Author: Wordsworth, William; Editor: Gill, Stephen
Oxford World's Classics (Paperback); Paperback
784 pages
Published: July 2000
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192840444

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) has long been one of the best-known and best-loved English poets. The Lyrical Ballads, written with Samuel Coleridge, is a landmark in the history of English romantic poetry. His celebration of nature and of the beauty of 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 his finest lyric poetry, and also his longer narratives such as The Ruined Cottage, Home at Grasmere, Peter Bell, and the autobiographical masterpiece, The Prelude (1805). All the major examples of WordsworthIncludes a selection of Wordsworth's essays as well as a collection of his major poems. This edition brings together a unique combination of Wordsworth's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by important letters, prefaces, and essays - to give the essence of his work and thinking.