The Paradox of Wordsworth

"Wordsworth - stupendous genius! damned fool!" – Byron

Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850. It’s hard to find criticisms of his work since he was held in such high regard.

“To Wordsworth's contemporaries, his very phrase "similitude in dissimilitude" (from the Preface to Lyrical Ballads) would have been immediately recognizable in relation to debates about wit and humor.” (Bevis page 148)

“Speaking of Wordsworth's reception by the critics, William Jerdan thought it odd that the poet was often "held up as a Zany with the cap and bells" even as he was "worshipped as an exalted Genius", (Bevis page 149) A Zany, being a clown, makes this an odd paradox indeed. But many a creative person can be described as such though with not as strong language. Eccentric is an acceptable word in modern day terms. Though this descriptive may not be applied to Wordsworth’s life, it perhaps was more appropriate for his work. The poetry of Wordsworth may contain this paradox more than the artist himself.



Works cited:

Bevis, Matthew. "Wordsworth's Folly." Wordsworth Circle 43.3 (2012): 146-151. MLA
International Bibliography. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

To revise or not to revise...

Wordsworth was a habitual revisionist. Stephen Parrish of Cornell University quotes Wordsworth’s editor, Ernest de Selincourt as saying, "it is probable that no poet ever paid more meticulous or prolonged attention to his text".

To say that Wordsworth over revised would be an understatement. Selincourt, in the end, skipped over much of Wordsworth’s work that went unnoticed during the editing process. “The Ruined Cottage was one such lost poem until 1969; Adventures on Salisbury Plain was another, until the appearance of Gill's volume; the magnificent two-part Prelude is a third—unknown until 1964 and still unpublished in Britain (in the U. S. it appeared recently in the Norton Anthology of English Literature, and it will be the second volume in the Cornell/ Harvester series).” (Parrish page 241)

Wordsworth's text and manuscripts were a mess from over revision. I could not imagine being an editor for one such as him. As a poet myself I am well aware that a limit needs to be set on the amount of revision a particular text may need. Do we trust Wordsworth that his poetry did not lose it's original meaning at the time her first put pen to paper? His work was years in the making due to his obsession with revision.

Works cited:

Parrish, Stephen. "The Worst Of Wordsworth." Wordsworth Circle 42.4 (2011): 240-241. MLA    .
     International Bibliography. Web. 22 Apr. 2013

William Wordsworth, 1770 – 1850. Born in Cockermouth in West Cumberland. His mother died when he was eight years old and father at age thirteen. At a young age William was encouraged toward his gift for poetry by his headmaster William Taylor, whose library Wordsworth made a habit to use voraciously. He earned a degree at St. John’s College, Cambridge University.

As a young man Wordsworth was interested by France where he traveled often, learning the language and working as a tutor. He fell in love with the French woman Annette Vallon. The two had a daughter, Caroline, and planned to marry but economics drove Wordsworth back to England. Before he could return the family was separated by war, never to be reunited.(Wordsworth)

In the Descriptive Sketches Wordsworth says:

 “Were there below, a spot of holy ground.

By Pain and her sad family unfound,

Sure Nature's God that spot to man had giv'n. . .”

"Nature's God" is not necessarily the same as the Christian God; and examination of his writings later in the decade suggests that Wordsworth was becoming increasingly reserved on these matters.” (Beer)

“Wordsworth had gone up to Cambridge, satisfying his family that he was intent on preparing for Holy Orders. But alas, he had since left school to tour the Alps, to fall in with the London Dissenting Societies and other radicals, clerical or otherwise, to bond eventually with his sister to a degree that may well have made everyone uncomfortable, and by 1796 to have formed close ties with the Unitarian radical Coleridge and the convicted seditionist John Thelwall. As he admits both in Descriptive Sketches and The Prelude, he was not pleasing his relatives. Yes, the first edition of Lyrical Ballads had appeared in 1798, but in the eyes of those he had disappointed that scarcely betokened a job.” (Fry)

For a few short years Wordsworth collaborated with his colleague Samuel Taylor Coleridge . The two were close friends and neighbors, trading inspiration as well as verse, while William and his sister lived at Alfoxden House, Somersetshire.

Works cited

Beer, John. "The Paradoxes Of Nature In Wordsworth And Coleridge." Wordsworth Circle 40.1 (2009): 4-9. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.

Fry, Paul H. "Time To Retire? Coleridge And Wordsworth Go To Work." Wordsworth Circle 41.1 (2010): 23-29. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.

Wordsworth, William The Romantic Period. Comp. Deidre Shauna Lynch and Jack Stillinger. 9th ed.

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 270-272. Print. Vol. D of The Norton Anthology English Literature. 4 vols