The Simple Wordsworth : Studies in the Poems 1979-1807

First published in 1960, this book studies Wordsworth¿s ¿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¿ 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.