and medieval settings (e.g., Hugo's
        _The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame_). Again, the motivation was the same:
        both are places or times before or not yet infected by the disease of
        Reason. There was a comparable interest by the Romantics in folk
        literature, especially of their native land: note Wordsworth's &
        Coleridge's revival of the ballad stanza, for example. (This new
        appreciation for folk literature is connected with another Romantic
        manifestation, nationalism [see below].)
        
      ==== THE RELIGION OF NATURE ====        
        For Wordsworth, just being away from the city  was "exotic" enough,
        and he was instrumental in the another Romantic revolution: the
        change in literary subject-matter from urban-centered to nature- or
        rural-oriented. More than just lovers of birds & flowers, several
        Romantics created a veritable "Religion of Nature," projecting upon
        nature _per_se_ a mystical monism, or pantheism, that was itself the
        result of their intuitive/emotional approach to reality. Some
        Romantics carried their mysticism even further in their journey into
        the psyche's "dark side," becoming fascinated by the occult, even
        Satanism. (Geez, another connection to rock music. . . .)
        
      ==== TIRED OF THE SAME OLD SONG & DANCE ====
    The Romantics also made revolutionary changes in the form of art itself.
        In literature, for instance, Pope's "tick-tock-to-death" heroic
        couplets were replaced by great experimentation in stanza forms
        among the English Romantics: thus Wordsworth would write blank
        verse, and ballad stanzas, and Spenserian stanzas, and Italian
        sonnets, and irregular odes, and . . . . Well, you get the idea.
        In America, Whitman took it one step further, throwing out metre
        altogether and writing free verse. Even poetic diction was
        revolutionized, in accord with their championing of democracy (see
        below) and the simple folk: Wordsworth called for poetry in the
        language of the "common man," and Whitman occasionally used words
        whose coarseness was shocking to 19th-century purveyors of poetry.
        Another link to our day should be evident here: modern poets now
        can use four-letter words with great abandon. . . .
        
      ==== YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION? ====
    Finally, one cannot underestimate the socio-political importance of the
        Romantics, whose dominant gestures were one and the same as those of
        the French Revolution, with its clamour for democracy and individual
        rights--above all, its politics of "emotion." (For this reason,
        Bertrand Russell would later fault Romanticism for the rise of Hitler!)
        For better or worse, at least some of the credit or blame for the
        rampant nationalism of the last two centuries must be laid at
        Romanticism's doorstep. In recent times, the 60's hippies' cry to
        "let it all hang out," the "Back to Nature" movement, and the whole
        New Age "bag" are also at last latter-day manifestations of the Romantic
        Revolution, the motley descendents of Goethe and Wordsworth. The New
        Age movement also incorporates one last characteristic of Romanticism:
        ever since the French Revolution, those of a Romantic bent have
        predicted and/or yearned for an apocalyptic change in humankind, be it
        political, religious, or psychological. This messianism, too, continues
        to this day, as many wait for the time when a "new day will dawn." (Oh,
        sorry, that's Led Zeppelin! . . .)
        
   
   * [5] "What is pantheism?"   
        Pantheism is the belief that "everything is God" or "Nature is
        God," a term loosely applied to Wordsworth's poetry, especially
        "Tintern Abbey" and several passages in _The_Prelude_. Better
        terms might be panpsychism or psychological monism (everything
        is "one mind," a "World Soul"). From a Christian point of view,
        Wordsworth's most characteristic poetry has been termed
        _immanentism_, the rather heretical faith that God is "in" or
        "makes up" the material universe--as opposed to _transcendentalism_,
        the more doctrinaire belief that God is "above" or "apart from"
        this mundane realm. Whatever misleading & limiting term we apply
        to Wordsworth's intuition of "the One," he could have found ready
        confirmation for such a belief in a long Christian mystical
        tradition and in the contemporary writings of the German Romantic
        philosophers, especially Schelling. And at last, the discussion
        above certainly negates the view of Wordsworth  as a simple nature
        poet of shepherds' flocks, of sylvan lakes, of "rocks, and stones,
        and trees."

        
   * [6] "What's Wordsworth's greatest poem?"
   
        The prize has often been given to one of the following two
        Wordsworth poems: "Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern
        Abbey..." (aka "Tintern Abbey") and "Ode: Intimations of
        Immortality..." (aka "Immortality Ode," "Intimations Ode"). In
        recent years, however, Wordsworth's long autobiographical "epic"
        _The_Prelude_ has also frequently been offered as his greatest
        work: given both the beautiful language and seminal ideas
        therein, one finds it hard to argue against its high place in
        Wordsworth's corpus. Other poems worthy of consideration include
        "Resolution and Independence" (about the Leech-gatherer--my personal
        favorite); his paeon to (& dirge for) the English shepherd's life,
        "Michael"; several of the "Lucy" poems (e.g., "Strange fits of
        passion have I known"); and any number of his fine sonnets, such as
        "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free." Many of Wordsworth's
        literary ballads, too, while overly & overtly "preachy," must be
        mentioned, if only as good introductions to Wordsworth's themes:
        "Lines Written in Early Spring" comes immediately to mind as a
        personal favorite. (Oops--I guess I never answered the question!)

           
   * [7] "Enough: where's that _SPLENDOUR_IN_THE_GRASS_ quotation??"
   
        The title of this 1961 movie--quoted IN the movie, too, I
        think, though I don't get out much--is from Wordsworth's "Ode:
        Intimations of Immortality . . ." Look at lines 10 & 11 of Stanza
        10: "Though nothing can bring back the hour / Of splendour in the
        grass, of glory in the flower." Wordsworth is speaking here of the
        magical appearance of nature through the eyes of a child, a magic
        now lost to the adult poet. (By the way, the MOVIE starred Natalie
        Wood and Warren Beatty, if you didn't know: but I can't admit to
        having ever watched the whole thing!) The ON-LINE TEXT of the
        complete poem is available at
            << http://incolor.inetnebr.com/tgannon/txts/intode.txt >>.
        Other famous (or just plain cool) Wordsworth quotations can be
        found at
            << http://incolor.inetnebr.com/tgannon/txts/wordquot.txt >>.
  
  
   * [8] "Whose this 'Lucy' chick Wordsworth is always writing about?"
   
        Wordsworth wrote a series of poems to/about a strange woman
        named "Lucy," but no one's sure who the heck she was. Some
        scholars claim her to be an early love of his, perhaps Annette
        Vallon, his main "squeeze" while a young man in France, or Mary
        Hutchinson, his future wife. Others deny the validity of such
        fumblings through Wordsworth's biography, preferring instead to
        view "Lucy" as, above all, an imaginary creation of the poet's own
        fertile psyche. Perhaps the most intriguing suggestion is Bateson's
        psychosexual one: Lucy is really DOROTHY, his sister! Wordsworth
        was, consciously or not, having some INCESTUAL feelings for said
        sister! And his extreme guilt at such feelings explains why he
        has Lucy "killed off" in most of the poems!
        

   * [9] "What the %$#@ does 'The Child is father of the Man' mean?!"
   
        The seventh line of Wordsworth's brief lyric "My heart leaps
        up when I behold," this paradoxical statement epitomizes the
        poet's inversion of the usual child-adult relationship. The child
        is "father," in one respect, by having a superior perception of
        nature in all its pre-adult-consciousness-adulterated splendor,
        is thus is "wiser," as a "father" should be; secondly, the child
        is also "father" in terms of the individual's development,
        _preceding_ the state of adulthood just as a father, literally,
        exists before the child. (Thus, in terms of individual psychology,
        the child "gives birth" to--uh, I mean "conceives"?--the adult.)
        Both of these explanations go hand-in-hand, for the adult can only
        achieve true maturity ("natural piety") if he/she has learned the
        lessons of the "father" (I mean, uh, "child")--by getting in touch
        once again with the child's original & authentic & genuine &
        unconscious rapport with nature and reality itself. (Yeh, I want to
        puke myself!) If, as I spouted the neo-Romantic buzzwords of our age,
        all that "inner child" stuff bandied about nowadays came to mind,
        you're on the right track! (By the way, the last three lines of "My
        heart leaps up..."--including this line--were later used as the epigraph,
        or opening quotation, to the "Intimations Ode.")
        

   * [10] "So how many brothers & sisters DID the little girl have
            in 'We are Seven'?"
            
         The child blithely claims that she has seven, while the adult
         insists on five, since "two are in heaven." The "right" answer
         depends on the reader's (or his/her favorite critic's) world-
         view: the party-line, pro-Child good-Romantic answer is seven,
         since death is a concept of limited adult consciousness; the
         "pro-Adult" rationalist, on the other hand, subtracts two from
         that total, proud of his/her mathematical abilities, and thus
         "murder[s] to dissect." (Geez, I'M not biased!)
                     

   * [11] "I'm so confused! Was _The_Prelude_ finished in 1805 or 1850?
         Both. Wordsworth began his autobiographical epic in 1798, and
         a version of Books I and II exists from 1799 or 1800 (the "two-
         book" _Prelude_). The first "full" version, in thirteen books,
         was completed in 1805, and right now is the critics' favorite.
         But Wordsworth revised the poem extensively until the final
         edition of his collected poems in 1850, and that fourteen-book
         version is the one traditionally printed in Wordsworth's complete
         works. While there are some beautiful lines in the l850 version
         not in the 1805 version, the earlier is now more praised and
         discussed because it gives a more "authentic" picture, supposedly,
         of the younger Wordsworth's more radical views: for example, his
         almost pagan treatment of Nature as God and his initial enthusiasm
         for the French Revolution, both of which were intentionally watered
         down by the older, more conservative poet laureate. 
   

   * [12] "What gives with that couch in the 'Daffodils' poem? Was
            Wordsworth undergoing intensive psychotherapy?"        
            
         When, in the poem "I wandered lonely as a cloud," Wordsworth
         writes: "For oft, when on my couch I lie / In vacant or in
         pensive mood," the modern reader cannot be blamed for auto-
         matically picturing the couch in a psychiatrist's office.
         However, Freudian psychoanalysis didn't start charging its fees
         until a century later. But not to worry: twentieth-century
         literary critics have made up for Wordsworth's lack of a shrink
         by psychoanalyzing his poems to death for many years!
             (As an aside to this poem, I can't say I've ever really
         appreciated it in its own right since I heard Bullwinkle
         read it one Saturday morning when I was a child, on his
         "Poetry Corner," or somethin' like that. Now, whenever I
         read the poem, I hear--Bullwinkle's clownish, wavering voice!)
        

   * [13] "Isn't a Hollywood movie of Wordsworth's life in the works?
   
         No. But William Hurt is holding his breath.
         
         
   * [14] "What does that sonnet 'The World is too much with us' mean?"

         Judging from my email, this must be the most ASSIGNED W. poem
         poem in high school & college Lit classes. I'm not going to do
         your homework for yu', so I've just given some very general
         starting points....
         
         1) "THEME" (ugh, I hate that word!): Note the thematic contrast
           between the octet & sestet (the break begins at "Great God!"),
           between humankind's present botched relationship to nature
           ("the world") and W.'s nostalgic idealization of our past
           rapport with it--more immediate & personal, more mythic (here,
           ancient Greek), more magico-religious, and ultimately more
           true to our human nature (?!--my Jungian bias here).
           
         2) IMAGERY/DICTION: See how many words you can find that are
           related to (even synonyms of) "feeling" or "emotion"; how does
           this support his theme? Second, ask a similar question of the
           poem's various religious images. (And, last, do the same re-
           garding the _ocean_ imagery, if you're into a "depth" psychology
           approach.)
         
         3) FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: W. personifies various aspects of nature
           in this poem. (Where?) Above all, he does so for a good thematic/
           philosophical reason: for him, even inanimate nature IS aLIVE!...
           (Oh, and note, too, that the expression "Great God!" is no
           idle apostrophe.)
         
         4) PROSODY: Find places in the poem where W. substitutes another
           type of foot for the expected iamb, to emphasize a crucial or
           exciting "point."
           
         5) TOM's "AW, SHUCKS" GLOSSARY to the poem:
           
           * "The world is too much with us": that is, we're too _used_
                to the world ("Nature")--and so are "out of tune," having
                lost our original (and emotional) connection to it . . .
                to that true outside _your_ window that you haven't really
                noticed for five or ten years?
               
           * "our powers": our human faculties, especially our _feeling_,
                our connective, "powers"
               
           * "a sordid boon": literally, a low, filthy gift; in other
                words, "What a dirty deed! What a waste of our human
                potential!"
                
           * "bosom": (a-hem--) breast(s)--the complete "set" (never say
                "bosoms," in reference to one female at least!); notice also
                the import of the personification involved (the sea as
                "mother," etc.)
                
           * "suckled on a creed outworn": raised in an outdated religion
           
           * "lea": pasture, field
           
           * "Proteus," "Triton": minor sea gods of Greek mythology
           
           * "wreathe'd": coiled, spiral (the horn); though sometimes I
                imagine seaweed hanging off it as a "wreath"!
   
   
   * [15] "This is all very helpful stuff, Tom, but where can I find
             interpretations of (other) individual poems?"
             
         Did yu' ask Cliff for his Notes? Seriously, first read the
         answers to the questions above regarding W.'s general themes and
         philosophy--then apply that info to the poem at hand. Thus
         equipped (and if your text of the poem has glossed the difficult
         vocabulary sufficiently), your own intelligent reading won't be
         too far off the mark: this is the best way to go, to _learn_ by
         doing....
         
         If you still feel insecure, go to the closest college library
         and find the (at least) several shelves of Wordsworth criticism.
         (If you can't do that, well, I'm done wit yu'!) Select
         several volumes at random, look the poem up in their indices,
         and skim the interpretations. (They _will_ differ, sometimes
         dramatically! Then you have to fall back on your own judgment.)
         
         Also, don't forget to check the shelf or two of books on
         (English) Romanticism in general--you'll find a chapter or essay
         on W. in many of these, too....
         
         As far as specific critics, F.W. Bateson and Lionel Trilling are
         good starting points, IMO. (I cut my teeth on Trilling's essays
         on the "Immortality Ode" and "Resolution & Independence.")
         G. Wilson Knight is also a good bet, especially if you like your
         criticism as high-falutin' as your poetry! Harold Bloom and
         Geoffrey Hartman might be the most highly regarded critics in any
         such list, but are less accessible, I think. Havens and (John)
         Jones have also authored books on W. considered classics in the
         field. Finally, if you're interested in psychological criticism,
         check out Applewhite, Rzepka, and Stelzig. I'm sorry I haven't
         listed titles: so, heck, here's an annotated bibliography taken
         from my (eternally unfinished) Wordsworth HyperCard stack:
       
       =====================    
       ** SECONDARY SOURCES: A Reading List: (rather dated, but all works
         that I've found interesting--I've also annotated my favorites.)

       Abrams, M.H.: _Natural Supernaturalism_
       ---: _The Mirror and the Lamp_
               Justly famous exegesis of Romanticism as an inner creative
               "Lamp."
       Applewhite: _Seas and Inland Journeys: Landscape & Consciousness
             from Wordsworth to Roethke_
                Excellent archetypal interpretation of Wordsworth and other
                "poets of the unconscious."
       Arnold, M.: "Wordsworth," in _Essays in Criticism_, Second Series
                Arnold's just appreciation of W.'s merit put the poet in
                his rightful place--ranked above all English poets since
                Shakespeare, except for Milton. (And how'd Milton get that
                high?!)
        Baker: "Introduction" to _The Prelude; with a Selection from the
              Shorter Poems..._
        Bateson: _English Poetry: A Critical Introduction_
                "The central concept of Romanticism is the primacy of the
                subconscious [sic] mind."
        ---: _Wordsworth: A Re-Interpretation_
                Makes the controversial suggestion that Wordsworth went
                through a period of incestual love for Dorothy--claiming
                that the "Lucy" poems were about Dorothy and that he
                "killed Lucy off" because of unconscious guilt regarding
                their relationship!
        Bauer: _William Wordsworth: A Reference Guide to British Criticism,
              1793-1899_  [bibliographical]
        Bernhardt-Kabisch: "The Stone and the Shell" (_Studies in
              Romanticism_ 24 [1985])
        Bloom: _The Ringers in the Tower_
        ---: _The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry_
                With Abrams and Frye, Bloom was instrumental in reviving
                the reputation of both Romantic literature and the
                critical study thereof.
        Brooks, C.: "Wordsworth and the Paradox of the Imagination" and "The  
              Language of Paradox," in _The Well Wrought Urn_
                A surprisingly sympathetic reading of the "Intimations Ode"
                by a leading "New Critic."
        Caraher: _Wordsworth's "Slumber" and the Problematics of Reading_
        Coleridge, S.T.: _Biographia Literaria_
                Various observations on W.'s poetry by his early friend and
                literary associate--the early stuff gushing, some of the
                latter scathing.
        Danby, J.F.: _Wordsworth: The Prelude and Other Poems_
        De Quincey: _Literary Reminiscences (Reminiscences of the English
              Lake Poets)_
        Durant, W. & A.: _The Age of Napoleon_: Ch.XXI:"The Lake Poets:
              1770-1850"; Ch. XXXII: "German Philosophy"
                Good historical/philosophical background material.
        Elliott, J.W.: _The Poetry of William Wordsworth_
                Oh, no--the Monarch Notes!
        Ferry: "Introduction" to _Wordsworth_ [a "selected poems"
              anthology, ed. Ferry]
        Fogle: Romantic Poets and Prose Writers  [bibliographical]
        Fry: _The Poet's Calling in the English Ode_
        Frye: _A Study of English Romanticism_
        ---, ed.: _Romanticism Reconsidered_
        Gannon: _Immortal Sea, Eternal Mind: Romanticism and the Unconscious_
                "A great. . . ."--ah, just my M.A. thesis: good luck findin'
                it!
        Garber: "Wordsworth at the Universal Dance" (_Studies in
              Romanticism_ 8 [1969])
        Gill: _William Wordsworth: A Life_
                Detailed and learned, but also well written and fascinating.
                (Hell, that describes MOST of these books!) Several of the
                "human interest" details in my on-line bio above were culled
                from this volume.
        Grob: _The Philosophic Mind_
                Read, the "Empiricist Mind": frustratingly hard-to-rebut
                empiricist readings of some of W.'s more well-known early
                poems (according to Grob, Wordsworth doesn't develop a
                "metaphysical" world-view until the "Intimations Ode"): a
                good corrective to the more common Idealist bent of
                many Wordsworthians.
        Hall: "Wordsworth's 'Lucy' Poems" (_Studies in Romanticism_ 10
              [1971])
        Hartman: "Introduction" to _The Selected Poetry & Prose of
              Wordsworth_
                (Best "pocket" version of W.s poems I've seen, by the
                way--if it's still in print.)
        Hartman: _Wordsworth's Poetry: 1787-1814_
                Hartman is one of the true "heavies" of Wordsworthian
                criticism.
        Harvey: _English Poetry in a Changing Society: 1780-1825_
        Havens: _The Mind of a Poet: A Study of Wordsworth's Thought_
              (2 vols.)
                An oft-referred-to "classic" of Wordsworthian criticism.
        Heffernan: "The Presence of the Absent Mother in Wordsworth's
              Prelude" (_Studies in Romanticism_ 27 [1988])
        Hirsch: _Wordsworth and Schelling_
                Good job correlating W.'s "ideas" with those of the
                German Romantic philosophy, although Hirsch concludes that
                the poet most likely arrived at his own philosophy
                independent of Schelling: lots of pantheism, and the
                "One," and all the rest of that neat stuff. (Oh, it's
                ALL ONE! Sorry!)
        Hoeveler: _Romantic Androgyny_
        Huxley, A.L.: "Wordsworth in the Tropics" (in _Collected Essays_)
                The common-sensical realist attacks the high-falutin'
                Romantic.
        Johnston: _Wordsworth and The Recluse_
        Jones: _The Egotistical Sublime: A History of Wordsworth's
              Imagination_
                Like Havens' book, a "classic in its field."
        Knight: _The Starlit Dome_
                Knight is always a special pleasure, whatever the subject.
        Lindley: "Dreams of Past Experience: The Archetypal Child"
              (_Wordsworth Circle_ 20[1989])
                The "Intimations Ode" as psychotherapy.
        Marsh: "Wordsworth's Ode: Obstinate Questionings" (_Studies in
              Romanticism_ 5 [1966])
        McConnell: _The Confessional Imagination: A Reading of Wordsworth's
              Prelude_
        Mellown: "The Development of Imagery in 'Home at Grasmere'"
              (_Wordsworth Circle_ 5 [Winter '73])
        Nabholtz: "The Journeys Homeward: Drama and Rhetoric in Book IV
              of the Prelude" (_Studies in Romanticism_ 10 [1971])
        Nesbitt, G.: _Wordsworth: The Biographical Background of His
              Poetry_
        Nuttall: _A Common Sky: Philosophy & the Literary Imagination_
        Potts: _Wordsworth's Prelude: A Study of Its Literary Form_
        Purkis, J.: _A Preface to Wordsworth_
                An excellent introduction to W.'s life & work.
        Rader: _Wordsworth: A Philosophical Approach_
                Traces the various philosophical sources (Hartley, Plato,
                German Idealism, etc.) from which Wordsworth (may have!)
                created his own unique philosophy. See Stallknecht for a
                study along similar lines.
        Raysor, ed.: _The English Romantic Poets: A Review of Research_
              [bibliographical]
        Reed: _Wordsworth: The Chronology of the Early Years: 1770-1799_
        Ruoff: _Wordsworth and Coleridge_
        Rzepka: _The Self as Mind: Vision and Identity in Wordsworth,
              Coleridge, and Keats_
                "Neat" psychological readings here; ditto Stelzig, below.
        Sampson: "Wordsworth and the Poor: The Poetry of Survival"
              (_Studies in Romanticism_ 23 [1984])
        de Selincourt: "Introduction" to _The Prelude_ [1805 version]
        Sherry: "Wordsworth's Metaphors for Eternity" (_Studies in
              Romanticism_ 17 [1978])
        Stallknecht: _Strange Seas of Thought: Studies in William
              Wordsworth's Philosophy of Man and Nature_
        Stelzig: _All Shades of Consciousness: Wordsworth's Poetry and
              the Self in Time_
                Interestingly, relates Wordsworth's "spots of time"
                (in _The Prelude_) to Jung's theory of synchronicity.
        Trilling, L.: "Commentary" [to "Resolution and Independence"],
              in _The Experience of Literature_
                Trilling's essays are a good place to begin: accessible
                and balanced views.
        ---: "The Immortality Ode," in _The Liberal Imagination_
        ---: "Wordsworth and the Rabbis," in _The Opposing Self_
                Here Trilling offers W.'s philosophy of quietude or
                "wise passiveness" as a spiritual corrective for our
                century's DISquietude.
        Witcutt: _Blake: A Psychological Study_
                The Appendix attempts to apply Jungian typology to the
                various English Romantics; W. is dubbed an "introverted
                sensation" type.
        Woodman: "Milton's Satan in Wordsworth's 'Vale of Soul-Making'"
              (_Studies in Romanticism_ 23 [1984])
        ---: "Shaman, Poet, and Failed Initiate: Reflections on
              Romanticism and Jungian Psychology" (_Studies in
              Romanticism_ 19.1)
        Woolley: "Wordsworth's Symbolic Vale..." (_Studies in Romanticism_
              7 [1968])
             
      
      
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