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William Wordsworth: A Life

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'A poet's life in dedication to poetry.'

This book could be a good read for anyone interested in the life of William Wordsworth, from his early radicalism to his later life dedicated to poetry. The book offers an intimate knowledge of the poet's manuscripts and contemporary records, shedding light on the poet's hard-won life of dedication and triumph. Stephen Gill's lucid narrative brings us back freshly to poetry that is full of human understanding and experience, and a tested, sober faith in 'Man's unconquerable mind'.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.
Sale

William Wordsworth: A Life

Regular price $7.69 Now $3.31 Save 57% more
Unit price
per
ISBN: 9780192827470
Estimated First-hand Retail Price: $51.15
Date of Publication: 1990-09-13
Format: Paperback
Goodreads rating: 4.0
(rated by 40 readers)

Description

Based on intimate knowledge of the poet's manuscripts, on a fresh look at contemporary records, and on a study of the mass of material that has appeared since the last serious biography, a quarter-century ago, this new account of Wordsworth focuses on what was most important to him - his life as a writer.

The common notion is that the older Wordsworth betrayed his youthful, radical self to become a prosy Tory bore. By contrast, this intelligent and authoritative biography demonstrates that once the poet had returned to the Lake District, determined to live dedicated to poetry at whatever cost, his life took on a unity and purpose it had previously lacked. His politics certainly changed, and his poetic power waned, but from 1799 almost until his death in 1850, Wordsworth single-mindedly shaped
his own life in submission to an imaginative possession whose importance he never doubted.

It was, in its way, a heroic life. Wordsworth suffered numbing blows from the death of friends and family, including three of his own children. Critics reviled his poetry for over twenty years, and he never made enough money by his pen to live on - unlike his dear friend Scott. Yet his dedication to his art did not waver. In middle age he knew that contemporaries valued him as a moral sage; in old age he suffered the embarrassment of being a cultural icon. The lucid narrative that Stephen Gill
draws out is the story of that hard-won triumph: its purpose is to bring readers back freshly to poetry that is full of human understanding and experience, and a tested, sober faith in 'Man's unconquerable mind'.


Author: Stephen Gill
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 544
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 13 Sep 1990
Condition guide
 

Similar Reads

'A poet's life in dedication to poetry.'

This book could be a good read for anyone interested in the life of William Wordsworth, from his early radicalism to his later life dedicated to poetry. The book offers an intimate knowledge of the poet's manuscripts and contemporary records, shedding light on the poet's hard-won life of dedication and triumph. Stephen Gill's lucid narrative brings us back freshly to poetry that is full of human understanding and experience, and a tested, sober faith in 'Man's unconquerable mind'.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.