In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
Originally published in 1974. This book concerns the archetypal quality of Wordsworth's The Prelude, specifically the ways in which it develops and defines concepts of language, time, and narrative that influenced writers who came after Wordsworth. Frank D. McConnell sees the philosopher and theologian St. Augustine as the most suggestive analogue for the Wordsworthian quest for lost time and for the redemptive power of memory. McConnell maps similarities and dissimilarities between Wordsworth's Prelude and Augustine's Confessions. Each chapter of the book centers on an aspect of Wordsworth's confessional procedure in writing the poem. Chapter 1 ascribes peculiarities in the mode of address to The Prelude's definitive auditor, Coleridge, as a felt presence that shapes the overall form of the poem. Chapter 2 discusses the confessional—and Wordsworthian—view of the human career, contrasting the holistic and organic ideal of man's development with a more ancient and allegorical, or daemonic, view against which the confessional vision struggles. Chapter 3 carries the argument to the more fundamental level of the senses of sight and hearing. And chapter 4 deals with language itself, the irreducible counters of Wordsworth's vision and the highly specialized confessional language of "Edenic words." The general direction of the author's reading is a narrowing of focus from the most general to the most specific features of the confessional act.

Table of Contents

Download EPUB Download Full EPUB
  1. Cover
  2. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. New Copyright
  2. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Frontispiece
  2. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epigraph
  2. p. ii
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page
  2. p. iii
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Copyright
  2. p. iv
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Dedication
  2. pp. v-vi
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Half Title 1
  2. pp. xi-xii
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-14
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter One: The Poem to Coleridge
  2. pp. 15-58
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Two: The Sense of the Human
  2. pp. 59-98
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Three: The Tyrant Eye
  2. pp. 99-146
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Four: Edenic Words
  2. pp. 147-190
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix One: James Nayler
  2. pp. 191-192
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix Two: William Cowper
  2. pp. 193-196
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix Three: Silas Told
  2. pp. 197-200
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 201-208
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 209-212
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.