Lyrical Ballads

The publication of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge marked a radical change in the direction of English Literature.  It represented a movement away from the overwrought, highly formal and learned verse of the eighteenth century, and in doing so ushered in a new, more democratic era of poetry.  But despite this approach, and the subsequent popularity of poems such as Tintern Abbey and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the collection still presents difficulties, not least because it appeared as four significantly different editions between 1798 and 1805.

In his superb introduction to Lyrical Ballads, Michael Mason examines the collections genesis, encouraging the reader to avoid the critical assumptions that exist around the text; his expert annotations elucidate the poems whilst retaining an enthusiasm for what Wordsworth termed their strangeness.  This revised publication of Masons edition includes the complete listing from the final - and most comprehensive - 1805 edition, and the celebrated Preface of the 1800 edition, effectively a manifesto for the future of poetry.  It also includes a new preface by John Mullan, which discusses the poems and highlights the value of Masons approach. A new appendix by Daniel Karlin examines Wordsworths revisions and what we might draw from them of Wordsworths development as poet.

Lyrical Ballads was, and remains, a revolutionary collection of poetry.  This annotated edition illuminates the poems themselves, and the forms in which they have been presented to the reader.

Professor Michael Mason was Professor of English at University College London and the author of, among others, The Making of Victorian Sexuality (1995).  He died in 2003. Professor Daniel Karlin is Professor of English at the University of Sheffield.  He is editor of the The Poems of Browning in the Longman Annotated English Poets series and the author of several books. Professor John Mullan is Professor of English at University College London and the author of numerous books.  He is a regular pundit on The Late Review and a Guardian columnist.