Wordsworth and the Motions of the Mind

Every great Poet is a Teacher; I wish to be considered as a Teacher or as nothing. So wrote William Wordsworth in 1808. This book examines the poet’s several methods and aims as a teacher in a variety of his poems; his trust in, and high expectations for, his reader’s mental activity; and his part in a significant shift in artistic taste and awareness which still affects us all. It is a study of a great poet’s lifelong effort, as he said, to teach as Nature teaches by setting the human mind in motion.