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Wordsworth's A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal.(William Wordsworth)(Critical essay)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 20070101
Author:Hughes, John

Although it is a commonplace that Wordsworth's "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" is a poem about the death of a young girl, its status as a test case for new readings of Wordsworth is worth remarking on. The poem, possibly above all others by the poet, acts as revealing agent through which the critic displays his or her critical orientation and rehearses his or her bona fides. (1) Written in the semi-exile of Goslar at the end of 1798, and included in the 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads, the poem is at once lyrical (in its unsparing, unconsoled, and ruminative directness of address) ...

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