William Wordsworth's later poetry complicates possibilities of life and art in war's aftermath. This illuminating study provides new perspectives and reveals how his work following the end of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars reflects a passionate, lifelong engagement with the poetics and politics of peace. Focusing on works from between 1814 and 1822, Philip Shaw constructs a unique and compelling account of how Wordsworth, in both his ongoing poetic output and in his revisions to earlier works, sought to modify, refute, and sometimes sustain his early engagement with these issues as both an artist and a political thinker. In an engaging style, Shaw reorients our understanding of the later writings of a major British poet and the post-war literary culture in which his reputation was forged. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

‘… this is a book of richly detailed readings of lesser-known poems that consistently illuminates their inner tensions by reconstructing the personal and public contexts in which they were written and read. It presents Wordsworth not as a genius or prophet but as consistent in an inconsistency that is a token of his inability, despite himself, to toe the conventional line. A Wordsworth worth reading then, even if that reading will more often be provoking and annoying than inspiring or beautiful.’

Tim Fulford Source: The Charles and Mary Lamb Journal