Wordsworth's Bardic vocation, 1787-1842 / Richard Gravil.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gravil, Richard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850--Criticism and interpretation.

Wordsworth, William.

Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850--Knowledge--History.

Literature and history--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Literature and history.

Historical poetry, English--History and criticism.

Historical poetry, English.

Druids and druidism in literature.

Mythology, Celtic, in literature.

Bards and bardism in literature.

Nationalism in literature.

Nature in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (421 p.)

Edition:

Second revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Cumbria, [England] : Humanities-Ebooks, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Wordsworth's Bardic Vocation, the most comprehensive critical study of the poet since the 1960s, presents the poet as balladist, sonneteer, minstrel, elegist, prophet of nature, and national bard. The book argues that Wordsworth's uniquely various oeuvre is unified by his sense of bardic vocation. Like Walt Whitman or the bards of Cumbria, Wordsworth sees himself as 'the people's remembrancer'. Like them, he sings of nature and endurance, laments the fallen, fosters national independence and liberty. His task is to reconcile in one society 'the living and the dead' and to nurture both 'the people' and 'the kind'.Review Comment: 'This erudite exposition, profligate with its ideas ... succeeds as few others have done in apprehending Wordsworth's career holistically, incorporating all its diversities and apparent inconsistencies into a unified vision. It justifies fully the notion proposed by Hughes and Heaney that he was England's last national poet.' -- Duncan Wu, Review of English Studies

Contents:

""Cover ""; ""Title Page""; ""Copyright""; ""Dedication""; ""Epigraphs""; ""CONTENTS""; ""Preface and Acknowledgements""; ""Abbreviations""; ""Introduction""; ""PART ONE""; ""Chapter 1: �Among the Men of Old�""; ""Wordsworth�s Primal Scene""; ""Varieties of Druidism""; ""Natural Supernaturalism?""; ""Patriarchs or Jacobins?""; ""Chapter 2: �Unforgotten Lays�""; ""The Kingdom of Rheged, a Wordsworthian Ethnoscape""; ""Rheged�s Bards""; ""An Evening Walk""; ""Last Bard of Rheged?""; ""Chapter 3: �Indignant Hills�""; ""�Black Helvellyn�s inmost Womb�""

""�Glaramara�s inmost Caves�""""A Visionary Republic""; ""A Short History of Wordsworthshire""; ""PART TWO""; ""Chapter 4: �And of the Poor�""; ""Salisbury Plain, 1793�1798""; ""The Ruined Cottage, 1797�1804""; ""Chapter 5: Lyrical Ballads and �The Pathos of Humanity�""; ""Chapter 6: �Nature� in �The Poem upon the Wye�""; ""The Glad Preamble (lines 1�23a)""; ""The �System� of Nature""; ""�The Language of the Sense�""; ""�For thou art with me�""; ""PART THREE""; ""Chapter 7: Peopling Elysium""; ""The Discharged Soldier (1798�1804)""; ""Michael (1800)""

""The Leech-Gatherer (1802�07)""""Chapter 8: �Lucy� and her Cousins""; ""Goslar and the Underworld: Hoc erat?""; ""Classical Myth and �Radical Difference�""; ""The Lucy Quintet""; ""Chapter 9: �The Milder Day�; or, Manliness and Minstrelsy""; ""Hart-Leap Well""; ""Reconfiguring Manliness""; ""Poems, in Two Volumes""; ""Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle""; ""The White Doe of Rylstone""; ""�Let us have the old Poets and Robin Hood�""; ""PART FOUR""; ""Chapter 10: Making The Excursion Do""; ""A Day in (Quaker) Heaven""; ""The Return of the Repressed""

""Chapter 11: National Pieties or, the Road to Waterloo""; ""The Convention of Cintra""; ""Wordsworth, John Scott and Waterloo""; ""The Making of a Tory Apologist""; ""Wordsworth�s long Striptease""; ""Chapter 12: �The Steps which I have Trod�""; ""Guilt, Sorrow, and Extreme Distress""; ""The Ministry of Pain""; ""�Genuine Liberty�""; ""EPILOGUE: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Zeno, Virgil and Ossian""; ""Shall we �see them face to face�?""; ""Intimations of Elysium""; ""Elegies and Epitaphs""; ""The high water-mark of intellect in this age""; ""INDEX""

""Humanities-Ebooks """"Review Comment on this Book""; ""Full spread Cover showing Thomas Jones's The Bard""; ""Preface and Acknowledgements""; ""Abbreviations""; ""Introduction""; ""Part 1""; ""The World of Shades""; ""Chapter 1: �Among the Men of Old�""; ""Wordsworth�s Primal Scene""; ""Varieties of Druidism""; ""Natural Supernaturalism?""; ""Patriarchs or Jacobins?""; ""Chapter 2: �Unforgotten Lays�""; ""The Kingdom of Rheged, a Wordsworthian Ethnoscape""; ""Rheged�s Bards""; ""An Evening Walk""; ""Last Bard of Rheged?""; ""Chapter 3: �Indignant Hills�""

""�Black Helvellyn�s inmost Womb�""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-84760-344-0