William Wordsworth (Volume 1); A Biographical Sketch with Selections from His Writings in Poetry and Prose - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1881. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Wordsworth gives the following interesting account of what first led him to commence the writing of sonnets:--"In the cottage of Town-End, one afternoon in 1801," (it was on May 21st) "my sister read to me the sonnets of Milton. I had long been well acquainted with them, but I was particularly struck, on that occasion, with the dignified simplicity and majestic harmony that runs through most of them--in character so totally different from the Italian, and still more so from Shakspere's fine sonnets. I took fire, if I may be allowed to say so, and produced three sonnets the same afternoon--the first I ever wrote, except an irregular one at school. Of these three, the only one I distinctly remember is, 'I grieved for Buonaparte,' &c.: one was never written down; the third, which was I believe preserved, I cannot particularize."1 Elsewhere, in the Advertisement to the collected edition of the Sonnets, 18S8, he says:--"My admiration of some of the sonnets of Milton first tempted me to write in that form. The fact is not mentioned from a notion that it will be deemed of any importance by the reader, but merely as a public acknowledgment of one of the innumerable obligations, which, as a poet and a man, I am under to our great fellow-countryman." There is something fresh and touchingly beautiful in Miss Wordsworth's love of nature, and. devoted affection for her brother; and, to her constant and sympathetic companionship, his vigorous verse undoubtedly owes much of its refined delicacy and sweetness. Her diaries display genius of a high and kindred order, showing that she was, ever, all eye and ear for her brother. Thus, adown distant ages, her name will deservedly continue to be associated with his. i The Prose Works of William Wordsworth, edited by Dr. A. B. Grosart...