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Wordsworth and the face of things (1979).(William Wordsworth )

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From: Wordsworth Circle
Date: 20060622
Author:Beer, John

Coleridge's assertion "Wordsworth's words always mean the whole of their possible meaning" should be kept in mind. There is a deceptive quality about much of his language: because he uses familiar words and phrases which sometimes look like cliches (and because in his later poetry they sometimes are) it is easy to imagine that one has grasped their meaning, only to discover, on reflection or on a later reading, that there was more than met the innocent eye. One such cluster of words and phrases, "the face of things," "the face of nature,"--or simply "the face" provides a case in ...

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