Wordsworth Reading Response

I commenced my review of Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a cloud” by going online, which included listening to poem read by a British lady who used more emphasis and tone than when I silently read the poem.  I was able to read much of the handwritten manuscript, but I found the provided text and annotations useful. 

The 19^th century printings were delightful.  The Latin phrases on the 1807 version were a little intimidating as I don’t read Latin. The 1807 title page of Poems had more emphasis while the 1815 version included more information using smaller fonts.  The 1807 poem was printed in Volume II, with the 1815 version contained in Volume I.  The inclusion of ‘Lyrical Ballads, Miscellaneous Pieces of the Author. With Additional Poems, a New Preface, and a Supplemental Essay’ made me think there were many additions not included in the previous edition by the same publisher. The title page of the 1965 scholarly book edited by Jack Stillinger, mentions prefaces, which would be of interest in understanding the diverse editors’ viewpoints. The title page for the 1983 book edited by Jared Curtis was distinctive as it mentions the time span of 1800-1807. 

Comparing the versions between all mediums demonstrated that while similar, they were not identical.  Capitalization of various words assisted me in determining which versions were from 1807 and 1815.  The additional stanza, along with the word changes (i.e. jocund, and ‘Fluttering and dancing in the breeze’ vs. Ten thousand dancing in the breeze’), demonstrated that Wordsworth continued to revise the poem. The annotations in Curtis’ book were distracting, but I blame that on me and would welcome it if I was doing a more thorough investigation into the poem itself.

-Diane Culpin