THE LATER WORDSWORTH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 775, 28 May 1954, Page 14

THE LATER WORDSWORTH

THE EGOTISTICAL SUBLIME, by John dghess Chatto and Windus, English price \V ORDSWORTH has been fortunate in his critics. The most recent of a long line of scholars to examine his work is concerned mainly to show that the poetry of the final, Christian phase should not be dimissed as lightly as it has been in the past. Mr. Jones has a sympathetic understanding of Wordsworth’s mind. He emphasises its literalness and masculinity, and goes deeply into the poet’s conception of nature. His work. is seen in three phases: "There is the poetry of solitude and relationship. There is the poetry of indecision, of glances behind and before... and then . . there is the offering of a baptised imagination." The movement from youth to old age is followed with constant reference to the text. Mr. Jones makes no extravagant claims for the later years, but he invites a new appraisal. "There is no Tempest lying unregarded in this late work, or even such poetry as would reverse the universal judgment that the best is eéatly. Even so, it has been grossly underestimated. .. The final privacy of greatness in style has escaped notice. Wordsworth was not silenced by the music of Christianity, nor stifled by Victorian morals. He was profoundly changed." Mr. Jones makes out a strong case. And it seems no accident that, like other critics who have spent much time with Wordsworth, he writes good prose.

H.