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The psycho-aesthetics of romantic moonshine: Wordsworth's profane illumination.(William Wordsworth)

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From: Wordsworth Circle
Date: 20060101
Author:Hartman, Geoffrey

Wordsworth has been accused of averting his eyes from "half of human fate" (Matthew Arnold, "Stanzas in Memory of the Author of 'Obermann'" 53-4). It is true he does not portray scenes of terror and nightmare directly, or in gothic format. The exceptions are well-known: intense descriptions of moments of terror in the wake of what to others might have been ordinary sights. But what he mainly offers are vignettes of pathos from everyday, rural life; and, except for preachy admonitions, the very obliquity of his procedure paradoxically puts one on guard. We sense a psychic depth ...

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