Selected Poems (Wordsworth, William)

by Wordsworth, William (Author); Gill, Stephen (Editor/introduction)

• ISBN13: 9780140424423
• ISBN10: 0140424423
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-29
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

One of the most enduringly popular of the Romantic poets, William Wordsworth epitomized the spirit of his age with his celebration of the natural world and his 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 on 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 as lonely as a Cloud,” Composed Upon 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.

Author Biography

William Wordsworth (1770-û1850) was a major English Romantic poet known for his lyric verse. He was made poet laureate of England in 1843.
Stephen Gill is professor of English literature at Oxford University, a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and a member of the Wordsworth Trust. He is the author of William Wordsworth: A Life and Wordsworth and the Victorians.
Christopher Ricks is professor of humanities at Boston University and most recently author of Dylan-'s Visions of Sin.

Table of Contents

Chronology	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
Further Reading	p. xxix
A Note on the Texts	p. xxxii
Old Man Travelling	p. 3
The Ruined Cottage	p. 3
A Night-Piece	p. 18
The Old Cumberland Beggar	p. 19
Lines Written at a Small Distance from my House	p. 24
Goody Blake and Harry Gill	p. 26
The Thorn	p. 30
The Idiot Boy	p. 38
Lines Written in Early Spring	p. 53
Anecdote for Fathers	p. 54
We Are Seven	p. 56
Expostulation and Reply	p. 59
The Tables Turned	p. 60
Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey	p. 61
The Fountain	p. 66
The Two April Mornings	p. 68
'A slumber did my spirit seal'	p. 71
Song ('She dwelt among th' untrodden ways')	p. 71
'Strange fits of passion I have known'	p. 72
Lucy Gray	p. 73
Nutting	p. 75
'Three years she grew in sun and shower'	p. 77
The Brothers	p. 78
Hart-Leap Well	p. 92
From Home at Grasmere	p. 99
From Poems on the Naming of Places	p. 109
To Joanna	p. 109
'A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags'	p. 112
Michael	p. 114
'I travelled among unknown Men'	p. 128
To a Sky-Lark	p. 128
Alice Fell	p. 129
Beggars	p. 131
To a Butterfly ('Stay near me')	p. 133
To the Cuckoo	p. 133
'My heart leaps up when I behold'	p. 135
To H. C., Six Years Old	p. 135
'Among all lovely things my Love had been'	p. 136
To a Butterfly ('I've watched you')	p. 137
Resolution and Independence	p. 137
'Within our happy Castle there dwelt one'	p. 142
'The world is too much with us'	p. 144
'With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh'	p. 145
'Dear Native Brooks your ways have I pursued'	p. 145
'Great Men have been among us'	p. 146
'It is not to be thought of that the Flood'	p. 146
'When I have borne in memory what has tamed'	p. 147
'England! the time is come when thou shouldst wean'	p. 147
Composed by the Sea-Side, near Calais	p. 148
'It is a beauteous Evening, calm and free'	p. 149
To Toussaint L'Ouverture	p. 149
Composed in the Valley, near Dover, on the Day of Landing	p. 150
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge	p. 150
London, 1802	p. 151
'Nuns fret not at their Convent's narrow room'	p. 151
Yarrow Unvisited	p. 152
'She was a Phantom of delight'	p. 154
Ode to Duty	p. 155
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood	p. 157
'I wandered lonely as a Cloud'	p. 164
Stepping Westward	p. 164
The Solitary Reaper	p. 165
Elegiac Stanzas	p. 166
A Complaint	p. 169
Gipsies	p. 169
St Paul's	p. 170
'Surprized by joy - impatient as the Wind'	p. 171
Yew-Trees	p. 172
Composed at Cora Linn	p. 173
Yarrow Visited	p. 175
To R. B. Haydon, Esq. ('High is our calling, Friend!')	p. 178
Sequel to the Foregoing [Beggars]	p. 178
Ode: Composed upon an Evening of Extraordinary Splendor and Beauty	p. 180
The River Duddon: Conclusion	p. 183
'The unremitting voice of nightly streams'	p. 183
Airey-Force Valley	p. 184
Extempore Effusion Upon the Death of James Hogg	p. 184
'Glad sight wherever new with old'	p. 186
At Furness Abbey	p. 186
'I know an aged Man constrained to dwell'	p. 187
from The Prelude	p. 188
	p. 188
	p. 204
	p. 218
	p. 224
	p. 231
	p. 241
	p. 246
	p. 252
	p. 259
	p. 263
	p. 271
	p. 275
	p. 278
Notes	p. 285
Index of Titles	p. 309
Index of First Lines	p. 311
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