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Afterword

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

John Whale
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
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Summary

Meanwhile, the Moon look'd down upon this shew

In single glory, and we stood, the mist

Touching our very feet; and from the shore

At distance not the third part of a mile

Was a blue chasm; a fracture in the vapour,

A deep and gloomy breathing-place thro' which

Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams

Innumerable, roaring with one voice.

The universal spectacle throughout

Was shaped for admiration and delight,

Grand in itself alone, but in that breach

Through which the homeless voice of waters rose,

That dark deep thoroughfare had Nature lodg'd

The Soul, the Imagination of the whole.

Wordsworth's celebrated depiction of the restoration of the imagination in Book XIII of The Prelude might seem to stand as an antithesis to the case I have argued for this most celebrated of faculties. Wordsworth's solution to a crisis which is at once personal, historical, and national is, characteristically, to describe imagination in all its glory, simultaneously located in the landscape and in the psyche. Imagination is made synonymous with ‘Soul’ and the apprehension of its location and its origin which the poem effects has, in itself, the status of a proof or demonstration of its existence. In this way, of course, imagination's restoration emerges redeemed, with the aid of hope and faith, from its previous impairment. But Wordsworth's text also continues to draw attention to the problem it has apparently solved.

Type
Chapter
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Imagination under Pressure, 1789–1832
Aesthetics, Politics and Utility
, pp. 194 - 196
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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  • Afterword
  • John Whale, University of Leeds
  • Book: Imagination under Pressure, 1789–1832
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511484681.009
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  • Afterword
  • John Whale, University of Leeds
  • Book: Imagination under Pressure, 1789–1832
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511484681.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Afterword
  • John Whale, University of Leeds
  • Book: Imagination under Pressure, 1789–1832
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511484681.009
Available formats
×