William Wordsworth makes a good end for this study because while his career is very similar to the previous careers I have discussed, his career also modifies and extends the issues those careers bring up in important and interesting ways. He is also a high canonical poet, and so will bring to my discussion of ambition and form the context of common critical practice and canonical approval. He is also a fine and sensitive poet, as sensitive (in my context) as Burns. My discussions of Wordsworth's formal decisions and strategies will bear a strong resemblance to my discussions of Burns, because Wordsworth, like Burns, took the expressive limitations and possibilities of verse to be at least one of the most important aspects of the poetic occupation. For Wordsworth, as for Burns, the linguistic limits that define poetic practice are charged, interesting and important. Unlike Burns, though, Wordsworth did not retire from the pressure of literary history. The progress of Wordsworth's career reflects, in fact, a growing faith in the importance of precedent and continuity. In this way, too, Wordsworth will bring my discussion within the pale of canonical achievement (though I will not get to this part until the conclusion).

Wordsworth also resembles Walter Scott, in ways that have been important so far. Wordsworth is a card-carrying member of the ballad revival, interested in collecting ballads, old stories and rural anecdotes, things which he then presents to the sophisticated.