Wordsworth’s Philosophic Song: 67 (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism, Series Number 67)

Wordsworth’s Philosophic Song: 67 (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism, Series Number 67)
by Simon Jarvis (Author)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Annotated edition (21 Dec. 2006)
Language: English
Hardcover: 284 pages
ISBN-10: 052186268X
ISBN-13: 9780521862684
Get this book Contact Email: girro@qq.com

Book Description
Wordsworth wrote that he longed to compose ‘some philosophic Song/Of Truth that cherishes our daily life’. Yet he never finished The Recluse, his long philosophical poem. Simon Jarvis argues that Wordsworth’s aspiration to ‘philosophic song’ is central to his greatness, and changed the way English poetry was written. Some critics see Wordworth as a systematic thinker, while for others he is a poet first, and a thinker only (if at all) second. Jarvis shows instead how essential both philosophy and the ‘song’ of poetry were to Wordsworth’s achievement. Drawing on advanced work in continental philosophy and social theory to address the ideological attacks which have dominated much recent commentary, Jarvis reads Wordsworth’s writing both critically and philosophically, to show how Wordsworth thinks through and in verse. This study rethinks the relation between poetry and society itself by analysing the tensions between thinking philosophically and writing poetry.