Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

William Wordsworth (Author)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: January 1, 1995

This selection of poetry concentrates on Wordsworth's greatest poems including "Lyrical Ballads", several tales from "The Excursion" and over half of "The Prelude".

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. All books published since 1993 have also been completely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarity and ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; a vibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great texts with beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature must be Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140423753
• ISBN-13: 978-0140423754
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,581,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatness of Wordsworth as a poet, February 7, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

There are too many lines in Wordsworth and too many long poems which today are largely unread. But there is also a body of work within that far vaster world of lines which is great. There are a whole group of poems , including many from 'The Lyrical Ballads' and certainly 'Intimations on Immortality ' and certainly 'Tintern Abbey' and certainly some of the great sonnets that constitute together one of the great poetic oeuvres.
Wordsworth combines the simple and sublime as no other poet does. His relation to Nature is deep and fresh, and yet too humble and moral, wild and beautiful. His direct experiential mode of meeting Nature in youth, is transformed into something far greater in his meditative and reflective relation to it . Wordsworth somehow brings to his meetings with nature a noble cast of mind. So too in his moral sentiment there is not a preaching narrowness, but a broad vision of something far more deeply interfused . Wordsworth in giving everyday life and perception a sense of the sublime is somehow a religious poet. The sense of something sublime that flows through all things is too a sense of something Divine.
Reading Wordsworth is receiving the sense that life too and our experience have a dimension of beauty and nobility which make them supremely worthwhile.
Reading Wordsworth one feels that one is lifted up to one's own better nature.
And this too when there are in him immortal lines, which like ' the best part of a good man's life is small acts of kindness and of love' are unforgettable.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful brief introduction to the poetry of Wordsworth, June 28, 2008

By 

Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Poems of William Wordsworth (Hardcover)

William Wordsworth was one of the best Romantic poets of the 19th century. This slim volume, a work that I purchased while still an undergraduate student, has been with me for many years, and I enjoy returning to it every so often, to recall the work of Wordsworth.

As the Introduction points out (Page ix): "One of the basic tenets of Wordsworth's philosophy is that the world and everything in it, man included, are good and that it is mankind's fundamental duty to enjoy 'the air that it breathes.'" The poet, in his view, has the responsibility of advancing that perspective among people. Put another way by the editor of this volume (Page x): "To be happy, man must become familiar with and adjust to the immutable laws of nature."

The volume itself features a number of Wordsworth's better known and more important works, such as "Preface to Lyrical Ballads," in which he speaks of his views of poetry (in prose). There follow poems, such as "Lucy Gray," "Strange Fits of Passion I Have Known," "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways," "I Travelled among Unknown Men," "Great Men Have Been among Us," "To Toussaint L'Ouverture," "The World Is too Much with Us," "She Was a Phantom of Delight," and so on. In short, there is enough here to get a sense of the art of Wordsworth.

A couple brief examples (some of my favorites) of his work:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

The World Is too Much with Us

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"

The words in the latter are touching still, as humanity tries to deal with the problems facing the environment, oftentimes losing sight of the wonder of nature and how we are exploiting and degrading it.

At any rate, a nice introduction to the art of William Wordsworth.

5.0 out of 5 stars beautifully done, January 31, 2009

By 

Jill (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Wordsworth: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (Hardcover)

I had forgotten how beautiful Wordsworth's poetry is. This recording, by a group of talented and skilled British actor-readers, brings the poems to life. It is a delight from beginning to end. Find any excuse you can to give it to someone as a gift: it will be one that they will enjoy for many, many years.