Experimentalism in Wordsworth's Later Poetry

An introduction to an alternative Wordsworth presented through detailed readings of little-known, late and difficult poems.

Tim Fulford introduces and closely examines little-known, late and difficult poems which together present an alternative Wordsworth, engaging with current issues such as isolation, mental illness and bereavement, and inviting the reader to consider the literature of old age and the relation of Wordsworth's late-life writing to his earlier work.Tim Fulford provides detailed readings of a range of little-known, late and difficult poems which together present an alternative Wordsworth to the one we are used to. This newly-revealed Wordsworth continued experimenting with form, genre and style as his career progressed so as to ponder the challenging experiences presented by later life. Fulford invites the reader to engage, through Wordsworth's poetry, with such broadly-felt concerns as quarantine, isolation, mental illness and bereavement. Focused yet broad in chronological scope, this study also considers the literature of Wordsworth's old age in relation to his earlier work.