The Simple Wordsworth: Studies in the Poems 1979-1807 [Paperback]

First published in 1960, this book studies Wordsworths simple poems, such as the Lyrical Ballads, as products of a sophisticated and powerfully successful literary genius. The author aims to approach the poems as perhaps Wordsworth expected his first readers to; but as they have never been in fact. The result of this approach is to discover a Wordsworth far different to that which he has previously been presented as  the Sage of Rydal at one extreme and a na?ve perpetrator of poetical blunders at the other  and, the author argues, a far more exciting one. This book will be of interest to students of literature.

Acknowledgements; Prologue; I. Wordsworth and Simplicity; II. Three Lyrical Ballads; Simon Lee The Idiot Boy The Thorn; III. Goslar Poems IV. Wordsworth and Nature V. The Apotheosis of the Animal; Epilogue

First published in 1960, this book studies Wordsworths simple poems, such as the Lyrical Ballads, as products of a sophisticated and powerfully successful literary genius. The author aims to approach the poems as perhaps Wordsworth expected his first readers to; but as they have never been in fact. The result of this approach is to discover a Wordsworth far different to that which he has previously been presented as  the Sage of Rydal at one extreme and a na?ve perpetrator of poetical blunders at the other  and, the author argues, a far more exciting one. This book will be of interest to students of literature.