Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Robert Prince and the DP Team
1800
By W. WORDSWORTH.
Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum!
Expostulation and Reply
The Tables turned; an Evening Scene, on the same subject
Animal Tranquillity and Decay, a Sketch
The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman
The Last of the Flock
Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree which stands near the Lake of
Esthwaite
The Foster-Mother's Tale
Goody Blake and Harry Gill
The Thorn
We are Seven
Anecdote for Fathers
Lines written at a small distance from my House and sent me by my
little Boy to the Person to whom they are addressed
The Female Vagrant
The Dungeon
Simon Lee, the old Huntsman
Lines written in early Spring
The Nightingale, written in April, 1798.
Lines written when sailing in a Boat at Evening
Lines written near Richmond, upon the Thames
The Idiot Boy
Love
The Mad Mother
The Ancient Mariner
Lines written above Tintern Abbey
The First Volume of these Poems has already been submitted togeneral perusal. It was published, as an experiment which, I hoped,might be of some use to ascertain, how far, by fitting to metricalarrangement a selection of the real language of men in a state ofvivid sensation, that sort of pleasure and that quantity of pleasuremay be imparted, which a Poet may rationally endeavour to impart.
I had formed no very inaccurate estimate of the probable effect ofthose Poems: I flattered myself that they who should be pleased withthem would read them with more than common pleasure: and on theother hand I was well aware that by those who should dislike themthey would be read with more than common dislike. The result hasdiffered from my expectation in this only, that I have pleased agreater number, than I ventured to hope I should please.
For the sake of variety and from a consciousness of my own weaknessI was induced to request the assistance of a Friend, who furnished mewith the Poems of the ANCIENT MARINER, the FOSTER-MOTHER'S TALE, theNIGHTINGALE, the DUNGEON, and the Poem entitled LOVE. I should not,however, have requested this assistance, had I not believed that thepoems of my Friend would in a great measure have the same tendencyas my own, and that, though there would be found a difference, therewould be found no discordance in the colours of our style; as ouropinions on the subject of poetry do almost entirely coincide.
Several of my Friends are anxious for the success of these Poemsfrom a belief, that if the views, with which they were composed,were indeed realized, a class of Poetry would be produced, welladapted to interest mankind permanently, and not unimportant in themultiplicity and in the quality of its moral relations: and on thisaccount they have advised me to prefix a systematic defence of thetheory, upon which the poems were written. But I was unwilling toundertake the task, because I knew that on this occasion the Readerwould look coldly upon my arguments, since I might be suspected ofhaving been principally influenced by the selfish and foolish hopeof reasoning him into an approbation of these particular Poems:and I w