W W ILLIA M ORDSWORTH, S G ECOND- ENER ATION R OM ANTIC Contesting Poetry after Waterloo JEFFREY N. COX WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, SECOND- GENERATION ROMANTIC William Wordsworth, Second-Generation Romantic provides a truly comprehensivereadingof“late”Wordsworthandthefullarcofhis career from 1814 to 1840, revealing that his major poems after Waterloocontestpoeticandpoliticalissueswithhisyoungercontem- poraries:Keats,Shelley,andByron.Refutingconventionalmodelsof influence,whereWordsworth“fathers”theyoungerpoets,Coxdem- onstrates how Wordsworth’s later writing evolved in response to “second-generation” romanticism. After exploring the ways in whichhisyoungercontemporariesrewrotehisExcursion,thisvolume examineshowWordsworth’s“ThanksgivingOde”entersintoacom- plex conversation with Leigh Hunt and Byron; how the delayed publication of Peter Bell could be read as a reaction to the Byronic hero;howtheolderpoet’sRiverDuddonsonnetsrespondtoShelley’s “MontBlanc”;andhowhislatervolumes,particularly“Memorialsof aTourinItaly,1837,”engageinacomplicatederasureofpoetswho bothfollowedandpredeceasedhim. jeffrey n. cox is Distinguished Professor of English and HumanitiesattheUniversityofColoradoBoulder.Heistheauthor and editor of ten volumes, including Romanticism in the Shadow of War(2014)andtheaward-winningPoetryandPoliticsintheCockney School(1998). cambridge studies in romanticism FoundingEditor MarilynButler,UniversityofOxford GeneralEditor JamesChandler,UniversityofChicago EditorialBoard JohnBarrell,UniversityofYork PaulHamilton,UniversityofLondon MaryJacobus,UniversityofCambridge ClaudiaJohnson,PrincetonUniversity AlanLiu,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara JeromeMcGann,UniversityofVirginia DavidSimpson,UniversityofCalifornia,Davis This series aims to foster the best new work in one of the most challenging fields withinEnglishliterarystudies.Fromtheearly1780stotheearly1830s,aformidable arrayoftalentedmenandwomentooktoliterarycomposition,notjustinpoetry, which some of them famously transformed, but in many modes of writing. The expansionofpublishingcreatednewopportunitiesforwriters,andthepoliticalstakes ofwhattheywrotewereraisedagainbywhatWordsworthcalledthose“greatnational events”thatwere“almostdailytakingplace”:theFrenchRevolution,theNapoleonic and American wars, urbanization, industrialization, religious revival, an expanded empireabroad,andthereformmovementathome.Thiswasanenormousambition, even when it pretended otherwise. The relations between science, philosophy, religion, and literature were reworked in texts such as Frankenstein and Biographia Literaria; gender relations in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Don Juan; journalismbyCobbettandHazlitt;andpoeticform,content,andstylebytheLake SchoolandtheCockneySchool.OutsideShakespearestudies,probablynobodyof writinghasproducedsuchawealthofcommentaryordonesomuchtoshapethe responsesofmoderncriticism.Thisindeedistheperiodthatsawtheemergenceof thosenotionsofliteratureandofliteraryhistory,especiallynationalliteraryhistory, onwhichmodernscholarshipinEnglishhasbeenfounded. ThecategoriesproducedbyRomanticismhavealsobeenchallengedbyrecent historicistarguments.Thetaskoftheseriesistoengagebothwithachallenging corpus of Romantic writings and with the changing field of criticism they have helpedtoshape.AswithotherliteraryseriespublishedbyCambridgeUniversity Press, this one will represent the work of both younger and more established scholarsoneithersideoftheAtlanticandelsewhere. Seetheendofthebookforacompletelistofpublishedtitles. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, SECOND-GENERATION ROMANTIC Contesting Poetry after Waterloo JEFFREY N. COX UniversityofColoradoBoulder UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,ny10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,vic3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108837613 doi:10.1017/9781108946698 ©CambridgeUniversityPress2021 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2021 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData names:Cox,JeffreyN.,author. title:WilliamWordsworth,second-generationromantic:contestingpoetryafterWaterloo/ JeffreyCox,UniversityofColoradoBoulder. description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress, 2021.|Series:CambridgestudiesinRomanticism;131|Includesbibliographicalreferences andindex. identifiers:lccn2020049481(print)|lccn2020049482(ebook)|isbn9781108837613 (hardback)|isbn9781108946698(ebook) subjects:lcsh:Wordsworth,William,1770–1850–Criticismandinterpretation.|Wordsworth, William,1770–1850–Contemporaries.|Romanticism–England.|Englishpoetry–19thcentury– Historyandcriticism. classification:lccpr5888.c692021(print)|lccpr5888(ebook)|ddc821/.7–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020049481 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020049482 isbn978-1-108-83761-3Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. This book is dedicated to Amy “ ” and to our second generation, Julia, Emma, and Claire. Inthanksforalltheloveandjoyyouhavegivenme,early and late. Contents ListofFigures pageviii Acknowledgments ix ListofAbbreviations xii Introduction 1 1 CockneyExcursions 34 Coda:LaodamiaResponds 66 2 Wordsworth’s“ThanksgivingOde” AnEngagedPoeticsandtheHorrorsofWar 78 3 “ThisPotter-Don-Juan” PeterBellin1819 110 4 ThinkingRivers TheFlowofInfluence,Wordsworth–Coleridge–Shelley 129 5 Late“LateWordsworth” 157 IRetrospectionandRe-collection 157 IIContestingItaly 170 PostscriptWordsworthin1850 ThePrelude,“thisposthumousyetyouthfulwork” 200 Notes 205 SelectBibliography 252 Index 264 vii Figures 0.1 BenjaminRobertHaydon.Christ’sEntryintoJerusalem page12 (1814–20).Wordsworth’sportrait,withbowedhead,appears betweenthetwocolumnsontheright,nexttothesneering Voltaire.457x396cm.MountSt.Mary’sSeminary, Cincinnati.Photoprovidedby:TheAthenaeumofOhio inCincinnati,Ohio,USA. 2.1 Anon.[J.Markspub.].“TheEuropeanPantomime”(March 84 1815?).Hand-coloredetchingonpaper,25.8x35.5cm. ©TrusteesoftheBritishMuseum. viii