Premium
Wordsworth, Death and Politics
Author(s) -
Allen Stuart
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
literature compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1741-4113
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00008.x
Subject(s) - politics , psychology , literature , psychoanalysis , art , political science , law
Wordsworth's 1810 Essays Upon Epitaphs appear to be a conservative (Christian‐Burkean) response to social and spiritual alienation. Life's hollowness, he argues, is redeemed by the chastening influence of the dead. However, Wordsworth's poetic sympathy for the damaged and outcast also suggests a politically progressive criticism of alienation, suffering and death in social life.