"Few poets, Shakespeare alone apart, can give more to the twentieth century".

          Thus the eminent critic Ifor Evans described William Wordsworth. Often seen as the father of the Romantic movement, Wordsworth was exceptional in his time in seeking to bring poetry back into touch with the everyday. In choosing incidents to illustrate the essential passions of the heart.

          Wordsworth’s poetry reveals his close affinity to the natural world in which he discerned a sense of moral purpose. And, in his contemplation of people, too, he constantly sought the meaning in their fate. A deeply religious man, he saw poetry as a gift for interpreting these preoccupations and perhaps, above all, as the perfect medium for the expression of "emotion recollected in tranquility". This volume contains a selection of his best-known verse including two long excerpts from his great autobiographical poems, The Prelude and The Excursion.