Call Number:

C1295

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William Wordsworth Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1799-1847 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850.

Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century, Manuscripts -- 19th century., and Poems -- 19th century.

Abstract:

Consists of selected autograph manuscript poems and correspondence of William Wordsworth, one of England's most respected poets of the nineteenth century.

William Wordsworth was one of the major English poets of the Romantic era. Born in April 7, 1770, in Cumberland, England, he later attended Cambridge University. His first sonnet was published in the same year. He went on to write such celebrated poems as "Tintern Abbey" and the ode "Intimations of Immortality". Wordworth helped launch the Romantic Age with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798) with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was to remain a lifelong friend and colleague. He was named Poet Laureate in 1843 and received honorary degrees from Durham and Oxford Universities. The Prelude, published posthumously after his death in 1850, is considered to be his greatest work.

The collection consists of selected autograph manuscript poems and correspondence of England's 1843 Poet Laureate William Wordsworth. Poems included are "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" (an 1828 copy), "A Character" (1800), and three poems from Epitaphs(1810): "Weep not, beloved friends! Nor let the air . . ." (I), "True is it that Ambrosio Salinero . . ." (V), "O flower of all that springs from gentle blood . . ." (VII). Also included are "To the Moon" (written at Rydal, 1835), "To the Moon, Composed by the Sea-side on the Coast of Cumberland" (1835), "Upon Seeing a Coloured Drawing of the Bird of Paradise in an Album" (1835); "If thou indeed derive thy light from heaven . . ." (1832), "Six months to six years added he remained . . ." (1836), and "On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for Naples" (1831) from Yarrow Revisited, And Other Poems. A poem beginning "By smiles of playful glee--too oft," which is signed and inscribed to Lady Farquhar and dated Elleray, August 7, 1841, contains several differences from the published text (1842). There is also an untitled, undated poem beginning "O wiser thou, pause not nor turn thee back." Some of the manuscripts are in the hand of Wordsworth's wife, Mary, with holograph revisions by the poet.

The correspondence includes a letter to G. Huntly Gordon (1830) and one to Lord Holland (1806) with a portrait of Wordsworth, as well as three letters to unidentified individuals. There is also an undated letter from Henry Hallan.

Folders are arranged in accession number order.