In 1798, Coleridge persuaded Wordsworth that it was his destiny to write the first truly philosophical poem, a project Wordsworth dubbed 'The Recluse, or Views of Nature, Man and Society'. It was, as Wordsworth eventually conceived it, to be a poem in three Parts, each of many books. This is the first ever edition of all the poetry intended to form part of the great work. It includes two poems already written in 1798, 'The Old Cumberland Beggar' and 'A Night Piece'; 'Home at Grasmere' (1806), designated 'The Recluse, Part First, Book First'; four other short poems written for 'The Recluse' in 1808 and 1826; and 'The Recluse, Part Second', otherwise known as 'The Excursion' in the text of 1814. (This is the only reading edition of the original text of 'The Excursion'.) The texts included are selected from 'The Poems of William Wordsworth: Collected Reading Texts from the Cornell Wordsworth', edited by Jared Curtis and first published by Humanities-Ebooks in 2009.

Review

"With the publication of the complete Excursion in this new volume, the Cornell series now presents the longest poem that Wordsworth published in his lifetime whole. Moreover, the lack of the printer's manuscripts for the complete poem has supported the decision of the editors to choose as their reading text the corrected second issue of the poem in 1814. Many will feel that the lack is fortunate, because the consequence is that the edition presents, for the first time, an annotated text of the poem as it entered literary history. One cannot overestimate the importance of this achievement for anyone interested in the British Romantics. The volume is a triumphant capstone to the series it concludes."--Peter Manning, Stony Brook University

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.