Authority of Poetic Voices in The Prelude: Wordsworth's Re-writing of Revolutionary Experiences

Authority of Poetic Voices in The Prelude: Wordsworth's Re-writing of Revolutionary Experiences

Central to the compositional history of William Wordsworth's writing is the concept of poetic authority, as that has been reflected through his lifelong act of manuscript revising. This article traces the development of Wordsworth's formation of poetic authority in the composition of The Prelude and observes how he, in the wake of the French Revolution, engages with further doubts over the poem's worth as a shared experience with the social community. This study conducts a contextualized research on Wordsworth's thought upon the “authority” of the poet as the one who conveys his messages--to Coleridge particularly. The complex feelings caused by this particular experience of the Revolution perplex his thinking about his self--a self trapped in opposing and even incompatible feelings. Further complications arise from the conflict between the objective Coleridge sets forth for him and Wordsworth's private aim to be a poet fostered by nature. My article argues that the inherent contradictions involved in Wordsworth's ever-shifting conception of his role and authority as a writer force him to situate his poetic voices between self-assertion and self-repression. The article also unravels some of the mysteries surrounding The Prelude's compositional history by investigating not only the 1799, 1805, and 1850 versions of the work but also the unpublished drafts, so as to bring these writings into dialogue with one another within a historical framework.