ABSTRACT

First published in 1974. Wordsworth, with Coleridge, is the major literary critic of the Romantic period. This volume assembles all of Wordsworth’s formal critical writings and a selection of critical comments from his correspondence. These documents are invaluable for Romantic poetry at large, and his theories — particularly on poetic diction, ordinary language and the nature of the creative process — inspired lively critical debate. This book discusses the nature and origin of Wordsworth’s criticism in general, and the literary tradition from which they sprang. The texts are succinctly annotated and there is a select bibliography. This book will be of interest to students of literature.

chapter |58 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|6 pages

Preface to The Borderers

1796–7

chapter 2|3 pages

Advertisement to Lyrical Ballads

1798

chapter 3|28 pages

Preface and Appendix to Lyrical Ballads

1800, 1802

chapter 4|3 pages

Note to ‘The Thorn'

1800

chapter 5|4 pages

Letter to Charles James Fox

1801

chapter 6|7 pages

Letter to John Wilson

1802

chapter 7|7 pages

Letter to Lady Beaumont

1807

chapter 8|3 pages

Letter to S. T. Coleridge

1809?

chapter 9|50 pages

Essays upon Epitaphs

1810?

chapter 10|5 pages

Preface to The Excursion

1814

chapter 11|17 pages

Preface of 1815

1815

chapter 12|27 pages

Essay, Supplementary to the Preface

1815

chapter 13|6 pages

Letter to Catherine Clarkson

1815