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"A Poet and an Englishman": the Gentleman's Magazine and the Gothic style of the Recluse.(Critical essay)

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From: Wordsworth Circle
Date: 20070922
Author:Duggett, Tom

On November 26, 1814, William Wordsworth wrote to his younger brother Christopher to express his relief on hearing that his "intentions" in sending him a copy of The Excursion had been "fulfilled" (MY II 170-1). The poem was the first published part of Wordsworth's projected "philosophical" epic, The Recluse. But like its autobiographical precursor, The Prelude, described by the Eclectic Review as a "fossil relic newly dug up" in November, 1850, The Excursion was already belated when it appeared in July, 1814. The tone of stoic optimism was better suited to the earlier, dark days ...

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