Examining Wordsworth's writing and publishing against the contemporaneous emergence of the national census, national survey, and national museum, Garrett argues, reveals Wordsworth not as a fading and withdrawn middle-aged poet but as an engaged public figure attempting to 'write the nation' and position himself as the nation's poet.
'Moving fluently between Wordsworth's poetry and its cultural contexts, this splendidly intelligent study analyzes Wordsworth's lifelong effort to construct and maintain a public persona, and helps us understand how and why he was able to become an exemplary national poet in the decades following his death. Capaciously literate and theoretically sophisticated, Garrett's book should be read not just by anyone interested in Wordsworth, but by anyone interested in how nations are imagined.' Marc Redfield, Claremont Graduate University, USA 'Including a meticulous analysis of Wordsworth's less celebrated poems, Garrett's research may also be of interest to those Wordsworthians interested in that aspect of his craft which draws upon insights derived from seventeenth-century British empiricism, as Garrett's foregrounding of Wordsworth's classification modus operandi sheds additional light on his fascination with phenomena as appropriate content for his poetry.' BARS Bulletin 'Garrett's unique approach yields fresh insights into the complex relationship between a nascent national and poetic self-consciousness, their convergence, and subsequent transformations.' Modern Language Review '... an engaging and thought provoking approach to the poet's work, questioning the dominant image of a writer whose powers declined precipitously after 1807, and suggesting a number of ways in which a reconsideration of the later work - including, in particular, the work of cataloguing and publishing - could enrich our understanding of both the poet and his historical moment.' Notes and Queries 'Wordsworth and the Writing of the Nation builds a comprehensive account of a dynamic that operates on multiple levels both in Wordsworth's poetry and in the empirical representations produced by his contemporaries. Garrett does an admirable job surveying territory pertaining to his topic, mapping its varied manifestations and interconnections, and defining the modalities wi
