Romanticism

Duncan Wu is Raymond A. Wagner Professor of English Literature at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He was also Professor of English Literature at Glasgow University and Professor of English Language and Literature at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. He is the author of numerous books on the Romantics and poetry.

• Introduction xviEditor’s Note on the Fifth Edition xxiiiEditorial Principles xxivAcknowledgements xxvA Romantic Timeline 1770–1851 xxviiiAbout the Companion Website IiiiWilliam Blake (1757–1827) 1All Religions Are One (composed c.1788) 5There Is No Natural Religion (composed c.1788) 6The Book of Thel (1789) 7Songs of Innocence (1789) 11Songs of Experience (1794) 22The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) 36Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) 47The First Book of Urizen (1794) 53Letter from William Blake to the Revd Dr Trusler, 23 August 1799 (extract) 68From ‘The Pickering Manuscript’ (composed 1800–4) 69From ‘Milton’ (composed 1803–8) 72William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads (1798) 73Advertisement (by Wordsworth, working from Coleridge’s notes, composed June 1798) 75The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, in Seven Parts (by Coleridge, composed November 1797–March 1798) 76The Foster-Mother’s Tale: A Dramatic Fragment (by Coleridge, extracted from Osorio, composed April–September 1797) 94Lines Left upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree which Stands near the Lake of Esthwaite, on a Desolate Part of the Shore, yet Commanding a Beautiful Prospect (by Wordsworth, composed April–May 1797) 96The Nightingale; A Conversational Poem, Written in April 1798 (by Coleridge, composed April–May 1798) 97The Female Vagrant (by Wordsworth, derived from ‘Salisbury Plain’, initially composed late summer 1793 and revised for inclusion in Lyrical Ballads, 1798) 100Goody Blake and Harry Gill: A True Story (by Wordsworth, composed 7–13 March 1798) 107Lines Written at a Small Distance from My House, and Sent by My Little Boy to the Person to Whom They are Addressed (by Wordsworth, composed 1–9 March 1798) 110Simon Lee, the Old Huntsman, with an Incident in which He Was Concerned (by Wordsworth, composed between March and 16 May 1798) 111Anecdote for Fathers, Showing How the Art of Lying May Be Taught (by Wordsworth, composed between April and 16 May 1798) 114We Are Seven (by Wordsworth, composed between April and 16 May 1798) 116Lines Written in Early Spring (by Wordsworth, composed c.12 April 1798) 118The Thorn (by Wordsworth, composed between 19 March and 20 April 1798) 119The Last of the Flock (by Wordsworth, composed between March and 16 May 1798) 125The Dungeon (by Coleridge, extracted from Osorio, composed April–September 1797) 128The Mad Mother (by Wordsworth, composed between March and 16 May 1798) 129The Idiot Boy (by Wordsworth, composed between March and 16 May 1798) 131Lines Written near Richmond, upon the Thames, at Evening (by Wordsworth, derived from a sonnet written 1789, complete in this form by 29 March 1797) 142Expostulation and Reply (by Wordsworth, composed probably 23 May 1798) 143The Tables Turned: An Evening Scene, on the Same Subject (by Wordsworth, composed probably 23 May 1798) 144Old Man Travelling; Animal Tranquillity and Decay, A Sketch (by Wordsworth, composed by June 1797) 145The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman (by Wordsworth, composed between early March and 16 May 1798) 146The Convict (by Wordsworth, composed between 21 March and October 1796) 148Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, 13 July 1798 (by Wordsworth, composed 10–13 July 1798) 149William Wordsworth (1770–1850) 153A Night-Piece 157The Discharged Soldier 158The Ruined Cottage 162The Pedlar 174The Two-Part Prelude 183There Was a Boy 206Nutting 207Strange Fits of Passion I Have Known 208Song 209A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal 210Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower 210The Brothers: A Pastoral Poem 211Preface to Lyrical Ballads 223Note to ‘The Thorn’ 232Note to Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ 234Michael: A Pastoral Poem 234I Travelled among Unknown Men 246Preface to Lyrical Ballads 246To H.C., Six Years Old 248The Rainbow 249These Chairs They Have No Words to Utter 249Resolution and Independence 250I Grieved for Buonaparte 254The World Is too Much with Us 254Composed upon Westminster Bridge, 3 September 1802 255To Toussaint L’Ouverture 255It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free 2561 September 1802 256London 1802 257Great Men Have Been among Us 257Ode 258Daffodils 262Stepping Westward 263The Solitary Reaper 264Elegiac Stanzas, Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont 265Star Gazers 267St Paul’s 268Surprised by Joy – Impatient as the Wind 268Conclusion to The River Duddon 269Airey-Force Valley 269Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg 270From The Fenwick Notes (dictated 1843) 271Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) 273To the River Otter 277Letter from S.T. Coleridge to George Dyer, 10 March 1795 (extract) 278The Eolian Harp. Composed at Clevedon, Somersetshire (1834) 279Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement 281Religious Musings (extract) 283Letter from S.T. Coleridge to John Thelwall, 19 November 1796 (extract) 285This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison (1834) 285Letter from S.T. Coleridge to John Thelwall, 14 October 1797 (extract) 288Letter from S.T. Coleridge to Thomas Poole, 16 October 1797 (extract) 288Of the Fragment of ‘Kubla Khan’ (1816) 289Kubla Khan (1816) 290Frost at Midnight (1834) 291Christabel 293Letter from S.T. Coleridge to Thomas Poole, 6 April 1799 (extract) 310The Day-Dream 310The Picture; or, The Lover’s Resolution 311A Letter to Sara Hutchinson, 4 April 1802. Sunday Evening 315A Day-Dream 324Dejection: An Ode 325The Pains of Sleep (1816) 328Letter from S.T. Coleridge to Thomas Poole, 14 October 1803 (extract) 330Letter from S.T. Coleridge to Richard Sharp, 15 January 1804 (extract) 330To William Wordsworth. Lines Composed, for the Greater Part, on the Night on which He Finished the Recitation of His Poem in Thirteen Books, concerning the Growth and History of His Own Mind, January 1807, Coleorton, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch 331Letter from S.T. Coleridge to William Wordsworth, 30 May 1815 (extract) 334From Biographia Literaria (1817) 336The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Seven Parts (1817) 337From Table Talk 354The Ancient Mariner 354The True Way for a Poet 354The Recluse 355Keats 355George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824) 356She Walks in Beauty 363Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: Canto III 363Prometheus 397Stanzas to Augusta 398Epistle to Augusta 400Darkness 404Letter from Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, 28 February 1817 (extract; including ‘So We’ll Go No More a-Roving’) 406Don Juan 407Letter from Lord Byron to Douglas Kinnaird, 26 October 1819 (extract) 509Messalonghi, 22 January 1824. On This Day I Complete My Thirty- Sixth Year 509Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) 511To Wordsworth 517Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude 517Journal- Letter from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Thomas Love Peacock, 22 July to 2 August 1816 (extract) 535Hymn to Intellectual Beauty 537Mont Blanc. Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni 539Ozymandias 543On Love 543Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October 1818 545Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples 554The Mask of Anarchy. Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester 555Ode to the West Wind 565England in 1819 568Lift Not the Painted Veil 568On Life 569To a Skylark 571A Defence of Poetry; or, Remarks Suggested by an Essay Entitled ‘The Four Ages of Poetry’ (extracts) 574Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc. 587Music, When Soft Voices Die 604When Passion’s Trance Is Overpast 604To Edward Williams 605With a Guitar, to Jane 606John Keats (1795–1821) 609On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer 616Addressed to Haydon 617On the Grasshopper and the Cricket 617From ‘Endymion: A Poetic Romance’, Book I 618Letter from John Keats to Benjamin Bailey, 22 November 1817 (extract) 622Letter from John Keats to George and Tom Keats, 21 December 1817 (extract) 623On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again 624When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be 625Letter from John Keats to John Hamilton Reynolds, 3 February 1818 (extract) 625Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil: A Story from Boccaccio 626Letter from John Keats to John Hamilton Reynolds, 3 May 1818 (extract) 642Letter from John Keats to Richard Woodhouse, 27 October 1818 643Hyperion: A Fragment 644The Eve of St Agnes 665Journal-Letter from John Keats to George and Georgiana Keats, 14 February–3 May 1819 (extracts) 676La Belle Dame Sans Merci: A Ballad 677Ode to Psyche 679Ode to a Nightingale 681Ode on a Grecian Urn 683Ode on Melancholy 685Ode on Indolence 686Lamia 688To Autumn 704The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream 705Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art 718This Living Hand, Now Warm and Capable 718Index of First Lines 719Index to Headnotes and Notes 722