Wordsworth and Coleridge : lyrical ballads / John Blades.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blades, John.

Series:

Analysing texts (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))

Analysing texts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850. Lyrical ballads.

Wordsworth, William.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834--Criticism and interpretation.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.

English poetry--19th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

Romanticism--England.

Romanticism.

Criticism and interpretation.

England.

Physical Description:

xi, 291 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Summary:

In this lively and stimulating study, detailed analysis of the poems is closely grounded in the literary and historical contexts in which "Lyrical Ballads" was first conceived, realized and subsequently expanded into two volumes. Documenting the revisions of the early edition, John Blades carefully reassesses the poems in the light of Wordsworth's and Coleridge's literary theories, and then broadens the discussion by tracing the critical history of "Lyrical Ballads" over the two centuries since its first publication.

Contents:

Some Important Events During the Lives of Wordsworth and Coleridge ix

Part 1 Analysing Lyrical Ballads 5

1 Childhood and the Growth of the Mind 7

'Lucy Gray' 8

'We are seven' 16

'There was a Boy' 23

'Nutting' 32

2 Imagination 43

'Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey' 43

'The Nightingale' 56

'Love' 69

3 Old Age: a 'vital anxiousness' 83

Michael: A Pastoral Poem 84

'The Old Cumberland Beggar' 100

'The Fountain' 114

4 Social Issues: 'the mean and vulgar works of man' 127

'The Convict' 128

'The Female Vagrant' 141

'The Thorn' 156

5 Nature and the Supernatural: 'the strangeness of it' 173

'Lines written in early spring' 176

'The Tables Turned' 183

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 190

Part 2 The Context and the Critics 207

6 The Politics of Wordsworth and Coleridge 209

(a) Wordsworth and the 'Rabble-rousers' 211

(b) Coleridge and dreams of Utopia 214

(c) 1798 and after 217

7 Reading and Writing in Eighteenth-Century England 220

(a) Publishing, printing and book-selling 221

(b) Effects on writers 224

(c) Readers: education and literacy 227

(d) The Ballad revival 231

8 The Poet as Critic and Theorist 234

(a) Wordsworth and 'pre-established codes of decision' 234

(b) 'five hundred Sir Isaac Newtons': Coleridge's literary theory 242

9 Dorothy Wordsworth and the Lake Poets 251

(a) Dorothy among the poets 252

(b) 'more than half a poet': home at Alfoxden and Grasmere 257

(c) Dorothy herself: 'Come forth and feel the sun' 261

10 Critical Responses to Lyrical Ballads 264

I. A. Richards 269

Robert Mayo 273

Geoffrey H. Hartman 278

Paul de Man 282.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-288) and index.

ISBN:

1403904790

1403904804

OCLC:

54931609