The Prelude. The Four Texts. 1798, 1799, 1805, 1850: William Wordsworth

First published in July 1850, shortly after Wordsworth`s death, The Prelude was the culmination of over fifty years of creative work. The great Romantic poem of human consciousness, it takes as its theme `the growth of a poet`s mind`: leading the reader back to Wordsworth`s formative moments of childhood and youth, and detailing his experiences as a radical undergraduate in France at the time of the Revolution. Initially inspired by Coleridge`s exhortation that Wordsworth write a work upon the French Revolution, The Prelude has ultimately become one of the finest examples of poetic autobiography ever written; a fascinating examination of the self that also presents a comprehensive view of the poet`s own creative vision.