Wordsworth's Dream of Poetry and Science: <i>The Prelude</i>, V

James H. Donelan describes how two poets, a philosopher and a composer – Hölderlin, Wordsworth, Hegel and Beethoven – developed an idea of self-consciousness based on music at the turn of the nineteenth century. This idea became an enduring cultural belief: the understanding of music as an ideal representation of the autonomous creative mind. Against a background of political and cultural upheaval, these four major figures – all born in 1770 – developed this idea in both metaphorical and actual musical structures, thereby establishing both the theory and the practice of asserting self-identity in music. Beethoven still carries the image of the heroic composer today; this book describes how it originated in both his music and in how others responded to him. Bringing together the fields of philosophy, musicology, and literary criticism, Donelan shows how this development emerged from the complex changes in European cultural life taking place between 1795 and 1831.

show abstract

Wordsworth's Philosophic Song

Jarvis

2006

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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 'philosophic song' is central to his greatness, and changed the way English poetry was written. Some critics see Wordworth as a systematic thinker, while for others he is a poet first, and a thinker only (if at all) second. Jarvis shows instead 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, Jarvis reads Wordsworth's writing both critically and philosophically, to show how Wordsworth thinks through and in verse. This study rethinks the relation between poetry and society itself by analysing the tensions between thinking philosophically and writing poetry.

show abstract

Wordsworth's Dream of Poetry and Science: The Prelude, V

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Fact and fiction, stone and shell: Wordsworth's dream of the poetic paradox

Fact and fiction, stone and shell: Wordsworth's dream of the poetic paradox

Poetry and the Romantic Musical Aesthetic

Wordsworth's Philosophic Song

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About