Selected poems / William Wordsworth ; edited with an introduction by Stephen Gill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850.

Contributor:

Gill, Stephen, 1941-

Series:

Penguin classics

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Physical Description:

xxxiii, 314 pages ; 20 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Penguin, 2004.

Summary:

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 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 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.

In his introduction, Wordsworth's biographer Stephen Gill examines the personal and political events that shaped his poetic career, and traces the major themes running through his work. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading, explanatory notes and an index of titles and first lines.

Contents:

Old Man Travelling 3

The Ruined Cottage 3

A Night-Piece 18

The Old Cumberland Beggar 19

Lines Written at a Small Distance from my House 24

Goody Blake and Harry Gill 26

The Thorn 30

The Idiot Boy 38

Lines Written in Early Spring 53

Anecdote for Fathers 54

We Are Seven 56

Expostulation and Reply 59

The Tables Turned 60

Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey 61

The Fountain 66

The Two April Mornings 68

'A slumber did my spirit seal' 71

Song ('She dwelt among th' untrodden ways') 71

'Strange fits of passion I have known' 72

Lucy Gray 73

Nutting 75

'Three years she grew in sun and shower' 77

The Brothers 78

Hart-Leap Well 92

From Home at Grasmere 99

From Poems on the Naming of Places 109

To Joanna 109

'A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags' 112

Michael 114

'I travelled among unknown Men' 128

To a Sky-Lark 128

Alice Fell 129

Beggars 131

To a Butterfly ('Stay near me') 133

To the Cuckoo 133

'My heart leaps up when I behold' 135

To H. C., Six Years Old 135

'Among all lovely things my Love had been' 136

To a Butterfly ('I've watched you') 137

Resolution and Independence 137

'Within our happy Castle there dwelt one' 142

'The world is too much with us' 144

'With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh' 145

'Dear Native Brooks your ways have I pursued' 145

'Great Men have been among us' 146

'It is not to be thought of that the Flood' 146

'When I have borne in memory what has tamed' 147

'England! the time is come when thou shouldst wean' 147

Composed by the Sea-Side, near Calais 148

'It is a beauteous Evening, calm and free' 149

To Toussaint L'Ouverture 149

Composed in the Valley, near Dover, on the Day of Landing 150

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge 150

London, 1802 151

'Nuns fret not at their Convent's narrow room' 151

Yarrow Unvisited 152

'She was a Phantom of delight' 154

Ode to Duty 155

Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood 157

'I wandered lonely as a Cloud' 164

Stepping Westward 164

The Solitary Reaper 165

Elegiac Stanzas 166

A Complaint 169

Gipsies 169

St Paul's 170

'Surprized by joy - impatient as the Wind' 171

Yew-Trees 172

Composed at Cora Linn 173

Yarrow Visited 175

To R. B. Haydon, Esq. ('High is our calling, Friend!') 178

Sequel to the Foregoing [Beggars] 178

Ode: Composed upon an Evening of Extraordinary Splendor and Beauty 180

The River Duddon: Conclusion 183

'The unremitting voice of nightly streams' 183

Airey-Force Valley 184

Extempore Effusion Upon the Death of James Hogg 184

'Glad sight wherever new with old' 186

At Furness Abbey 186

'I know an aged Man constrained to dwell' 187

from The Prelude 188.

ISBN:

0140424423

OCLC:

56466966