The Cambridge Companion to 'Lyrical Ballads'

This accessible collection of essays provides an essential introduction to the volume of poetry that defined British Romanticism.

Sally Bushell (Edited by)

9781108416320, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 January 2020

302 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.9 cm, 0.6 kg

'This bright new Cambridge Companion to 'Lyrical Ballads' is a thoughtfully conceived and well-executed collection that illuminates the famous book from several angles.' Seamus Perry, The Wordsworth Circle

Lyrical Ballads (1798) is a work of huge cultural and literary significance. The volume of poetry, in which Coleridge's Rime of the Ancyent Marinere and Wordsworth's Lines written above Tintern Abbey were first published, lies at the heart of British Romanticism, establishing a poetics of powerful feeling, that is, nonetheless, expressed in direct, conversational language and exploring the everyday realities of common life. This engaging, accessible collection provides a comprehensive overview of current approaches to Lyrical Ballads, enabling readers to find fresh ways of understanding and responding to the volume. Sally Bushell's introduction explores how the Preface to the second edition (1800) became a potent manifesto for the Romantic movement. Broad in scope, the Companion includes accessible essays on Wordsworth's experiments with language and metre, ecocritical approaches, the reception of the volume in America and more; furnishing students and scholars with a range of entry points to this seminal text.

Part I. Part and Whole
1. Wordsworth's 'Preface': A Manifesto for British Romanticism Sally Bushell
2. Collaboration, Domestic Co-partnery and Lyrical Ballads Polly Atkin
3. Coleridgean Contributions Tim Fulford
4. Lyric Voice, Ballad Voice Pete Newbon
Part II. Subjects and Situations from Common Life
5. Conversation in Lyrical Ballads Frances Ferguson
6. The Power of Things in Lyrical Ballads Paul H. Fry
7. Marginal Figures Philip Shaw
Part III. Feeling and Thought
8. Silence and Sympathy in Lyrical Ballads Andrew Bennett
9. Domestic Affections and the Home Susan Wolfson
Part IV. Language and the Human Mind
10. A 'Radical Difference': Wordsworth's Experiments in Language and Metre Brennan O'Donnell
11. Awkward Relations: Poetry and Philosophy in Lyrical Ballads Alexander Regier
Part V. A Global Lyrical Ballads
12. Ecocritical Approaches to Lyrical Ballads James C. McKusick
13. Rhyming Revolutionaries: Lyrical Ballads in America Joel Pace
14. The Indigenous Lyrical Ballads Nikki Hessell.

Subject Areas: Educational: English literature [YQE], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Poetry anthologies [various poets DCQ]