Product Description

First published in July 1850, shortly after Wordsworth’s death, The Prelude was the culmination of over fifty years of creative work. The great Romantic poem of human consciousness, it takes as its theme ‘the growth of a poet’s mind’: leading the reader back to Wordsworth’s formative moments of childhood and youth, and detailing his experiences as a radical undergraduate in France at the time of the Revolution. Initially inspired by Coleridge’s exhortation that Wordsworth write a work upon the French Revolution, The Prelude has ultimately become one of the finest examples of poetic autobiography ever written; a fascinating examination of the self that also presents a comprehensive view of the poet’s own creative vision.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103736 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

About the Author
William Wordsworth was born in the Lake District in 1770 and died there eighty years later in 1850. He had three brothers and a sister, Dorothy, to whom he was extremely close. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, Wordsworth travelled widely and wrote poetry. He spent his twenties as a wanderer in France, Wales, London, the Lakes, Dorset and Germany. In France he fathered a child who he did not meet until she was nine, due to the war. In 1795 he was reunited with Dorothy and met Coleridge, who was to be a particular influence on his poetry. He became Poet Laureate in 1843. Jonathan Wordsworth is descended from William's younger brother Christopher, is Chairman of the Wordsworth Trust and a Lecturer in Romantic Studies at Oxford.

Customer Reviews

Sublime
Besides being a wonderful poem, "The Prelude" gives us a unique insight into the life of the poet through his own words. The four versions give us a chance to appreciate how the poet grows and develops and how his views change over time. In many cases, changes to the 1805 manuscript appearing in the final 1850 publication do not seem to be improvements at all, but attempts to cover up previous indiscretions or to subdue outbursts of passion. The sentiment of the newer portions is often far from that of the earlier drafts. The two much shorter initial drafts, "Was It for This" and the Two-part Prelude of 1799, are very different to the later books and show a superb command of language.

Not surprisingly, Wordsworth's relationship with nature is a major theme throughout the poem. The direct effect of growing up in the countryside is perhaps revealed more plainly than in his other poems and a quasi-religious philosophy is evident.

This Penguin version seems to me to offer as much as one could want for a non-academic reader. The 120-odd pages of notes are quite sufficient to understand the poem thoroughly.

This book will appeal to anyone who enjoys romantic poetry, nature or autobiography. Not a book to be rushed though. Highly recommended.

One of the Greatest Works of Literature Ever
This is an astonishing poem. It ranges over vast tracts of mankind's existence - in following the life of one man, Wordsworth himself, he allows us glimpses of universal themes and ideas. Schooldays, childhood, adolescence, university, adulthood, death, nature, joy, sadness, fear, the city, revolutions, wars, betrayal, hope, idealism, friendship, love - everything is here. Partly a memoir, partly reportage (of the French Revolution), partly a love story, a justification, a conversation . . . This is Wordsworth's way of wishing for a better mankind, his way of showing us that we are better than we think we are. We are "of fabric and of substance more divine". Not all the passages of this poem grip you, but stick it out - you can find meaning everywhere. It educates you, as literature should. This edition is excellent - the notes and introduction are full, interesting and illuminating; the parallel texts show the sadness of Wordsworth's revisions. The Prelude was his life, in more ways than one - it is his gift to posterity, and what a gift!

Dancing with the daffodils
To close the book...means nothing. the Prelude is sill so fresh in your mind, every word echoes the other in a sort of unison of...divinity. There is so much in this book, you are plunged in his intimacy, sharing like an old friend the good and the bad, love, joy, fear, tragedy. Life is almost palpable in every line, in every word, in every feeling, in every tear Wordsworth is capable of drawing from you telling his life, preparing the stage of his death, like a prelude to his death. This is an amazing book. How not to feel the Sublime and the Beautiful, how not to admire a peaceful and caring Nature, how not to imagine those landscapes Wordsworth describes? Reading the book again, closing it again and reshelving it again, I realise that I am very close to him, and that I would have liked to meet him, just once, just to walk a while with him, just to smell the sacred daffodils. I am almost certain he would have smiled at me and said: "For oft...".
His genius is alive through his lines, the beauty is alive through his verse, and poetry is alive through the Prelude.All that was in him is in the Prelude, obvious and ciphered, like the palimpsest of his memory. The Prelude is dedicated to all those who feel Nature`s throbbing heart, those who can hear poetry`s divine melody, those who love honesty, simplicity and complexity, those who want to recollect any feeling, any sensation forgotten or hidden in them. The Prelude is an ode to Nature, Youth, Joy, Love, War, Peace, Friendship, God, Poetry and any thing that composes Life. The Prelude is an ode to Memory, Remembrance, and to the memory of this incredible "Uber" man who, not hubrystically, succeeded in touching the grace of the God and of the Divine with the tip of his finger. He is one of these men who will never die, like Dante or Shakespeare, because even in the darkest future, there will ever be a line by him quoted for the eternity of time. Thank you, William. Et genius facta est.