Table Of ContentW W
ILLIA M ORDSWORTH,
S G
ECOND- ENER ATION
R
OM ANTIC
Contesting Poetry after Waterloo
JEFFREY N. COX
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, SECOND-
GENERATION ROMANTIC
William Wordsworth, Second-Generation Romantic provides a truly
comprehensivereadingof“late”Wordsworthandthefullarcofhis
career from 1814 to 1840, revealing that his major poems after
Waterloocontestpoeticandpoliticalissueswithhisyoungercontem-
poraries:Keats,Shelley,andByron.Refutingconventionalmodelsof
influence,whereWordsworth“fathers”theyoungerpoets,Coxdem-
onstrates how Wordsworth’s later writing evolved in response to
“second-generation” romanticism. After exploring the ways in
whichhisyoungercontemporariesrewrotehisExcursion,thisvolume
examineshowWordsworth’s“ThanksgivingOde”entersintoacom-
plex conversation with Leigh Hunt and Byron; how the delayed
publication of Peter Bell could be read as a reaction to the Byronic
hero;howtheolderpoet’sRiverDuddonsonnetsrespondtoShelley’s
“MontBlanc”;andhowhislatervolumes,particularly“Memorialsof
aTourinItaly,1837,”engageinacomplicatederasureofpoetswho
bothfollowedandpredeceasedhim.
jeffrey n. cox is Distinguished Professor of English and
HumanitiesattheUniversityofColoradoBoulder.Heistheauthor
and editor of ten volumes, including Romanticism in the Shadow of
War(2014)andtheaward-winningPoetryandPoliticsintheCockney
School(1998).
cambridge studies in romanticism
FoundingEditor
MarilynButler,UniversityofOxford
GeneralEditor
JamesChandler,UniversityofChicago
EditorialBoard
JohnBarrell,UniversityofYork
PaulHamilton,UniversityofLondon
MaryJacobus,UniversityofCambridge
ClaudiaJohnson,PrincetonUniversity
AlanLiu,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara
JeromeMcGann,UniversityofVirginia
DavidSimpson,UniversityofCalifornia,Davis
This series aims to foster the best new work in one of the most challenging fields
withinEnglishliterarystudies.Fromtheearly1780stotheearly1830s,aformidable
arrayoftalentedmenandwomentooktoliterarycomposition,notjustinpoetry,
which some of them famously transformed, but in many modes of writing. The
expansionofpublishingcreatednewopportunitiesforwriters,andthepoliticalstakes
ofwhattheywrotewereraisedagainbywhatWordsworthcalledthose“greatnational
events”thatwere“almostdailytakingplace”:theFrenchRevolution,theNapoleonic
and American wars, urbanization, industrialization, religious revival, an expanded
empireabroad,andthereformmovementathome.Thiswasanenormousambition,
even when it pretended otherwise. The relations between science, philosophy,
religion, and literature were reworked in texts such as Frankenstein and Biographia
Literaria; gender relations in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Don Juan;
journalismbyCobbettandHazlitt;andpoeticform,content,andstylebytheLake
SchoolandtheCockneySchool.OutsideShakespearestudies,probablynobodyof
writinghasproducedsuchawealthofcommentaryordonesomuchtoshapethe
responsesofmoderncriticism.Thisindeedistheperiodthatsawtheemergenceof
thosenotionsofliteratureandofliteraryhistory,especiallynationalliteraryhistory,
onwhichmodernscholarshipinEnglishhasbeenfounded.
ThecategoriesproducedbyRomanticismhavealsobeenchallengedbyrecent
historicistarguments.Thetaskoftheseriesistoengagebothwithachallenging
corpus of Romantic writings and with the changing field of criticism they have
helpedtoshape.AswithotherliteraryseriespublishedbyCambridgeUniversity
Press, this one will represent the work of both younger and more established
scholarsoneithersideoftheAtlanticandelsewhere.
Seetheendofthebookforacompletelistofpublishedtitles.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH,
SECOND-GENERATION
ROMANTIC
Contesting Poetry after Waterloo
JEFFREY N. COX
UniversityofColoradoBoulder
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108837613
doi:10.1017/9781108946698
©CambridgeUniversityPress2021
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2021
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
names:Cox,JeffreyN.,author.
title:WilliamWordsworth,second-generationromantic:contestingpoetryafterWaterloo/
JeffreyCox,UniversityofColoradoBoulder.
description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,
2021.|Series:CambridgestudiesinRomanticism;131|Includesbibliographicalreferences
andindex.
identifiers:lccn2020049481(print)|lccn2020049482(ebook)|isbn9781108837613
(hardback)|isbn9781108946698(ebook)
subjects:lcsh:Wordsworth,William,1770–1850–Criticismandinterpretation.|Wordsworth,
William,1770–1850–Contemporaries.|Romanticism–England.|Englishpoetry–19thcentury–
Historyandcriticism.
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This book is dedicated to
Amy
“ ”
and to our second generation,
Julia, Emma, and Claire.
Inthanksforalltheloveandjoyyouhavegivenme,early
and late.
Contents
ListofFigures pageviii
Acknowledgments ix
ListofAbbreviations xii
Introduction 1
1 CockneyExcursions 34
Coda:LaodamiaResponds 66
2 Wordsworth’s“ThanksgivingOde”
AnEngagedPoeticsandtheHorrorsofWar 78
3 “ThisPotter-Don-Juan”
PeterBellin1819 110
4 ThinkingRivers
TheFlowofInfluence,Wordsworth–Coleridge–Shelley 129
5 Late“LateWordsworth” 157
IRetrospectionandRe-collection 157
IIContestingItaly 170
PostscriptWordsworthin1850
ThePrelude,“thisposthumousyetyouthfulwork” 200
Notes 205
SelectBibliography 252
Index 264
vii
Figures
0.1 BenjaminRobertHaydon.Christ’sEntryintoJerusalem page12
(1814–20).Wordsworth’sportrait,withbowedhead,appears
betweenthetwocolumnsontheright,nexttothesneering
Voltaire.457x396cm.MountSt.Mary’sSeminary,
Cincinnati.Photoprovidedby:TheAthenaeumofOhio
inCincinnati,Ohio,USA.
2.1 Anon.[J.Markspub.].“TheEuropeanPantomime”(March 84
1815?).Hand-coloredetchingonpaper,25.8x35.5cm.
©TrusteesoftheBritishMuseum.
viii
