Wordsworth's "Salisbury Plain": an edition of three texts with an essay on their place in the development of his poetry

Abstract

The thesis is in two parts. The first consists of an edition of the three poems which grew from Wordsworth's experiences on Salisbury plain in 1793. The texts are prefaced by two chapters. The first records the history of the composition of A Night on Salisbury Plain (1793-1795), Adventures on Salisbury Plain (1795-1799) and Guilt and Sorrow (1841-1842) and discusses the nature of Wordsworth's developing conception of the poems. The second describes the manuscripts involved and discusses problems of dating and composition. The texts follow. In the case of the two early poems the text established is that of the earliest complete version, taken from manuscript. In an apparatus crlticus all manuscript revision is recorded. In the case of Guilt and Sorrow the text is that of the first published version, 1842, with an apparatus criticus of all later variants to 1850, the date of the poet's last authorised edition. Supporting material concerning other manuscript work of interest and a possible source for part of Adventures on Salisbury Plain is given in appendices.

The second part of the thesis examines the poems and their place in the development of Wordsworth's art as seen from two points of view. The first traces the growth of Wordsworth's ideas on the relationship of man to his world. A movement is followed from A Night on Salisbury Plain where this relationship is conceived in social and political terms only, to The Ruined Cottage where it is conceived in quasi-mystical or philosophic terms. Adventures on Salisbury Plain is seen as the vital transitional poem for here Wordsworth changes the focus of his interest from man the social, political being to man the solitary being who has to come to terms not only with alien social conditions but with himself and his relation to his fellow men. The second point of view sees Wordsworth's development as shaped in part by the need to solve certain problems inherent in didactic writing. The problems are outlined in an introduction and in a study of a passage from An Evening. Walk which suggest the kind of relationship necessary in any didactic work between the poet and the raw materials of his 'message', the imaginative world he creates to project this, and the reader and the world of his own experience and judgment which he brings to bear on the poem. The poems are then examined as evidence of the way in which Wordsworth repeatedly tried to establish the right relationship. The Salisbury Plain are valuable because of the way they make the issues clear to Wordsworth: The Ruined Cottage because of a successful discovery of form, in which the poet can take an acceptable role in his own poem, parallel to the role adopted by the reader.