Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / General; Poetry / American / General; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) has long been one of the best-known and best-loved English poets. The Lyrical Ballads, written with Coleridge, is a landmark in the history of English romantic poetry. His celebration of nature and of the beauty and poetry in the commonplace embody a unified and coherent vision that was profoundly innovative.
This volume presents the poems in their order of composition and in their earliest completed state, enabling the reader to trace Wordsworth's poetic development and to share the experience of his contemporaries. It includes a large sample of the finest lyrics, and also longer narratives such as The Ruined Cottage, Home at Grasmere, Peter Bell, and the autobiographical masterpiece, The Prelude (1805). All the major examples of Wordsworth's prose on the subject of poetry are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

The type is really readable too
Quick point. Not only does the editor pick out the best versions of Wordsworth's poems (as the other reviewer so accurately stated) but unlike other editions of Wordsworth I have seen, the poems are printed in a single column in readable type.

THIS edition ROCKS!!!!

I assume everyone reading this review has an opinion about Wordsworth, so I will simply note he is one of my favorite poets. You may disagree. FOOEY on you if you do!!!

Let's talk about THIS EDITION
The comments have been about Wordsworth, not about the edition in question.

Potential purchasers should know that Stephen Gill has created a strange volume.Wordsworth lived to be 80, and revised his poetry all his life, leaving a Complete Works divided into thematic categories.

Most editors respect the rule of honoring the author's final intentions, so that a revised version of a poem is "what the author really meant."

Gill tosses that rule overboard, and in fact does exactly the opposite:his stated intent is to reprint the *earliest* version of any given poem.So, for instance, we get "The Ruined Cottage" as a work in itself, not as later incorporated into "The Excursion."

Also, less debatably, Gill arranges the poems in sequence of composition, the better for students to trace WW's development.

Why does Gill look to the earlier works?His explanation is that it goes along with the chronological sequence.Looking at a poem WW wrote in 1801, it does not help if we are reading revisions from 1835 or whenever.

But Gill has a better, unstated reason.LATE WORDSWORTH SUCKS.The man's revisions of his own work are almost never for the better, and the older poet's lack of inspiration is painfully evident.

If you want to give WW a fair shot -- if you want to understand what in his poetry blew people's minds and made him a giant of Romanticism -- then you gotta break the Textual Editing Rules, and you gotta read the poems as WW first wrote them, not as he later revised them.

This, therefore, is the edition to read.

Wordworth is fantastic
The book is a very compilation of Wordsworth's best works.On the negative, the book arrived with a knife slice down the side of the cover.Otherwise the book is set very nicely with good commentaries at the back on each poem.I found this book had the best background information on the text.

The pleasure of reading Wordsworth
Wordsworth is a beloved writer of mine. I love his passionate and direct descriptions of Nature, his reflective calm, his deep moral sense, his simplicity and beauty of language. I love the thoughtfulness of his poetry, and its music.
His lines are memorable lines and they evoke sensations sweet felt in the heart. He is a poet who brings with him a sense of both the sublime and the simple combined.
There are of course many non- memorable lines and many poems which seem at times to be versified prose. But in the best Wordsworth in the great Wordsworth there is the Literature which makes us Love Life More.
At some point I think each and every reader can be uplifted by this great poetic soul.

A Giant with flaws
Wordsworth's poem "Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" is one of the master works of the English linguage.It is a poem which gives great pleasure and will greatly assist the reader in his or her own writing.Coleridge
writes in his famous literary biography that Wordsworth did not take seriously the Platonic philosophical heart of the poem.I
cannot know how accurate Coleridge's evaluation is.

I, personally, do not really like "The Prelude".It has informative points and tells something of Wordsworth's attitude.He seems quite pleased about the presence of "Negro Ladies" (his words) in London which may say something of his attitude toward race.If the poem were shorter, I should like it more I believe.Keats has a lot, usually unflattering, about Wordsworth's use of the first person in his poems.

The "Lucy" poems do not rank with "Intimations of Immortality".I find them works of great craftmanship rather than the genius that flows over in "Intimations of Immortality".

Coleridge goes into who wrote what lines in the Coleridge poem
of the Ancient Mariner, but the Wordsworth contribution is substantial.

"We Are Seven" is a look into the heart of a young child.It is
in keeping with "Intimations of Immortality" in that respect."Intimations" is without doubt the finer poem.

Anyone who loves the English language or would master the language should read Wordsworth at his very best. "Intimations" in quality of language rises to the level of Shakespeare.Better can be said of no poetry.But, unlike Shakespeare, Wordsworth wrote a great deal of second or third rate poetry.

If you would see the English language at or near its best, read "Intimations". It may give you as it has given many lovers of poetry thoughts "too deep for tears". ... Read more

Product Description
Selected Poetry of William Wordsworth represents Wordsworth’s prolific output, from the poems first published in Lyrical Ballads in 1798 that changed the face of English poetry to the late “Yarrow Revisited.” Wordsworth’s poetry is celebrated for its deep feeling, its use of ordinary speech, the love of nature it expresses, and its representation of commonplace things and events. As Matthew Arnold notes, “[Wordsworth’s poetry] is great because of the extraordinary power with which [he] feels the joy offered to us in nature, the joy offered to us in the simple elementary affections and duties.” ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Wordsworth's collection of poetry
Wordsworth's descriptions and comparisons are so vivid that you feel like you're in the setting to poem is striving to create. This is a truly remarkable example of fine poetry. Wordsworth commonly uses the rhyme scheme ABAB in his quatrains and AABCCB for his sestets. He writes quite a few of his poems in pastoral form, which a focus on nature, but not devoid of a rhyme scheme. The length of his poems vary greatly, ranging from 2-214 pages long! His one 214 page long poem is obviously the highlight of the book: "The Prelude, or Growth, of a Poet's Mind". It's an autobiographical poem divided into sections due to it's longevity. A few of his poems are controversial ("The Idiot Boy"?!), the vast majority are fantastic. The mere fact that he was able to write a 214 page autobiographical poem shows what a great poet he was. It's great to read such a fine example of poetry. Highly recommended.

Thoughts that are too deep for tears
From time to time I return to reread Wordsworth. There is a spirit of calm and consolation, which combines with the sublime that makes his poetry especially soothing and uplifting. His poetry is sympathetic and understandable but also deeply reflective. The great odes 'Tintern Abbey' and 'Intimations of Immortality' seem truly to provide a sense of something 'more deeply interfused, a power whose dwelling is the light and living air'
Wordsworth is not doctrinal but he is a profoundly religious poet. And he gives a sense of the natural world as awe - inspiring in itself and suggestive of something greater and more meaningful.
I love many of his shorter poems, some of the sonnets especially. The lines, the great great lines stay in the mind and are a help and a hope.
No wonder so many people have found in readinghim as John Stuart Mill reports in his 'Autobiography' a way out of despair.

Wandering lonely as a cloud
To me, poetry is like a swimming pool into which I have to dip my toe to test the temperature of the water before I jump in.I have to take it just a little bit at a time and allow myself to absorb it as well as enjoy it, and this volume of Wordsworth is something I find accessible and welcoming but challenging enough to engage my interest.Unlike his contemporaries of the Romantic movement like Blake and Byron who immersed themselves in wild fantasy and dark mythology, Wordsworth writes about things just about everybody can relate to -- nature, neighbors, family, nation, self-realization, glow-worms -- using direct language that avoids obscure metaphors.Granted, not many of us these days find the opportunity to observe a shepherd at work or hike over the Alps, but Wordsworth did, and tells us about it with imagination and exuberance.

The characters in Wordsworth's poems are vagrants, wanderers, beggars, figures from local legends, generally people who live outside of the mainstream or are forgotten by society, the humblest of the humble.There is Johnny the errant Idiot Boy, who is sent off on a horse to fetch a doctor for his mother's ailing friend but instead takes a personal journey governed by his limited imagination.There is the isolated Lucy, "a violet by a mossy stone" who "dwelt among the untrodden ways."There is old Timothy the Childless Father, who tries sorrowfully to maintain his spirits by continuing his hunting excursions after a period of mourning for the death of his last daughter.

The central piece in this collection is "The Prelude," Wordsworth's autobiographical poem.After explaining his desire to look beyond traditional poetical subjects like history and chivalry, he proceeds to document the development of his aesthetic, noting the importance of solitude to a budding poet, discussing his years at Cambridge and his undistinguished academic performance, his walking tour through Europe at the time of the French Revolution, and his sympathies for the common man arising from his love of nature.Several sonnets written around 1803 show him turning his attention to national matters, such as lamentations for England's lack of current literary figures as great as Milton and calls for defense against Napoleonic invasion ("To the Men of Kent," "In the Pass of Killicranky").

Adoration of nature is Wordworth's most salient attribute, and, having found his pictorial voice from an early age ("An Evening Walk" is astonishingly sophisticated verse for a seventeen-year-old to have written), he devotes the lion's share of his poetry to idylls, pastorals, dithyrambic odes to the beauty of the the landscapes around his boyhood home in Grasmere.With the exception of some London street scenes in "The Prelude" and elsewhere, there are very few references in his poetry to urbanization and industrialization; reading it, one would think England a permanently medieval country of quiet rustic villages and sparsely populated woodlands.It would seem that materialism and the chaos of living in an increasingly technological society mattered not at all to Wordsworth, and his poetry has all the more longevity because of it. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Dorothy Wordsworth's journals are a unique record of her life with her brother William, at the time when he was at the height of his poetic powers. Invaluable for the insight they give into the daily life of the poet and his friendship with Coleridge, they are also remarkable for their spontaneity and immediacy, and for the vivid descriptions of people, places, and incidents that inspired some of Wordsworth's best-loved poems. The Grasmere Journal was begun at Dove Cottage in May 1800 and kept for three years. Dorothy notes the walks and the weather, the friends, country neighbors and beggars on the roads; she sets down accounts of the garden, of Wordsworth's marriage, their concern for Coleridge, the composition of poetry. The earlier Alfoxden Journal was written during 1797-8, when the Wordsworths lived near Coleridge in Somerset. Not intended for publication, but to "give Wm Pleasure by it," both journals have a quality recognized by Wordsworth when he wrote of Dorothy that "she gave me eyes, she gave me ears." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Wordsworthless
I love Wordsworth.Discovering his poems at a very early age was one of those rare watershed moments for me, to which anyone possessed of a deep love of reading can relate.It was one of those rare epiphanies when you realise that someone feels the same way that you do and, more to the point, has been able -seemingly effortlessly - to put these deepest feelings that you have never been able to articulate, have well-nigh despaired of articulating, into beautiful language.Discovering Wordsworth came to nothing less than discovering that I was not alone in the world, that I never need be so again as long as I had books.

But this book is not about Wordsworth, as I had hoped, after realising that he was the one figure in my literary pantheon about whom I'd never read a full biography; neither is it about his poetry.It is rather a boring set of journal entries by his sister, Dorothy.Well, that's half the book.The other half consists of Ms. Woof's tedious notes upon these tedious entries, making such things as the location of the Wordsworth privy in relation to Dove Cottage (The Wordsworth House) eminently clear to the reader.Now, should I ever visit the Lake District again via the "Lake District Roundabout" - things have changed a bit in 200 years,I shall know exactly where Wordsworth and sister micturated and defecated - but precious little else.

For pedants only, I should think, for those who can say with a sneer rather than with a sigh:

"Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"

A Passion for the Particular*
Dorothy Wordsworth's journals are an exquisite and delicate record of everyday life with the Wordsworths (Dorothy, William, Mary, his wife, and their close network of friends like Coleridge and Sara Hutchinson). Most interesting are her depictions of the landscapes and her descriptions of the marginalised peoples. Her journals note down destitute figures, a begger woman and her sons, a woman who drowned herself, two beggers, the plodding mail man etc.

Dorothy opens the window to a domesticated William Wordsworth, the Poet, at work in the acts of creation. Sunday Morning [14th of March 1802] reads, "...while we were at Breakfast that is (for I had breakfasted) he, with his Basin of Broth before him untouched and a little plate of Bread and butter he wrote the Poem to a Butterfly! He ate not a morsel, nor put on his stockings but sate with his shirt neck unbuttoned, and his waistcoat open while he did it."

Many literary critics have chosen to see Dorothy Wordsworth as a shadow of her brother, these readers say that Dorothy does not pocess a coherent self and they fault the patriarchal powers for her lack of an active self. I see Dorothy Wordsworth as a delicate, compassionate and kind person with "A Passion for the Particular."* She is, I feel, well aware of her self as a self, and also well aware of other selves as themselves. Her journal is littered with what she does achieves in her daily life.

This journal is a fantastic bedtime read. Her unique and careful narrative style, her emphasis and focus on truthful detail, all these make reading the journal a real pleasure. I only wish I discovered her earlier.

* This phrase is taken from the title of Elizabeth Gunn's book on Dorothy Wordsworth. ... Read more

Product Description
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is acknowledged as the greatest dramatist of all time. He excels in plot, poetry and wit, and his talent encompasses the great tragedies of Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth as well as the moving history plays and the comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and As You Like It with their magical combination of humour, ribaldry and tenderness. This volume is a reprint of the Shakespeare Head Press edition, and it presents all the plays in chronological order in which they were written. It also includes Shakespeare's Sonnets, as well as his longer poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (73)

In defense of Shakespare
I posted these comments in response to one of amazon's top 500 reviewers whose review can basically be summed up as "Shakespeare is old hat, I don't like him, and therefore he deserves to be forgotten."Since I have seen other reviews of Shakespeare on amazon that take the form of "Shakespeare?Yecch.Now, Top Gun, that's something worth seeing!," I thought I would post these comments as their own review.Just writing these comments has rekindled my enthusiasm for the great Bard, not that it needed rekindling.

By the way, I think this edition, as several have pointed out, has a real place on the bookshelf of the Shakespeare lover.One way I enjoy reading Shakespeare is while following along with a recording, of which fortunately there have been many good ones, going back at least as far as the wonderful Argo series back in the 1950s and 1960s, and completed in time for the 400th anniversary of the Bard's birth in 1964.When following with an annotated edition, I am way too tempted to keep checking the notes.When following with this or another bare-bones text, the temptation is automatically gone.

Now, on to my comment:

I deleted my original comments some time ago, having realized that I couldn't respond to Jmark's lengthy remarks about Shakespeare in just a few pithy words, and so I only ended up misrepresenting myself and Shakespeare (not that he needs me to defend him).I resolved to make a lengthier, more reasoned, and less personal response to Jmark's diatribe at a future date.

Having re-read Jmark's review and his responses to my remarks, and deduced what I must have originally said in the comments I deleted, I still am of the opinion that his arguments don't hold water.His essential argument is that "I don't like Shakespeare and therefore he deserves to be relegated to the trash heap."Certainly Jmark is entitled not to like Shakespeare, just as I am entitled not to like Michael Jackson; it's the "therefore" part that makes no sense.To answer his assertions one by one:

1)If Shakespeare were not a vital author, nobody past the age of being influenced by the educational system would pay any attention to him.Certainly he would have been forgotten ages ago since the teachers who had been forced to read him when going through the deluded educational system would have rebelled against the idea of teaching such claptrap when they joined that system.

2)"Silly romances," "boring dramas," "improbable plots," "vulgar jokes" are all value judgments and relate back to Jmark's "I don't like Shakespeare" thesis (well, some of the jokes *are* pretty vulgar).If Jmark finds the romances silly and the dramas boring, he certainly has a right to.I doubt I've ever judged a play, movie, opera, etc. (especially opera) on the probability of its plot.I love Crank also and it's probably fairly improbable, although I don't expect folks to be watching Crank 400 years from now, assuming that civilization hasn't self-destructed by then; as for Crank 2, well once was enough given the level of its violence.I look at how well the story is told; Jmark and I will have to agree to disagree on this one.

3)Actually, the "nuts" do get to have it both ways.On the one hand, Shakespeare does deserve to be approached with a certain degree of reverence, which doesn't take Jmark's comments about "no one must dare question" out of the realm of hyperbole.And on the other hand, the plays themselves *are* entertaining, enormously so.As two examples, and these from a couple of the lesser-known plays, I offer the scenes in Much Ado About Nothing where Beatrice and Benedict are tricked into believing that the other is in love with her/him or the ending of the Cymbeline where all the plot twists are more or less straightened out to the hilarity of the audience; actually, these are both pretty improbable which doesn't take away from their entertainment value.I have kept to comic scenes here, although Cymbeline is usually classed among the tragedies or more recently among a new genre called the romances.It would be just as easy to find entertaining scenes among the tragedies or the histories, and I'll let each person do that for him- or herself.Actually, the comparison with Crank 2 is not completely off the wall; Titus Andronicus is at least as violent as Crank, but Shakespeare's poetry and the strength of some of the characterizations raise the play way above the level of Crank 2.

4)The comparison with Beowulf is patently unfair.When reading Beowulf, one would need to have a glossary of every word in order to make sense of it at all.In Shakespeare, only some words need to be glossed and, with a little experience, one will not need to check all of the glosses because a lot of the phrases and constructions are used over and over again.Likewise, most members of a Shakespeare audience will not have read the play in advance; it doesn't matter because, with a little attention, one can follow the story even without understanding every single word because the inflections of the actors and the stage business make it clear and carry the viewer along.The same could not be said of a performer presenting Beowulf in the original English.

5)The "intriguing" and "entertaining" arguments are once again personal opinons.However, looking through Jmark's other reviews, I can see that he is mostly into relatively modern stuff.I think we can easily take his opinion about Shakespeare with a grain of salt, given his comments about "what was entertaining even twenty years ago" and "last year's fashions"; old = bad, new = good (except when what is new gets to be twenty years old and then it = bad as well).

And finally, I would love to see Shakespeare "freed from the support of the educational system," just so I could watch him still be considered one of the most vibrant authors (yes, my opinion, just as Jmark believes just the opposite).And I'll leave out Shakespeare's influence on more modern authors.

I've probably spent way too much time responding to this post.I will not be doing a follow-up, even if Jmark responds.My intent in responding was to defend my beloved Shakespeare whom I discovered several years before I even reached high school and so my admiration of him has nothing to do with what the academics think.

Tales of the bard
Shakespeare requires no introduction -- he is "the Bard," the most imposing playwright and storyteller in the English language. And "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works" brings together every one of his 39 plays, ranging from harrowing tragedies to airy little puffs of comedy -- and even the lesser plays are still brilliant.

The plays basically are divided into comedies, histories and tragedies. The tragedies are pretty much... tragic, the comedies are not always funny but end semi-happily, and the histories... well, dramatizations of history.

And everybody has heard of the greats here -- the Scottish lord who murders his way to kingship, young lovers divided by a feud, a Moorish general who is driven mad with jealousy, an elderly king whose arrogance rips his life apart, a very cleaned-up version of Henry VIII's split from his first wife, the goofy Prince Hal and his growth into a great king. There are feuding fairies, bickering lovers, romantic tangles, Julius Caesar's demise, gender-bending, an exiled duke/magician on his island, and the infamous "pound of flesh" bargain.

But Shakespeare also wrote a bunch of lesser-known plays that often can't be so neatly categorized -- a rotten love affair during the siege of Troy, a Roman general attacking his own city, an Athenian gentleman embittered by humanity, Richard III's Machiavellian plot to become king, two sets of twins separated at birth, a corrupt judge obsessed with a lovely nun, Falstaff's doomed efforts to make money, and so on. Some of these ("Troilus and Cressida") aren't nearly as good as his "main" body of work, but they're still excellent.

For all Shakespeare's plays, it's best to read them AFTER you've seen a good performance. Otherwise, it's like reading a movie script to a movie you haven't seen -- easy to get lost, and the dramatic effects aren't easy to connect to. But if you've seen performances of any/all of Shakespeare's plays, then his vibrant stories and poetry leap off the page.

There are long eloquent speeches, puns, clever linguistic twists, and evocative language that soaks the play in atmosphere ("With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine/There sleeps Titania sometime of the night/Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight..."). In fact, his plays are diamond mines of quotations -- some are infamous ("To be or not to be") and some of which have floated into public knowledge without labels ("Cowards die many times before their deaths/The valiant never taste of death but once").

And while some of his plays are basically fluff, he manages to weave in moral questions, criticism and explorations of the human soul. And his characters range as far as his plots -- kings and princes, teenage lovers, proud but doomed men, bratty queens, the witty but combative Beatrice and Benedick, and even the puppet-master mage Prospero.

Shakespeare's "Complete Works" is a must-have for anyone who loves the English language -- his writing was unparalleled, and even his lesser plays are a cut above the rest.

A good and cheap collection.
The way that long lines end is a little confusing at first, and makes reading with a group somewhat awkward, but for the price this is a great book.

do not use
I ordered a book, received it a few days after the last day of estimated arrival, and then it was the wrong book.

A Rose By Any Other Name
What can I say about the Bard that hasn't already been said?Nice haircut?The book was in good coindition and I got a great price.Great reading Ol' Willy.You should try it some time.BU then, you'd have to put down the remore, and the Wii wand. ... Read more

Product Description
The Wordsworth volume in the 21st-Century Oxford Authors series is the most comprehensive selection currently available of the poetry and prose of one of the finest poets in the English language.The familiar poems from Wordsworth's 'Great Decade' are all included, but they are complemented by a more than usually generous selection of the best poems from his later years. The extracts from the Guide to the Lakes will be a revelation to many readers, as will the political prose of the Convention of Cintra. All of the material is presented in chronological sequence, so that the reader can see how Wordsworth's changing concerns were expressed in prose as well as poetry. Work which Wordsworth published is separated from that which he did not reveal, which will enable the reader to trace through successive published volumes the development of Wordsworth's public poetic self, while also being able to follow the growth of the body of poetry which, for whatever reason, Wordsworth did not choose to make public when it was written - The Prelude being the greatest and most obvious example. ... Read more

Product Description
William Wordsworth (1771-1850) is the foremost of the English Romantic poets. He was much influenced by the events of the French Revolution in his youth, and he deliberately broke away from the artificial diction of the Augustan and neo-classical tradition of the eighteenth century. He sought to write in the language of ordinary men and women, of ordinary thoughts, sights and sounds, and his early poetry represents this fresh approach to his art. Wordsworth spent most of his adult life in the Lake District with his sister Dorothy and his wife Mary, by whom he had four children. His remarkable autobiographical poem The Prelude was completed in 1805, but was not published until after his death, and it is included in this full edition of Wordsworth's poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

arrived in great condition
Haven't gotten around to reading this one yet, but cannot wait for a crackling fire and a good glass of sherry to accompany this read.

Great Poems, Incredible Value
William Wordsworth, whose long career stretched from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, was the most influential English poet since Milton or even since Chaucer. He virtually invented Romanticism, exerting a profound influence on fellow English poets as well as succeeding generations, launching a movement that spread throughout the world. Wordsworth is of course most famously the Poet of Nature; Romanticism's nature love began with him, and he wrote many of the most famous and best nature poems of all-time. However, he also wrought a wealth of other innovations, namely drastically changing Enlightenment poetry's grand neo-classical diction to more closely mirror natural speech. He helped make ballads and other simple traditional modes accepted as serious poetry but mastered a variety of forms, focusing particularly on sonnets and blank verse. Anyone even remotely interested in English poetry must be familiar with at least his most famous works.

There are many Wordsworth collections, but this is the best for anyone wanting a comprehensive, easily available, and inexpensive one. It has every authorized poem in the format set out in the last compilation Wordsworth published, beginning chronologically but soon categorizing by subject. Also here are The Prelude and The Excursion, his two epic works, which are usually published separately or only excerpted. Finally, there are several supplements:the original versions of two early poems that were drastically changed, several uncollected poems, and a few that Wordsworth did not publish. To have all this in one volume is simply incredible; Wordsworth's collected poems usually stretch over several volumes, and the two epics are often separate books. When one takes the price into account, the value is near-unbelievable.

However, this is not for everyone. Like all books in this series, it is a value edition. There is thus only a very short Introduction, an even shorter Bibliography, and almost no notes. Most will think these small losses, especially as Wordsworth always strived for clarity and made few literary allusions; some biographical and historical references will be lost on many, but this does not preclude understanding or enjoyment as with many writers. Anyone needing a scholarly edition must certainly look elsewhere, especially as this does not have multiple versions of major poems as some books do; it also lacks certain unpublished or unfinished ones and, more distressing for casuals, Wordsworth's famous Lyrical Ballads Preface. A more substantial issue is the extremely small print; this is of course inevitable in order to fit so much in one volume, but the smallness is such that many will be unable to read. Anyone who has a problem with such things should definitely check out the type before buying. Also annoying is the absence of an alphabetical title index; there is a table of contents and first line index, but this is often inadequate in a nine hundred page book with hundreds of poems. However, these complaints are very small - nay, almost negligible - considering the convenience and price.

A more fundamental issue is that many, even true fans, will not want a complete edition. Wordsworth became a full-time poet in his late 20s and was prolific well into his 70s, but even his greatest admirers agree that nearly all his major work was written by the time he was forty-four. Having read nearly all his best writing before, I approached the remainder almost with dread; even this Preface warns of it. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to find the later work not nearly as bad as everyone says, though certainly below his work up to 1814. The lesser work presents two main obstacles. First, Wordsworth gradually moved away from the self-conscious simplicity that was essential to his great early work and that he himself touted, though he sometimes returned to it. This simplicity has always had critics, and those turned off by it may even be glad for the change, though undeniable quality difference elsewhere makes it unlikely. Second, and more important to most, is that Wordsworth became ever more politically and religiously conservative, and his writings reflect this. As a young man he was greatly influenced by the republican ideas of the early French Revolution and wrote numerous liberal poems. Afterward, though never a curmudgeon, his conservatism became more and more crusty to the point where he wrote a sonnet series supporting capital punishment and a poem condemning illustrated books and newspapers. Thomas Hardy, who saw Wordsworth's work more objectively than nearly anyone, said that poetry should convey impressions, not convictions and that Wordsworth forgot this as he aged. Many will agree. Everyone from Byron to Browning wrote poems lamenting or attacking the conservative turn; even Matthew Arnold, a true admirer, slighted the infamous Ecclesiastical Sonnets. The early work is also not entirely great; the much-maligned Peter Bell, nothing less than an embarrassment, remains one of the worst works from a major poet. All this means that, though true fans and scholars will of course want all the poems, casuals will be better off with a Selected Poems.

In the end, though most readers will likely be better served by other editions, this is perfect for certain ones - not something for all but all for some.

Great budget copy!
I wanted a cheap copy to travel (I travel with my work a great deal) with me all the time, although i have a nice bound edition i leave at home. This serves my needs very well. I dont really agree with the reviewer who stated that it will fall apart quickly, although i take his point. I think (I hope!) that if treated with care, this edition will last me very well. Has everything any lover of Wordsworth could want at a very cheap price.

Tables of Contents are for losers
Great poems, the three star rating is for this edition.

Know the name of a Wordsworth poem, have his complete works, want to read the poem?Hah!Loser!Unless you know the first line, or feel like plowing through the index of subjects such as "Poems founded upon the affections" (oh, that narrows the field, thanks tons)(by the way, poems within these lists are not in alphabetical order, either) you are SOL.

There is no table of contents as we would use that term here in the world which speaks English.So, if you like the idea of owning Wordsworth's works, and being able to read things more or less at random, this is the volume for you.If you want to be able to, you know, find things in this 900 page book, good hunting.

We Are Seven is on page 83.

Five Stars for the poetry, but One Star for. . .
this edition.

The Wordsworth Poetry Library offers some decent printings of the works of any number of poets for fantastic prices. These editions may not be of the best quality, but that's okay for most of the books in the collection. However, when it comes to Wordsworth, quality is an issue because of the sheer volume of his poetical works. The WPL edition of the namesake's poetry will fall apart if one attempts to actually read it. There are simply too many pages in this edition for the paperback, perfect-bound book to stay together.

When it comes to Wordsworth, a little probably goes a long way for the casual reader; such may wish to consider the Penguin edition of Selected Poems of William Wordsworth. However, those who truly wish to read (or at least own) every accessible bit of verse by the venerable poet will do well to look around (use bookfinder dot com or eBay) for old hardcover editions under the title Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth.

It should be stressed that the casual reader will generally find the WPL editions adequate, especially for the price, and that this volume is only a poor choice because of the amount of pages. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most enduringly popular of the Romantic poets, William Wordsworth epitomized the spirit of his age with his celebration of the natural world and his 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 as 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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ah, Wordsworth!
As any fan of poetry will admit, Wordsworth is perhaps the central figure of poetry of the last two hundred years-- only Whitman contends with him in eminence. I love both (though I am partial to Keats!), and the fame of each is very just and in proportion with their merits.

Wordsworth is a musical poet, in that his verse flows with a beauty of language that has no rival I have yet encountered save perhaps Yeats or Shakespeare. Even the latter two, though better poets than Wordsworth overall in my opinion, fall slightly short of his music. I find many of his poems very easy to commit to memory, because of this quality:

She dwelt among th'untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove.
A maid whom there were none the praise
And very few to love.

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye--
Fair, as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and Oh!
The difference to me.

That is from memory, and I memorized it almost effortlessly; I suspect most can do the same because this poem (one of Wordsworth's "Lucy Poems", some of the best in all literature!) has a certain rhythm and flow to it that makes it as easily committed to memory as song lyrics.

There is in Wordsworth's poems a wonderful depth of thought, as well; common themes include lost youth, nature, and the poet's own mind (Wordsworth was notoriously egotistical). I find him a sadder poet than others do-- many read him as almost superficial or happy and joyous in nature, but I think this is too simplistic, as his poems resonate with a certain loss and regretful inwardness that really reverberates in my mind.

He is commonly considered the greatest of the Romantics, a consensus with which I disagree. I prefer Keats and Blake (Coleridge might have been as good, had he written more!), but Wordsworth has been more of an influence on later poets than either, and I certainly do not shy from calling him among the greatest. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
The Romantic movement is considered by many to be the zenithof English poetry. With its roots in a reaction against orderedneoclassicism, Romantic poetry's emphasis on nature, both real andfantastic, still resonates today. This collection combines great voiceswith great poets, including Glenda Jackson reading Wordsworth's "LinesWritten in Early Spring," Stephen Fry reading Keats's "To Autumn," anda marvelous archival recording of Orson Welles reading Byron's "SoWe'll Go No More a-Roving." Blake, Coleridge, and Shelley are alsowell represented, with "Kubla Khan," "Ode to the West Wind," and "TheTiger," among others. Fans of Blake's mysticism, Wordsworth's love ofnature, Keats's sensual melancholy, or simply beautiful poetry willenjoy this wonderful collection. Listen to Michael Tucker read WilliamBlake's "Gardenof Love." Visit our audio help page for moreinformation. (Running time: 1.5 hours, 1 cassette)--C.B. Delaney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Poetry Of The Romantics
I thoroughly enjoyed this tape. Beautiful poetry read by beautiful voices. It's wonderful for playing in the car on long journeys, it could even be the perfect antidote to road rage. Very relaxing. ... Read more

Product Description
When it was first published, Lyrical Ballads enraged the critics of the day: Wordsworth and Coleridge had given poetry a voice, one decidedly different to that which had been voiced before. This acclaimed Routledge Classics edition offers the reader the opportunity to study the poems in their original contexts as they appeared to Coleridge’s and Wordsworth’s contemporaries, and includes some of their most famous poems, including Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancyent Marinere. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Major Work of English Romanticism
Lyrical Ballads is a collection of experimental poems that tried to unite the high, introspective, monumental style of the lyric with the low, earthy, narrative style of the traditional English ballad. The result of such an experiment is a poem easy and pleasing to read, but containing hidden depths and subtleties that can be explored for a lifetime. Though avant garde in its time, these lyrical ballads have become part of the canon read by many highschool students: "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner", "Strange Fits of Passion I Have Known", and "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" are all here, along with many other treasures that sometimes get left out of the textbooks and anthologies (I'm especially fond of the very funny and sweet long poem, "The Idiot Boy"). If you want to get a sample of what these poems are like, just google any of the titles I've listed above and you can read them for yourself.

Since the good people at Routledge aren't trying to cram an extremely large amount of poetry into this book, the font is a perfect size and there is ample room for notes in the margins. It contains very good supplementary material, including Wordsworth's famous "Preface". The introductory material, notes, and appendices are all very useful and interesting. One slightly irksome point was that you won't find the individual poems listed in the table of contents; instead they are listed in the indexes at the back of the book, first by title and then by first line. It takes a little getting used to, but ultimately it's not a big deal.

If you're looking for a good edition of the Lyrical Ballads, if you just want a good introduction to Wordsworth and Coleridge (though I should point out that most of these are by Wordsworth), or if you like good poetry in general, then you can't miss with this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Professor Durrant has two aims in his book, First, he shows that Wordsworth was less hostile to the world-view of the scientist than has been supposed: on the contrary, his poetic vision is from one point of view a translation into terms of feeling and perception of a systematic view of the universe. Second, examination of individual poems reveals a poetic language in which that system is translated into images: star, rock, flower, tree, mountain, cloud, lake, sea. The poems are not sentimental anecdotes, they are 'acts of mind', which turn this world-view into feelings, expressed in a language not far from that of every day. This is inherently a tragic insight; for it sees the individual's consciousness as delight in the natural order, which inevitably brings the death which ends the consciousness. In his great period, from 1798 to 1805, Wordsworth held that vision steadily and whole. ... Read more

Product Description
How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by Storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country. ... Read more

Product Description
Volumes 1 to 3 of the 8 volume collection edted by William Knight, in a single file.These volumes include his finest and best-known poems (composed 1787-1805), including The Prelude, with variants of and footnotes about every poem. According to Wikipedia: "William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi autobiographical poem of his early years which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850."The table of contents links to every poem.The links were added 5/7/2009.If you bought a copy before then, you should be able to download the new version at no extra cost. ... Read more

Product Description
Twenty-three poems that transformed English poetry

Wordsworth and Coleridge composed this powerful selection of poetry during their youthful and intimate friendship. Reproducing the first edition of 1798, this edition of Lyrical Ballads allows modern readers to recapture the book’s original impact. In these poems—including Wordsworth’s "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey" and Coleridge’s "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere"—the two poets exercised new energies and opened up new themes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Romanticism incarnate
I am not a scholar in any sense of the word, but I feel the need to stress how wonderful this collection is.

"Lyrical Ballads" is often said to be the beginning of the Romantic Movement, a claim which I can neither refute or prove.What I can say for certain, though, is that it is filled with some of the most moving, thought provoking, and beautiful verses ever put on paper.Whether you are looking for something dark, something whimsical, an epic tale, or a sweet romance-there is something in the collection that will appeal to you.Wordsworth and Coleridge are both masters of their craft, a fact that they prove in "Lyrical Ballads"

Beautiful
I've already read through half of it for a class and I love it. The language and the images are amazing. A classic, must read.

Penguin is nice, but could still improve.
The layout is nice, table of contents is convenient. I would have given it 5 stars had there been numbering for the lines of the poem for easier citation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Best Edition Available
The back cover blurb says, "the edition we've all been waiting for, as teachers and scholars." I say the same for general readers. I've never been able to find both versions of the Lyrical Ballads (1798 and 1800) in single book. And there's a dynamic feel to the edition, since the reviews simply follow the poems, much in the same way they did in real life. The appendices are full and interesting, containing the 1802 Preface, all the poems considered for Lyrical Ballads but not included, the correspondence, etc. Don't miss the maps at the end of the book. They're terrific; and so is the introduction. ... Read more