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WORDSWORTH’S PHILOSOPHIC SONG
Wordsworth wrote that he longed to compose ‘some philosophic Song / Of
Truth that cherishes our daily life.’ Yet he never finished The Recluse, his long
philosophical poem. Simon Jarvis argues that Wordsworth’s aspiration to
‘philosophicsong’iscentraltohisgreatness,andchangedthewayEnglishpoetry
was written. Some critics see Wordsworth as a systematic thinker, while for
others,heisapoetfirst,andathinkeronly(ifatall)second.Jarvisshowsinstead
how essential both philosophy and the ‘song’ of poetry were to Wordsworth’s
achievement. Drawing on advanced work in continental philosophy and social
theory to address the ideological attacks which have dominated much recent
commentary,Jarvisreads Wordsworth’swritingbothcritically andphilosophic-
ally,toshowhowWordsworththinksthroughandinverse.Thisstudyrethinks
the relation between poetry and society itself by analysing the tensions between
thinking philosophically and writing poetry.
simon jarvis is Gorley Putt Reader in Poetry and Poetics at the University
ofCambridge.HeistheauthorofScholarsandGentlemen:ShakespearianTextual
CriticismandRepresentationsofScholarlyLabour,1725–1765(1995)andAdorno:A
Critical Introduction (1998).
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM
General Editors
Professor Marilyn Butler, University of Oxford
Professor James Chandler, University of Chicago
Editorial Board
John Barrell, University of York
Paul Hamilton, University of London
Mary Jacobus, University of Cambridge
Claudia Johnson, Princeton University
Alan Liu, University of California, Santa Barbara
Susan Manning, University of Edinburgh
Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
David Simpson, University of California, Davis
Thisseriesaimstofosterthebestnewworkinoneofthemostchallengingfields
within English literary studies. From the early 1780s to the early 1830s a
formidable array of talented men and women took to literary composition, not
justinpoetry,whichsomeofthemfamouslytransformed,butinmanymodesof
writing.Theexpansionofpublishingcreatednewopportunitiesforwriters,and
the political stakes of what they wrote were raised again by what Wordsworth
called those ‘great national events’ that were ‘almost daily taking place’: the
French Revolution, the Napoleonic and American wars, urbanization,
industrialization, religious revival, an expanded empire abroad and the reform
movement at home. This was an enormous ambition, 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; journalism by
CobbettandHazlitt;poeticform,contentandstylebytheLakeSchoolandthe
Cockney School. Outside Shakespeare studies, probably no body of writing has
produced such a wealth of response or done so much to shape the responses of
modern criticism. This indeed is the period that saw the emergence of those
notions of ‘literature’ and of literary history, especially national literary history,
on which modern scholarship in English has been founded.
ThecategoriesproducedbyRomanticismhavealsobeenchallengedbyrecent
historicistarguments.Thetaskoftheseriesistoengagebothwithachallenging
corpus of Romantic writings and with the changing field of criticism they have
helped to shape. As with other literary series published by Cambridge, this one
willrepresenttheworkofbothyoungerandmoreestablishedscholars,oneither
side of the Atlantic and elsewhere.
For a complete list of titles published see end of book.
WORDSWORTH’S
PHILOSOPHIC SONG
SIMON JARVIS
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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Informationon this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521862684
©SimonJarvis2007
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisionof
relevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplace
withoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublishedinprintformat 2006
ISBN-13 978-0-511-26894-6 eBook(EBL)
ISBN-10 0-511-26894-7 eBook(EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-86268-4 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-86268-X hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofurls
forexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,anddoesnot
guaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
It is the possible, never the immediately actual, that blocks off
utopia.
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of abbreviations ix
Introduction: poetic thinking 1
COUNTER-SPIRITS 33
1 Old idolatry 35
2 From idolatry to ideology 56
3 Materialism of the beautiful 84
109
COMMON DAY
4 Happiness 111
5 Infinity 133
6 Life 153
7 Light 195
Conclusion: imagination 214
Notes 224
Bibliography 252
Index 263
vii
Acknowledgements
For help, advice, information and inspiration of various kinds over a
number of years I thank the following: Ruth Abbott, Jay Bernstein,
Phillip Blond, the British Academy, Marilyn Butler, Fenella Cannell,
Cathy Caruth, Howard Caygill, Jim Chandler, Stefan Collini, Peter De
Bolla,HaydnDowney,ElizabethEdwards,HowardErskine-Hill,Frances
Ferguson, Yoram Gorlizki, Sarah Haggarty, Wayne Hankey, Neil Hertz,
Neil Hitchen, Roger Howard, Mary Jacobus, Gillian Jarvis, Michael
Jarvis,TimJarvis,JohnKerrigan,DominickLaCapra,NigelLeask,Nigel
Mapp, Charles Martindale, John Milbank, Drew Milne, Reeve Parker,
Ian Patterson, Roland Polastro, J.H. Prynne, John and Gayle Richards,
the late Gillian Rose, the Warden and Fellows of Robinson College,
Cambridge, Michael Rossington, Jim Siegel, James Simpson, the Society
for the Humanities at Cornell University, Keston Sutherland, Peter
Swaab, Gordon Teskey, Nick Walker, Nigel Wheale, and Ross Wilson.
Mark Offord’s extensive comments on the whole manuscript were of the
highest value. The book is dedicated to Tim Jarvis.
viii
