The Excursion

The following poem was commenced in the beginning of the year seventeen ninety-nine and completed in the summer of eighteen oh five.

The design and occasion of the work are described by the author in his preface to The Excursion, first published in eighteen fourteen, where he thus speaks.

Several years ago, when the author retired to his native mountains with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind and examine how far nature and education had qualified him for such an employment.

As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record in verse the origin and progress of his own powers as far as he was acquainted with them.

It will thence be seen that the present poem was intended to be introductory to The Recluse, and that The Recluse, if completed, would have consisted of three parts.

Of these, the second part alone, viz.

The Excursion, was finished and given to the world by the author.

The first book of the first part of The Recluse still remains in manuscript, but the third part was only planned.

To illustrate this very quickly, let's look at passages five and six on your sheet.

Wordsworth, the strong misreader and belated poet with respect to Milton, Wordsworth writes in a kind of programmatic or promissory poem written actually in 1800, not published until 1814 as part of the preface to a poem of his called The Excursion.

He wrote a prospectus to the recluse.

That's what at one time the excursion was supposed to be part of, and he says, I'm not interested in writing Paradise Lost.

Paradise Lost for me is a thing of the past.

It's just archaic.

The following poem was commenced in the beginning of the year seventeen ninety-nine and completed in the summer of eighteen oh five.

The design and occasion of the work are described by the author in his preface to the Excursion, first published in eighteen fourteen, where he thus speaks.

Several years ago, when the author retired to his native mountains with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind and examine how far nature and education had qualified him for such an employment.

As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record in verse the origin and progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with them.

It will thence be seen that the present poem was intended to be introductory to The Recluse, and that The Recluse, if completed, would have consisted of three parts.

Of these, the second part alone, viz.

The Excursion, was finished and given to the world by the author.

The first book of the first part of The Recluse still remains in manuscript, but the third part was only planned.

The following poem was commenced in the beginning of the year seventeen ninety-nine, and completed in the summer of eighteen oh five.

The design and occasion of the work are described by the author in his Preface to the Excursion, first published in eighteen fourteen, where he thus speaks, "Several years ago, when the author retired to his native mountains with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind, and examine how far nature and education had qualified him for such an employment.

As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record in verse the origin and progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with them.

That work, addressed to a dear friend, most distinguished for his knowledge and genius, and to whom the author's intellect is deeply indebted, has been long finished; and the result of the investigation which gave rise to it was a determination to compose a philosophical poem, containing views of man, nature, and society, and to be entitled The Recluse, as having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement.

Continuing this allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor pieces, which have been long before the public, when they shall be properly arranged, will be found by the attentive reader to have such connection with the main work as may give them claim to be likened to the little cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses ordinarily included in those edifices." Such was the author's language in the year eighteen fourteen.

It will thence be seen that the present poem was intended to be introductory to The Recluse, and that The Recluse, if completed, would have consisted of three parts.

Of these, the second part alone, viz., the Excursion, was finished, and given to the world by the author.

The first book of the first part of The Recluse still remains in manuscript, but the third part was only planned.