The Excursion and Wordsworths Iconography

This book considers William Wordsworths use of iconography in his long poem The Excursion. Through the iconographical approach, the author steers a middle course between The Excursions two very different interpretive traditions, one focusing upon the poems philosophical abstraction, the other upon its touristic realism. Fresh readings are also offered of Wordsworths other major works, including The Prelude. Yen explores Wordsworths iconography in The Excursion by tracing allusions and correspondences in an abundance of post-1789 and earlier verbal and pictorial sources, as well as in Wordsworths prose and poetry. He analyses how the iconographical images in The Excursion contribute to, and impose limitations on, the overarching preoccupations of Wordsworths writings, particularly the themes of paradise lost and paradise regained in the post-revolutionary context. Shedding light on a vital aspect of Wordsworths poetic method, this study reveals the visual etymologies together with the nuances and rhetorical capacities of five categories of apparently collateral images: envisioning, rooting, dwelling, flowing, and reflecting.