The Lucy Poems: A Case Study in Literary Knowledge"Though Wordsworth's 'Lucy Poems' are among the best-known lyric sequences in English, they did not exist as such in his day. 'Strange fits of passion have I known'; 'She dwelt among the untrodden ways'; 'I travelled among unknown men'; 'Three years she grew in sun and shower'; and 'A slumber did my spirit seal' were first gathered as 'Lucy Poems' by Victorian critics and editors shortly after Wordsworth's death. Mark Jones argues that the 'Lucy' grouping first took form as a simplification of Wordsworth's text, and that its persistence in modern criticism reflects primarily the literature institution's will to knowledge. Problematic in themselves and in their editorial history, the 'Lucy Poems' provide an excellent focus for a case-history in the modes of 'practical' criticism since 1800."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
Modern Theory Polemics and the Use | 4 |
NineteenthCentury | 49 |
Lucy Poems Criticism and the Anxiety of Uncertainty | 62 |
Copyright | |
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aesthetic allegory ambiguity anthologies appears argues argument Arnold's assume assumption Bateson biographical Caraher cites claim Cleanth Brooks closure Coleridge Coleridge's commentary consider context criticism criticism's definition Dorothy Dorothy Wordsworth dwelt E.D. Hirsch edition editorial Elegiac Ernest de Selincourt essay fears Francis Jeffrey function genre Geoffrey Hartman Goslar grouping hermeneutics Hirsch human I.A. Richards illustrate infer intention intentionalist interpretation irony Juhl knowledge Letters lines literary history Longman Lucy Gray Lucy Poems Lucy's death Lyrical Ballads meaning merely mode modern narrative Nature's notes object parody Pierre poem's poet poet's poetic poetry political possible practice precisely present problem punctuation purpose question readers reading reference reflects Romantic Romantic Poetry seems sense simple slumber speaker specific stanza statement Strange fits suggests Sykes Davies symbol symbolist temporal textual theory things Three tion Validity Victorian W-STC William Wordsworth Words Wordsworth Wordsworth's Lucy Wordsworth's ordering Wordsworthian Wordsworthian nature worth's