Wordsworth’s Vital Soul : The Sacred and Profane in Wordsworth’s Poetry

This book is an attempt to understand certain features ofthe poetry ofWordsworth which seem to me to be important. It is designed to uncover the ideas and intuitions which the poet shares with those who respond to the external world in a way which may broadly be termed 'religious'; I use the word 'uncover' intentionally, because I am primarily concerned with what lies beneath the surface of Wordsworth's poetry. Indeed, I hope that what follows will help to explain some of the peculiarities which appear in Wordsworth's poetry at first sight. By the word 'religious', used here in default ofa better word, I do not mean Christian, although the way to a later orthodoxy is latent in what follows: this is not an account of Wordsworth and eighteenth-century Christianity, but rather an attempt to discover structures in the poetry which are akin to fundamental and primitive patterns of belief. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 Childhood....Pages 19-36 Community....Pages 37-55 Man in Society — the Poetry of Reform....Pages 56-74 Man in Society: Creative and Uncreative Separation....Pages 75-90 Lyrical Ballads: Preface and Preparation....Pages 91-106 Lyrical Ballads: Dialogue and Suffering....Pages 107-127 Front Matter....Pages 129-129 Childhood (II)....Pages 131-150 Lyrical Ballads: Time, Place and Nature....Pages 151-171 The Lucy Poems....Pages 172-185 Front Matter....Pages 187-187 The Growth of Tenderness....Pages 189-209 The Stability of Home....Pages 210-229 Reintegration....Pages 230-247 Back Matter....Pages 248-259