William Wordsworth: Poems. Selected by Seamus Heaney - Hardcover

Wordsworth, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571274293 ISBN 13: 9780571274291

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2011

Synopsis

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to the most important poets in our literature. Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty - This is composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.

About this title

About the Author:

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was one of the most influential of the Romantic poets. He grew up in the Lake District, and was educated at Cambridge. His friendship with S. T. Coleridge led to their joint project, Lyrical Ballads, which was published in 1798. At the same time, Wordsworth began work on what was to become The Prelude, which was first published three months after his death, in 1850. He became poet laureate in 1843.

Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland. Death of a Naturalist, his first collection of poems, appeared in 1966, and was followed by poetry, criticism and translations which established him as the leading poet of his generation. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and twice won the Whitbread Book of the Year, for The Spirit Level (1996) and Beowulf (1999). Stepping Stones, a book of interviews conducted by Dennis O'Driscoll, appeared in 2008; Human Chain, his last volume of poems, was awarded the 2010 Forward Prize for Best Collection. He died in 2013. His translation of Virgil's Aeneid Book VI was published posthumously in 2016 to critical acclaim.

Review:

"In his fine new biography of Wordsworth, Stephen Gill...paints a fresh and moving portrait of the poet....He tells his story in a compact prose that is blessedly free of jargon and rich in detail."--The New York Times Book Review

"Excellent....This is the kind of biography which any writer would be delighted to inspire, let alone to deserve. Stephen Gill detects the underlying direction and momentum of Wordsworth's life, tracing through the impulses of diurnal reality the permanent being of the man."--The Times (London)

"Gill...is superbly equipped to write the first full-scale biography of the poet in twenty-five years. Since the second volume of Mary Moorman's richly detailed account appeared in 1965, a whole generation of scholars has transformed the study of Wordsworth, and Gill has been at or near the center of this revolution....An indispensable book."--The Bloomsbury Review

"[A] solid, intelligent, and highly readable biography....Gill sends us back to the poetry with renewed interest, while enlarging our respect for the poet's rugged commitment to his muse."--Publishers Weekly

"Gill does a superb job of interrelating the life and work of this particularly autobiographical poet."--Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0571274293
• ISBN 13: 9780571274291
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160