| |
| The
Prelude |
| William
Wordsworth |
| Edited
by Robert Woof with an Introduction by Stephen Gill |
| Watercolours
by David Esslemont |
| Published
by The Wordsworth Trust |
| Contents
Illustrations Edition
details |
 |
| Wordsworth’s
masterpiece |
| This
edition of Wordsworth’s masterpiece follows the text of
one of the Trust’s greatest treasures, the fair copy made
by Dorothy Wordsworth in 1805–6 known as ‘Manuscript
A’. In 1805 Dorothy wrote to Lady Beaumont: ‘I am
now engaged in making a fair and final transcript of the poem
on his life, I mean final till it is prepared for the press,
which will not be for many years. No doubt before that time
he will, either from the suggestions of his friends, or his
own, or both, have some alterations to make, but appears to
us at present to be finished.’ |
| greatest
poetic achievement |
|
As predicted, Wordsworth continued to revise the poem and it
was not published until after his death in 1850. The 1805 version
of the poem, now considered Wordsworth’s greatest poetic
achievement, did not reach the public until 1926 and was based
on Manuscript A, with reference to ‘Manuscript B’,
another fair copy made at the same period by Mary Wordsworth.
This new edition follows closely the original spelling and light
punctuation of Manuscript A and presents Wordsworth’s
poem as it stood at a particular point in time when he appeared,
to his wife and sister, ‘to be finished’. |
| a
haunting need |
Robert
Woof’s introductory essay describes the early growth of
the poem, tracing the changes that were made between the very
first fragments of 1798 and the poem as completed in 1805–6:
‘Many of these changes reveal a different, often expanded
and more deeply explored presentation of Wordsworth’s
experience as a boy, a young man, a political figure and a potential
poet whose subject is a haunting need to deepen his own self-analysis.’
|
| A
unique memorial |
|
The Prelude will be a unique memorial to the bicentenary
of the poem and to the life and work of Robert Woof, the Trust’s
first Director, who died in November 2005. It represents his
final achievement as a great Wordsworth scholar. |
| home |
|
