Wordsworth and the Poetry of What We Are (Yale Studies in English) - Hardcover

Paul H. Fry is William Lampson Professor of English, Yale University. The author or editor of five previous books, he lives in New Haven, CT.

"In Fry's informed philosophical scrutiny of Wordsworth's poetry, the convergence of humanity and Nature prompts a sustained reflection about the role a non-human world plays in Wordsworth's, or any other, humanism. Fry clarifies and advances an ongoing revolution in the unsentimental appreciation of Wordsworth's greatness. He has made a decisive contribution not only to Wordsworth studies but also to our understanding of poetical thinking."―Geoffrey Hartman, Yale University

"A genuinely original and provocative study of the poet who is, as Fry handsomely persuades us, the most original and provocative lyricist in the English literary tradition. A critic of sensitivity, conviction, and wit, Paul Fry is superbly readable.  No one who admires Wordsworth's poetry could fail to enjoy this thoughtful and engaging book."―Seamus Perry, Balliol College, University of Oxford

"Neither apocalyptic, political, nor ecological, Paul Fry's Wordsworth is not gleaming red or green, but stony gray.  Fry is the first to convey, eloquently, the force of the poet's silences. After two centuries, Wordsworth's deepest, most disquieting harmonies are heard at last."―Marshall Brown, University of Washington

"With searching wisdom and genial wit, Paul Fry unveils for us a new 'ontic' Wordsworth, a poet of human and non-human being, whose poems explore and explain the purpose of poetry."―Michael O’Neill, Durham University