Question for all Wordsworth scholars

[Michael Poteet]

Dear friends --
Did any of the following poems appear earlier than the 1807 edition of Wordsworth's Poems, say in a contemporary journal?
"Resolution and Independence"
"The World is Too Much With Us"
"Intimations of Immortality"
"My Heart Leaps Up"
If anyone can provide information, as well as bibliographic sources I could consult, I'd be very appreciative!
Sincerely,
Mike Poteet


___________________
Mike Poteet, cataloguer
Bauman Rare Books
1608 Walnut St., 19th floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-546-6466

[Julie Grob]

Hi Mike,

Conveniently enough, my father is a retired Wordsworth scholar, so I ran
your question past him. Here is his response:

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None of these poems appeared earlier than the 1807 edition. But the major
questions in Wordsworth studies are usually not about publication dates but
about the changes the poems underwent during the course of composition and,
to a lesser extent, how much Wordsworth changed them from edition to
edition. For example both "Resolution and Independence" and "Intimations of
Immortality" underwent major changes in their titles.

The now standard edition, The Cornell Wordsworth in many volumes, contains
full accounts of the publishing and compositional history of these poems as
well as all the manuscript variants.

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I hope that is helpful!

Julie



Julie Grob
Digital Projects and Instruction Librarian
Special Collections
114 University Libraries
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-2000
[phone]
***@uh.edu

[william godshalk]

I have a book in my collection purportedly signed by R. B. Sheridan,
the playwright. It is apparently a proof copy of Peter Cunningham's
"Chatsworth, a Poem." See Nicolas Barker, The Devonshire Inheritance:
Five Centuries of Collecting at Chatsworth (Alexandria, VA: Art
Services International, 2003), p. 252, item 142. My copy has one
textual change and one correction (in ink), lacks a title page, but
has an explanatory sheet tipped in.

However, I'm mostly concerned at present with the purported signature
of Sheridan. Houghton Library at Harvard has sent me a copy of his
signature from their collection, and King's College, London, has one
online. In both of these, his signature is very compact. The
signature in my book is sprawling. Signatures of course may change
over time. Mine certainly has.

If you are familiar with Sheridan's signature, I can send you, would
be more than happy to send you, an image for your judgment.

Thanks.

Bill
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W. L. Godshalk *
Department of English *
University of Cincinnati Stellar disorder *
Cincinnati OH 45221-0069 *
513-281-5927
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