About this episode

This episode explores Wordsworth's account of his visit to France during the French Revolution as depicted in The Prelude, focusing on his republican ideals and the absence of political discourse in favor of romantic themes.

Wordsworth was not unusual among Romantic poets for his enthusiastic support of the French Revolution, but he stands apart from his contemporaries for actually being there to see it for himself (‘Thou wert there,’ Coleridge wrote). This episode looks at Wordsworth’s retrospective account of his 1791 visit to France, described in books 9 and 10 of The Prelude, and the ways in which it reveals a passionate commitment to republicanism while recoiling from political extremism. Mark and Seamus discuss why, despite Wordsworth’s claim of being innately republican, discussion of the intellectual underpinnings of the revolution is strangely absent from the poem, which is more often preoccupied with romance and the imagination, particularly in their power to soften zealotry. Get 50% off a 12-month subscription to Close Readings with the code SUMMER50 at checkout when you sign up here: https://lrb.me/crtravelpp Find our full Close Readings travel playlist here: https://lrb.me/travelwebpp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Hosts: Mark, Seamus

Topics covered

• Romantic poetry
• French Revolution
• republicanism
• political extremism
• imagination
• zealotry

Keywords

• Wordsworth
• The Prelude
• French Revolution
• romanticism
• republicanism
• political extremism
• Coleridge
• imagination
• zealotry

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