THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Wordsworth Poetry Library Wordsworth Editions
£3.99
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the teacher, the student of language and literature, and lovers of wonderful
words generally and classical works specifically, have an opportunity with
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Let’s face
it. A lot of poetry is stuffy and complicated. At times, poems are like cryptic
crossword clues stitched together to form something incomprehensible that is
interpreted, by literary high society, as intellectually and academically
fulfilling. Anything that appeals
to the masses is seen as cheap and, possibly, vulgar. Of course, there is
evidence of genius in complex writing but I would contest that most casual
readers, who just want to be informed, moved and entertained, rightly shun the
vague and the obscure for simpler poetry - poetry that turns people on after
the first reading, and plants a seed to encourage further exploration, rather
than turning them off, forcing them to put the book on a shelf to gather
dust. Poetry as cabaret and
comfort food is much more appealing, methinks, than poetry as high-falutin’ and
haute cuisine, - clumsy, but hopefully you know what I mean - which brings me
to William Wordsworth.
Wordsworth
looked, saw and wrote about what he observed. Right there, we have the characteristics of a great people’s
poet. His view was simple, but he was not too simplistic. He witnessed nature, scenery and the
stuff of life and dreams and wrote about nature, scenery and the stuff of life
and dreams in ways that most of us can grasp and understand first time
round. He is indeed the
“Daffodils” man but he is so much more.
If I put my bargain hunter hat on for a moment, his poetry fills over
1,000 pages in this splendid edition and, for £3.99, you have a book filled to
bursting with joy, beauty and pleasure, poems written and presented with the
aforementioned simplicity that is the hallmark of his extraordinary output.
Here are
his poems of youth, of old age, records of his travels, sonnets, poems of
reflection, epitaphs, elegies, poems created from imagination and flights of
fancy. I can only tease and tempt
you with a few morsels in this short review:
“Written in
March “ – “The cock is crowing, the stream is flowing, the small birds twitter,
the lake doth glitter, the green field sleeps in the sun…..”
“To a
Skylark” – “Up with me! Up with me into the clouds! For thy song, Lark, is
strong; Up with me, up with me into the clouds! ……..Joyous as morning……Joy and
jollity be with us both!”
“Tintern
Abbey” – “Five years have past; five summers, with the length of five long
winters! And again I hear these waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
with a soft inland murmur.”
“Intimations
of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” - “There was a time when meadow, grove
and stream, the earth and every common sight, to me did seem appareled in
celestial light….”
The poetry
of Wordsworth is a pleasure to read.
If you want stuffy and complicated poetry, there is enough of it out
there, more’s the pity. But, if
you want poetry of easy charm and beautiful expression look no further than
this monumental book. “For oft when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive
mood”, I think of William Wordsworth, and so should you.
Does this collection also have the preludes?
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