William Wordsworth

One of the most enduringly popular of Romantic poets, William Wordsworth epitomized the spirit of his age with his celebration of the natural world and belief in the importance of feeling. This volume brings together a rich selection from the most creative period of Wordsworth's life - from "Tintern Abbey", an ode to the restorative powers of nature written during his intense friendship with Coleridge, to excerpts from his epic autobiographical poem, The Prelude. Also included are much loved short works such as "I Wandered lonely as a Cloud", "Composed Upon A Westminster Bridge" and the poignant "Lucy Gray". These poems demonstrate Wordsworth's astonishing range, power and inventiveness, and the sustained and captivating vision that informed his work.

The great Romantic poem of human consciousness, The Prelude takes place as its theme 'the growth of a poet's mind.' In its search for the origins of the adult personality, The Prelude takes the reader back to the formative moments of childhood and youth: the baby at the breast, the boy ranging over the Cumbrian fells, the revolutionary undergraduate. In many ways it can be seen as the first modern poem, challenging Milton as its redevinition of epic, as Milton challenged Homer and Viril This new Penguin English Poets edition of The Prelude contains the brief first draft, Was It for This, composed in 1798; The Prelude in two books completed in 1799; and The Prelude in its 1805 and 1850 versions, printed here in parallel texts. The editor provides an invaluable introductin to the exts and fuller, more detailed mnotes than in any previous edition, as well as significant textual variants and a biographical table of dates.

This epic work covers the experiences of Wordsworth's boyhood and his poetic development; his debt to literature; the awakening of his passionate interest in man; his hope and despair for the French Revolution; his life in London and in the country; the highs and lows of his career; his relationship with his sister Dorothy and his friendship with Coleridge. Through The Prelude Wordsworth was at last free to devote his life to its true vocation and to record his gratitude for the gift which brought him that freedom.