Abstract

Wordsworth's Great Decade

The article focuses on the two books — "Wordsworth. The Clark Lectures, 1929-1930," by Herbert Read and "Wordsworth," by C.H. Herford. The reputation of English poet William Wordsworth, which seemed at one time to have reached its peak in Wordsworth's own century, seems now to be climbing toward another peak, one much higher and certainly more exciting. The man who could be worshiped then as a poet and prophet has come to be admired merely as a poet. Read, a distinguished poet and critic and Herford, a distinguished literary historian, assign a high rank to Wordsworth, Read placing him in at least one respect just after poet and dramatist William Shakespeare and Herford declining to deny him the position often given him this side of English poet John Milton.