A bibliography on the influence of Milton on the Romantics. Includes materials dated through 1997. Prepared by Sharon Elteto
Bidney,
Martin. “Solomon and Pharaoh’s
Daughter: Blake’s Response to Wordsworth’s “Prospectus” to The
Recluse. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 85
(1986): 532-549.
Bidney discusses Wordsworth's creative transformation of Milton's concept of the epic poet's task in the “Prospectus” to The Recluse. According to the author, Wordsworth's lines boldly reform Paradise Lost into paradise regained. He reveals the poet's venture as a "re-enactment of the primal imaginative fall." He compares both Blake and Wordsworth's rethinking of Milton.
Bloom,
Harold. Poetry and Repression. Revisionism from
Blake to Stevens. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
Bloom proposes that it is by "repressing creative freedom" through the "initial fixation of influence" that forms a poet. It is by revising the repression that the poet remains strong. He calls this the "Scene of Instruction" taken from Thomas Frosch. In his chapter dealing with Wordsworth, his strategy is to outline the poet’s misreadings of Books III and VII of Paradise Lost showing their origins in anxiety "as to whether his power of relationship with nature can compensate him for his failures to rise to as much as could have risen of Milton's more antithetical visionary power" (72).
Brinkley,
Robert A. “Vagrant and Hermit: Milton and
the Politics of “Tintern Abbey.” The Wordsworth Circle16
(1985): 126-133.
Brinkley sees the landscape of "Tintern Abbey" as an idealized one that reveals a political viewpoint. He arrives at this conclusion by way of a complex discussion of the relationship between Milton's Republicanism, the romantic take on Satan's rebellion, and the idea of containing "a paradise within" which for Wordsworth equals an internalized landscape. “Tintern Abbey's” Hermit represents Milton (the poet) and the vagrant, impoverished humanity; these allusions are political in nature.
·Brinkley,
Robert A. "Romanticism and the Desire Called
Milton." Diss. University of Massachusetts, 1979. DAI 40
(1980): 4603A
Brinkley takes off on Wordsworth's statement " Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour." He notes that Keats remarked that he would be "on guard against Milton," and that "life for him would be death to me." Blake discovers that life for him is also Milton's life, and Milton's death would be Blake's as well. These comments express the ambivalence with which the Romantics respond to the Miltonic vision. Brinkley departs from Bloom's theory of literary influence and misreading that sees romantic poetry as an internalized self-quest. Instead, he presents an idea from Hegel who maintains that it is fear of loss that motivates humans.
Brinkley,
Robert. “ ‘Our Chearful Faith’:
On Wordsworth, Politics, and Milton.” The Wordsworth Circle18
(1987): 57-60.
Brinkley continues his argument from an earlier article, further developing his claims for a political reading of Wordsworth. Here, he asserts that the line "Our chearful faith that all which we beheld is full of blessings (TA 126-135) recalls the "paradise within" described by Michael at the end of Paradise Lost. He cites early biographical notations depicting Milton's stoic acceptance of his affliction. He states that it became a commonplace to view Milton as one who remained cheerfully faithful throughout his ordeal, and that Wordsworth reflects this attitude in the line above. The article ties these observations into a political interpretation by comparing Wordsworth's reactions to the failures of the French Revolution with Milton's of the Puritan Revolution.
Brisman, Leslie. Milton's Poetry of Choice and Its Romantic
Heirs. London: Cornell University Press, 1973.
Brisman's concerns are with poetic choices and Milton's influence/impact on the aesthetic and moral decisions with which a poet must contend. For instance, she discusses Wordsworth's Miltonic revisions of The Recluse and how they strengthen his poetic voice. Wordsworth exercises his power by choosing revisions over and over again. She suggests it is the “prerogative of the Romantic poem to regard itself as criticism, looking back at its Miltonic antecedents as text” (8).
Burwick,
Frederick. “What the Mower Does to the Meadow:
Action and Reflection in Wordsworth and Marvell.” Milton, the
Metaphysicals, and Romanticism. Eds. Lisa Low and John Anthony Harding.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. xvi, 271
Burwick finds more of Marvell than Milton in The Prelude, citing parallels in the four Mower Poems and in "The Garden."
Cook,
Eleanor. "'Methought” as Dream Formula in
Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, and Other.” English
Language Notes 32 (1995): 34-46.
Cook traces the word "methought" from Shakespeare to the Romantics. She explains that according to the OED the word has strong visionary/dreamlike connotations. Milton uses the word in the dialectics of dream, vision, and fancy; Eve uses "methought" in her dream narrative of temptation and Adam uses it in a trance-like dream before Eve appears. Although absent in the 1799 version, Wordsworth introduces it in the 1805 version of The Prelude in the famous "correspondent breeze" passage. Cook asserts that Wordsworth uses the word to recall Milton.
Coombs,
James H. “Wordsworth and Milton: Prophet Poets.” Diss.
Brown University, 1985. DAI 46 (1986): 1946A-1947A.
Coombs discusses Milton and Wordsworth in terms of the similarity of their agendas. Both poets saw themselves as prophet-poets with both leading their readers from "carnal to spiritual vision." Their intentions provide the essential connection between them. By invoking Milton, Wordsworth invests his own poetry with authority. However, Wordsworth claims his vision to be "something unseen before" as he speaks of the divinity of the human soul.
R Curlin, Jay. “Chaos in the Convent’s Narrow Room: Milton and the Sonnet.” Publications of the Arkansas Philological Association 19 (1993): 1-26.
Erdman,
David. “ Milton! Thou Shouldst Be Living.” The
Wordsworth Circle 19 (1988): 2-8.
Erdman focuses on political aspects of Milton's influence on Wordsworth. He traces and evaluates Wordsworth's feelings toward the French Revolution. He maintains that Milton, Sidney, and Harrington influenced the French, as well as the British policies regarding the revolution. He also cites Zera Fink who reveals that Wordsworth participated at Blois in the Société de Amis de la Constitution which used the English as their revolutionary model. All of this, according to Erdman is reflected in Wordsworth's 1802 statement " Milton: thou shouldst be living at this Hour."
Esterhammer,
Angela. “Wordsworth’s Ode to Duty’:
Miltonic Influence and Verbal Performance. Wordsworth Circle 24
(1993): 34-37.
Esterhammer considers Miltonic influence in “Ode to Duty” noting how the opening line “Stern Daughter of the voice of God” echoes Eve’s epithet telling the serpent that God “left that Command/Sole Daughter of his voice” (IX 652-53). Another allusion: like Milton’s hesitation in naming Urania in his invocation, so is Wordsworth uncertain when he names Duty.
Falzarano, James Vincent. Paradise
Lost and The
Prelude: Toward a More Comprehensive Model of Poetic Influence.” Diss.
Brown University, 1982. DAI 43 (1983): 3602A.
Falzarano investigates the influence of Paradise Lost on the 1805 and 1850 version of the Prelude. He first reviews previous theories of influence. The author concludes his first chapter by providing a reading that incorporates the various critical approaches and shows how Wordsworth uses his Miltonic allusions to prove his own poem to be superior. The following four chapters illustrate through key Wordsworthian passages and their Miltonic allusions, the difference between their concepts of sublime; divine inspiration and imagination; their ideas of poetic vision; and their use of symbolism. The final chapter compares the 1805 and the 1850 texts of The Prelude. Falzarano examines Wordsworth's revisions and their purposes. He concludes with observations on the genre.
French,
Roberts W. "Wordsworth's Paradise Lost: A Note
on 'Nutting.'" Studies in the Humanities 5 (1976): 42-45
French explains that there are two conflicting interpretations of "Nutting," one which says the poem illustrates an inevitable gulf between man and nature, and one that shows its benevolent and sympathetic influence on mankind. French adheres to the former and reinforces that argument by noting the echoes from Paradise Lost. He ascertains that these allusions darken the meaning of the poem and shows how "Nutting" repeats the story of the fall. While the boy learns aspects of his humanity from his experience, French states that he "necessarily confronts the dilemma long ago described by Paul:" "For the good that I would do, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Rom. vii.19).
Gast,
Marlene. “Wordsworth and Milton: Varieties of
Connection.” Diss. Brown College, 1985. DAI 46 (1986): 2299A.
Gast defends Wordsworth against the allegation that his many allusions to Milton were made to elevate his simple poetry to epic standards and that he capitalizes on Milton's grandeur. The author investigates passages from The Prelude, the Prospectus to TheExcursion and "Michael." She wishes to show the "plenitude and variety of verbal connections that create the sense of present and ongoing interaction” through which Wordsworth experiences a "poetic empowerment and demonstrates poetic authority."
R Gillham, David G. "Ideas of Human Perfection." Theoria: A Journal of Studies in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences 45 (1975):13-27.
Grierson, Sir Herbert J.C. Milton & Wordsworth.
Poets and Prophets. London: Chatto & Windus, 1956.
Grierson's aim is to develop a definition of prophetic poetry and to trace the thoughts and feelings of the greatest among them. Both Milton and Wordsworth comply with Grierson's idea of prophetic voice. Both poets begin with a vision; Milton of composing a poem as a "doctrinal to a nation” and Wordsworth with the desire to witness "human nature born again." A prophet-poet is one who responds to political and religious feelings in the same intuitive way, i.e., "by the same interaction of thought, feeling, and imagination," and render their thoughts in the same "sensuous garb of metaphor, personification, and rhythm as the great Hebrew writers. The Prelude, as Grierson claims, chronicles the process of recovery from a despondency resulting from the shattering of the poet’s high hopes for the emancipation of mankind.
R Grundy, Joan. “Samson Agonistes and The Prelude.” KM 80: A Birthday Album for Kenneth Muir. Ed. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987.
Havens, Raymond Dexter. The Influence of Milton on English
Poetry. New York: Russell and Russell, 1961.
Havens lists the characteristics of Paradise Lost and proceeds to outline its influence on other poets. He claims, for instance, that blank verse was not used except in plays, that before Milton inversions of natural word order were rare, etc. He asserts that until Wordsworth composed his poetry, Milton's influence was mostly technical; i.e. poets copied his diction, style, the roll of the lines, and his manner. Wordsworth, on the other hand, reaches his lofty severity and the intensity of moral purpose. Havens lists a number of similarities of character between the two poets. He claims that Wordsworth is fundamentally closer to Milton than any other because of his political passion, his faith, and his morals. The appendices lists the lines from Wordsworth's poetry that reflect Milton.
Hunt,
Bishop C., Jr. "Wordsworth's Marginalia on Paradise Lost." Bulletin
of the New York Public Library 73 (1969). 167-183.
As Hunt explains, the Dove Cottage Library owns a second edition of Paradise Lost which contained unpublished annotations by Wordsworth. He speculates that the marginalia were written between 1798-1800, and probably were made at the height of his creative powers. He wrote commentary on thirteen passages and made many remarks regarding Milton's language and style. This article is especially helpful if Wittreich's book Romantics On Milton is not available.
Jarvis,
Robin. “Love Between Milton and Wordsworth.” Re-Membering
Milton: Essays on the Texts and Traditions. Ed. Mary Nyquist. New
York: Methuen, 1987. 362.
Jarvis questions the standard assumption concerning the poetic relationship between Wordsworth and Milton that all is cordial and not the least ambivalent. The author traces the theme "love" through Milton and Wordsworth's poetry to compare its treatment, and concludes that Wordsworth awards himself the mantle of prophet. Jarvis claims that Wordsworth saw himself as the one prophesied in Paradise Lost who would be "working through love upon their hearts shall write/to guide them in all truth" (PL XII. 489-500). We read in The Prelude that the poet will "teach the weak to tread the ways of truth" (XIII.424). A certain amount of besting is implied.
Jarvis,
Robin. “Three Men in a Drunken Boat: Milton,
Wordsworth, Bloom.” Diacritics: A Review of Contemporary Criticism 13
(1983): 44-56.
Jarvis offers very little new material on Wordsworth, the article is really a debunking of Northrop Frye and Harold Bloom, especially Bloom's reading of "Tintern Abbey" as it appears in Poetry and Repression.
Jarvis, Robin. Wordsworth, Milton and the Theory of Poetic
Relations. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
Jarvis' aim is not only to present an intertextual reading of Wordsworth and Milton, but provide a theoretical context for his readings. He wishes to offer a new look at the ideas of influence, allusion, etc. The author would bridge a perceived gap between the Romanticists and the theorists. He departs from Bloom in that he maintains that allusions are not necessarily "constituted by the will of the author," but by the act of reading in an allusive manner" (17). In his examination of Wordsworth and Milton (Chapter 4) he pursues the idea that Wordsworth is not concealing or repressing but expressly confronting the [Miltonic] legend. He advances the idea of a primary energy of "unbound signification," association, and allusion that become apparent through a secondary activity of interpretation and ordered argument.
Kneale,
Douglas. "Milton, Wordsworth, and the ‘Joint Labourers’ of The
Prelude.” English Studies in Canada 12 (1986): 37-54.
Kneale,
J. Douglas. “Wordsworth and Milton.” Approaches
to Teaching Wordsworth’s Poetry. Eds. Spencer Hall and Jonathan
Ramsey. New York: Modern Language Association, 1986. 182.
La
Borsiere, C. R. "Wordsworth's 'Go back to antique
ages, if thine eyes' and Paradise Lost." Notes and Queries 22
(1975): 63.
La Borsiere notes the Miltonic allusion in the poem above. The reference to the Tower of Babel and the line "to chase mankind" echo a similar passage in Paradise Lost (PL 23-47), where Milton accounts for the beginnings of future political dissension.
Lee,
Chang-Kook. “A Comparative Study of The Prelude and Paradise
Lost.” The
Journal of English Language and Literature 38 (1992): 3-23.
Lindenberger, Herbert. On Wordsworth's Prelude. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1963. 300-4
Lindenberger strives to illuminate The Prelude from different points of view (thirteen, as he points out). Admitting that the poem has been relegated to the realm of dutiful reading, he wishes to present it as a living work in all its freshness. Although ferretting out Miltonic allusions is not part of his stated agenda, Lindenberger mentions them throughout the book. It is in Appendix Two that he provides insights to Milton's influence on Wordsworth. He describes how the "unrelaxing Miltonic will” helped Wordsworth to will himself to rhetorical and epic ambitions, and to create a long, unified work that would have been otherwise an inspired, but fragmented group of poems. And, his use of Milton's formal language serves to counter the often mater-of-fact tone of Wordsworth's tone.
Low,
Lisa-Elaine. "Ending in Eden: Mind and Nature in
Milton, Marvell, Wordsworth, and Wallace Stevens." Diss. University
of Massachusetts, 1986. DAI 47 (1987): 3435A.
Low outlines the ways that Milton anticipates the romantics and Wallace Stevens. She says that they “extend” Milton. All of them use poetry to change the mind of man. Milton, Wordsworth and Stevens are Edenists who share the belief that the self is the center of all being. Eden constitutes an inner paradise humans discover as their minds mature through pain, regret, and trouble. The chapters include discussions on the romantic character of Milton's heresies, Milton as the forerunner of romanticism by establishing the self in a landscape, Marvell's "Garden" as containing romantic poetics, the romantic’s pursuit of infinity, and on Wordsworth's poem "Composed by the Side of Grasmere Lake" as accommodation of mind to nature.
Maxwell,
J.C. " Milton in Wordsworth's Praise of Spenser." Notes
and Queries 15 (1968): 22-33.
In this note, the author claims that even Wordsworth's praise of Spenser has a Miltonic ring: "Sweet Spenser, moving through the clouded heavens" equals "the Moon/Rising in clouded Majestic..." (PL VIII, 163)
McNally,
Paul " Milton and Immortality Ode." Wordsworth
Circle 11 (1980): 28-33.
This article discusses the revisionary impulses in Wordsworth. His Miltonizing "sounds a subdued, contrapuntal, somber theme" (28). McNally's objective is to compare the use of light in both poets, i.e. Celestial vs. natural. He mentions that Milton is solid in his knowledge of Christian Revelation, Platonic philosophy, and classical poetical tradition. Wordsworth has intimations, i.e., the memory of a pastoral paradise enjoyed as a child. The article is well researched, interesting, and provides sound evidence to support its thesis.
Miles, Josephine. Poetry and Change: Donne, Milton, Wordsworth,
and the Equilibrium of the Present. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1974. 243.
Newmeyer,
Edna. "Paradise Preserved or Paradise Regained:
Milton and Wordsworth on the Scale of Love." Milton and the
Romantics 2 (1976): 11-15
Newmeyer,
Edna. "The Language of a 'Butcher's Stall':
Wordsworth on Milton's Description of Abel's Sacrifice." Milton
Quarterly 8 (1974): 69-72.
Newmeyer comments on Wordsworth's complaint on the language Milton uses to describe Abel's sacrifice to God. He states that the phrases are inelegant and remind one too strongly of the “Butcher's stall.” This observation perplexes Newmeyer considering Wordsworth's program of using poetic diction that reflects the "language really spoken by men" in his introduction to The Lyrical Ballads. In addition, since Milton uses similar language spoken by God as described in Leviticus, this would not have been lowly to the poet.
Newmeyer,
Edna. "Wordsworth on Milton and the Devil's
Party." Milton Studies. 1l (1978): 83-98.
Newmeyer discusses Wordsworth's position on the Satan-as-hero interpretation of Paradise Lost that became prevalent in the 19th Century. She asserts that Wordsworth did not concur with Blake, Hazlitt, Shelley, or Byron on the heroic dimensions of Milton's Satan. She uses Coleridge's succinct analysis of Satan's abandonment of the principles of right, naming him restless, cunning, and evil to support Wordsworth's more vague stance revealed primarily in his political anti-Napoleonic comments.
Olsen,
Leslie A. "A Description of the Blank Verse Prosodies
of John Milton, James Thomson, Edward young, William Cowper and William
Wordsworth." Diss. Southern California, 1974. DAI 35 (1974):
3002A.
Olsen has conducted a study of Milton, Thomson, Young, Cowper, and Wordsworth using the Halle-Keyser theory of prosody. The stylistic features he examines are the occurrence and location of stress maxima, assonance, and alliteration. The study suggests that there is a decrease in the level of prosody of Thomson and Cowper from Milton's, which Wordsworth then reattains.
Peterfreund,
Stuart. "'In Free Homage and Generous Subjection':
Miltonic Influence on ‘The Excursion." Wordsworth Circle 9
(1978): 173-177.
Peterfreund states that the reasons Wordsworth uses Book VII from Paradise Lost as his source for “The Excursion” are not as obvious as critics have claimed. He demonstrates that from the first line Wordsworth is at work blending in allusions from Milton. First of all, we see a reversing of the order of Paradise Lost: Adam and Eve move eastward while the narrator of “The Excursion” moves westward. In Book V, the wanderer’s spiritual authority and his elegiac mode remind us of Milton’s archangel, Michael. The Parish Priest is a naturalized version of Raphael. The author bases his arguments on passages from the text, giving extensive treatment to the priest’s dialogue.
Peterfreund,
Stuart. "Wordsworth, Milton, and the End
of Adam's Dream." Milton and the Romantics 3 (1977). 14-21.
Peterfreund claims that Wordsworth invites us to compare his The Recluse with Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and that he wanted the reader to have the same epic expectations. Peterfreund presents an interesting discussion on imagination as paradise, claiming that Wordsworth recast the Christian pattern of the fall into terms and intellectual circumstances more appropriate to his own time. However, Peterfreund feels Wordsworth fell short of the Miltonic model, because in the end, he is unable to shift from epic as vision to epic as process. The article is skillfully written, insightful, provocative.
Powell,
Raymond. "Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth, Tintern
Abbey and Samson Agonistes." Neophilologus 79
(1995): 689-93.
The tone of consolation Wordsworth achieves in Tintern Abbey, as he identifies his sister as the embodiment of his former self, is muted by his use of the "So much I feel my genial spirits droop," which harkens back to Milton's Samson Agonistes. The kinship rests on Samson's literal blindness and Wordsworth's figurative blindness: he can no longer see, he had lost his visual sensitivity. Wordsworth regarded the eye as the "most despotic of our senses" and admonished that it must be subordinated to the imagination. Tintern Abbey records the gradual shift from the outer to the inner eye.
Profitt,
Edward. "Samson' and the ‘Imitations Ode":
Further Evidence of Milton's Influence.” The Wordsworth Circle 11
(1980): 33-41.
This is a brief article that limits itself to comparing lines from "Intimation Ode" and Samson Agonistes. Profitt makes a convincing case for his thesis. While Samson frees himself of self pity, Wordsworth attempts to rid himself of solipsism. Both gain inner strength from their ordeals. Some key words: race, strength, imprisonment, blindness.
Rajan,
Tilottama. “The Other Reading: Transactional
Epic in Milton, Blake, and Wordsworth.” Milton, the Metaphysical,
and Romanticism. Eds. Lisa Low and John Anthony Harding. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1994. 271
Rajan treats us to a long and complex history of how literary traditions and theoretical positions have intergenerated one anther. She sees in both Paradise Lost and in the key texts of Wordsworth and Blake a "non-determinative" positioning of reader, or how the "reading function" is discernible. I remain unconvinced that Rajan's article adds to the understanding of either of the poets. Her analysis of Wordsworth contains little that has not been said in the earlier works detailed in this bibliography. Her strength appears to be a wide breadth of theoretical knowledge.
Reiger,
James. "Wordsworth Unalarm'd." Milton and
the Line of Vision. Ed. Joseph Anthony Wittreich. Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press, 1975. 278.
Roe,
Nicholas. “Wordsworth, Milton and the Politics
of Poetic Influence.” Yearbook of English Studies 19 (1989):
112-126.
Roe wishes to demonstrate a parallel between Wordsworth's political struggle with the French Revolution and his internal/creative "wrestling" with Milton. He bases his examination on Bloom's analysis in Anxiety of Influence that maintains societal agnon is a parody of inward Agnon. The article seems stretched to this reader. His examples do not seem to provide the political landscapes that he claims.
Setzer,
Sharon M. “Wordsworth’s The Excursion and
the Discourse of the Other.” Diss. Duke University, 1985. DAI 47
(1986): 915A-916A.
There is in The Excursion a script for its own reading. The poet plays the role of reader and the reader is invited to act as a poet by interpreting/analyzing the various echoes extant in the poem. There is also a constant interplay recapitulating characters, scenes, events, partial readings, and revisions. This structure resembles Milton's in its self-reflection and self-revising. The result is a Miltonic commentary on Milton that concerns itself above all with reformation. The common end of both poets is to reform readers as poets. Through the reformation of the Solitary in The Excursion Wordsworth corrects diction, metaphor, and genre.
Setzer,
Sharon M. "Excursions into the Wilderness: Wordsworth's
Visionary Kingdoms and the Typography of Miltonic Revision." Studies
in Romanticism 30 (1991): 367-89.
Setzer analyzes the cloud passage in Book II of The Excursion explaining how it appears in many revisions within the text which repeatedly folds back on itself. The various repetitions suggest that Wordsworth possessed a power and a purpose that J. Hillis Miller calls “gatekeeping,” a posture that allows him “to explore thresholds off meaning” (51). The Excursion becomes something like an intertextual commentary; it becomes difficult to sort out displaced versions of Wordsworth’s cloud city, and displaced versions of Milton’s City of God.
Shawcross, John T. John Milton and Influence. Pittsburgh:
Du-quesne University Press, 1991.
Milton's influence spread in various forms: versification, subject matter, treatment within poems, politics, gender relations, and social concerns. Shawcross maintains that Milton should be studied as both a source of inspiration and a presence. He provides a quick gloss of Milton's influence on the poetry of the 18th Century but does little to advance the understanding of Wordsworth's work.
Shoaf,
R.A. “The Syllable of Sin in Paradise Lost and
the Syllable of Men in The Prelude.” English Romanticism:
Preludes and Postludes. Ed Donald Schoonmaker and John A. Alford.
East Lansing: v 1993. 166
Stevenson,
Warren. “Wordsworth’s Satanism.” The
Wordsworth Circle. 15 (1984): 82-84.
Brief article claiming that lines from The Prelude compare with lines in Book III of Paradise Lost where Satan approaches earth. He rather unconvincingly compares Wordsworth's "single sheep" and "naked wall" synecdoche reminders of Milton's "all bound." He compares the "blasted Hawthorne" to the tree of life.
Thomas,
Gordon K. “New Worlds Viewed From the Shore.” Literature
and Belief 2 (1982): 43-49.
Thomson,
Douglass, H. “Wordsworth’s Warning Voice:
A Miltonic Echo in Book II of The Prelude.”The Wordsworth
Circle 12 (1981): 132.
Brief article discussing the "warning voice" of The Prelude as a Miltonic influence. He sees Wordsworth's memory of youth as humanizing Milton's apocalyptic tradition, i.e., he calls the poet's recollection of childhood exuberance an apocalyptic renewal to "transfer pride in moral and intellectual achievements."
Trott,
Nicola Zoe. “Wordsworth, Milton, and the Inward
Light.” Milton, the Metaphysicals, and Romanticism. Eds.
Lisa Low and John Anthony Harding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994. 271
Trott takes up the debate between the "mimetic" critics such as Abrams, Hartman, and Bloom and the new historicists represented by McGann. She maintains that there is an internal battle of the new historicists with formalism replicated by Wordsworth; he was a poet divided by realist and idealistic impulses. Trott traces the critics' analysis of Wordsworth's reaction to the failure of the French Revolution and how the poet turned inward. She focuses on this inward light and adeptly addresses the historical connotations reflected in Wordsworth's Miltonic allusions. She arrives at a midway point between the Bloom-McGann factions.
Wilke, Brian. Romantic Poets and Epic Tradition. Madison:
The University of Wisconsin Press, 1965.
Wilke stresses that the epic tradition was still very much alive in the Romantic Age and discusses individual poems where the epic intention is central. He emphasizes that his book is not a genre study, but one that considers poetry for its own sake, i.e., what it says and what it does. In his chapter "The Way of a Hero" Wilke elaborates on Wordsworth's epic creed as it appears in The Prelude. His Miltonic allusions raise the same problems that Milton felt in his own search for a noble theme. Wordsworth undeniably placed himself in the heroic tradition exemplified by Milton's lofty purpose. Wilke's interpretation of Wordsworth's analysis of the endowments required of the epic poet include: a great vital soul, the beholding of general truths, the upholding of the priority of mind, and a gift of rhetorical techniques. Wilke points out that Wordsworth defines heroism in such a manner that he implies the surpassing loftiness of his own theme: the mind of man.
William’s, Anne. “The Intimations Ode: Wordsworth’s
Fortunate Fall." Romanticism Past and Present 5 (1981): 1-13.
In this article, Williams asserts that the order and unity of "The Intimations Ode" are subservient to one mythos: the myth of the fortunate fall. With the poem’s structure echoing Paradise Lost, the tragedy of the fall becomes in Wordsworth's ode, a step toward higher theodicy. The fall in Wordsworth's view rewards man with a philosophic mind, one that has the capacity to grow and change, and has the ability to accommodate external realities. The mind no longer imitates, it shapes. Williams also draws a parallel between the eulogy and the ode forms and the fall from unconsciousness to experience.
Williams, Anne. Prophetic Strain. The Greater Lyric in
the Eighteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1984.
Williams concentrates of the development of literary practice and experimentation as a way to define the emergence of romanticism. She investigates the prophetic strain in the "greater lyrics" of the 18th Century which in other centuries would be characteristics of other genres such as epic, satire, elegy, epistle. The traditionally public/private genres were collapsed into the greater lyric. When she turns to "Intimations of Immortality" she shows how Wordsworth boldly seeks to resolve feelings of loss by proposing a myth "redolent with human experiences." To justify his approach and to give authority to his voice he invokes the Miltonic model. His ode is replete with allusions to Paradise Lost that seek to enact the prophetic strain.
William’s,
Charles. The English Poetic Mind. New
York: Russell & Russell, 1963.
Williams compares Wordsworth with Milton through the characteristics of their solitary figures. He asserts that Wordsworth's figures suffer from lack of action, that they are passive while Milton's are actively involved in revolt. He does not discuss influence in any great length.
Wittreich,
Joseph Anthony. “The Poetry of the Rainbow:
Milton and Newton Among the Prophets.” Eds. Jan Wojcik and Jean
Frontain-Raymond. Poetic Prophecy in Western Literature. London:
Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1984. 222.
Wittreich,
Joseph. "'The Illustrious Dead': Milton's
Legacy and Romantic Prophecy." Milton and the Romantics 4,
17-32.
This article provides an excellent overview of the relationship between prophet and poet. Wittreich asserts that "what the Bible was to Milton, Milton came to be for the Romantics" (17). Wittreich discusses prophecy as a genre, which is, as he quotes Guillen as saying, "a yearning for the unitary vision of interconnections and interactions." According to Wittreich, Wordsworth saw himself as a new prophet of nature and describes his prophesies as a union of mental powers which produce a knowledge of self and nature. This is a valuable article also for those interested in the Biblical tradition in Wordsworth's poetry.
Wittreich, Jr., Joseph Anthony. The Romantics on Milton.
Formal Essays and Critical Asides. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve
University, 1970.
Woodman,
Ross G. " Milton's Urania and Her Romantic
Descendants." A Canadian Journal of the Humanities 48 (1979): 189-208
Woodman,
Ross G. “ Milton’s Satan in Wordsworth’s ‘Vale
of Soul-Making.’ ” Studies in Romanticism 23 (1984):
3-30.
The narrator in several of Wordsworth's lyrics, among them "We are Seven" and "Anecdote for Fathers" acts somewhat akin to Satan in Paradise Lost as he confronts the still innocent Eve. The narrator's questions could create a self-consciousness that would rob the child of unconscious innocence. He is unable to come to terms with what Wordsworth later calls "to bend the law of death."
Woolford,
John. “Wordsworth Agonisties.” Essays
in Criticism: A Quarterly Journal of Literary Criticism 31 (1981):
27-40.