Reading Order
The Prelude Reading Order
The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's Mind (written 1799–1805; published 1850) by William Wordsworth is the most ambitious and most important long poem in English after Paradise Lost — an autobiographical poem in fourteen books (in its final 1850 form) that traces the development of the poet's imagination from earliest childhood through his education at Cambridge, his experiences in London, his residence in France during the Revolution, and his subsequent spiritual crisis and recovery, to the poem's conclusion on Snowdon in which the imagination is figured as the supreme faculty that reconciles man, nature, and God. Wordsworth called it 'the poem to Coleridge' and it was addressed throughout to Coleridge as his closest intellectual companion — it remained unpublished in his lifetime, intended as a preface to the larger philosophical poem The Recluse that he never completed. The Prelude exists in three versions: the 1799 two-book version (the earliest and most intense), the 1805 thirteen-book version (the most vivid and adventurous), and the 1850 fourteen-book version (the most polished and most theologically careful — the version Wordsworth chose to publish). Most critics prefer the 1805 version as the most immediate and powerful. The 'spots of time' — the moments from childhood that the poem identifies as formative of the imagination's power — are among the great passages of visionary poetry in any language.
Where to start
The Prelude (1805 version) — the Norton Critical Edition edited by Jonathan Wordsworth, M.H. Abrams, and Stephen Gill (1979) is the standard scholarly text, with both the 1805 and 1850 texts printed in parallel and essential critical essays. For a single-version reading, the Penguin Classics edition of the 1805 Prelude edited by Ernest de Selincourt (revised A.N. Whitehead) is the most readable. Read the 1805 version first; compare with 1850 for the theological revisions.
Complete The Prelude Book List
- 1Buy
The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850 (Norton Critical Edition)
William Wordsworth (ed. Jonathan Wordsworth, M.H. Abrams, Stephen Gill)·1979·The definitive scholarly edition — the two major versions are printed in parallel with extensive critical essays; essential for understanding the poem's development and the critical debate about which version is superior. - 2Buy
The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's Mind (1805) (Penguin Classics)
William Wordsworth (ed. Ernest de Selincourt, rev. Stephen Gill)·2004·The most readable single-volume edition of the 1805 Prelude — Gill's revision of de Selincourt's classic edition is the standard text for readers who want the poem without parallel versions. - 3Buy
Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge·1798·The earlier work that established the poetic principles The Prelude develops at vast length — read Lyrical Ballads first for the foundation, then The Prelude for the full architectural structure of Wordsworth's imagination. - 4Buy
Wordsworth: A Life
Juliet Barker·2000·The most readable modern biography — Barker's account of the relationship with Coleridge, the French period and its aftermath, and the long gestation of The Prelude illuminates the autobiographical substance of every book; essential context. - 5Buy
The Excursion
William Wordsworth·1814·The only completed portion of The Recluse, the larger philosophical poem of which The Prelude was the proem — less vivid than The Prelude but important for understanding Wordsworth's philosophical ambition; the 'Ruined Cottage' that opens it is one of his greatest narratives.
The Prelude — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Prelude by Wordsworth about?
The Prelude (1805; revised 1850) by William Wordsworth is an autobiographical poem in fourteen books tracing the development of the poet's imagination — the 'growth of a poet's mind' of the subtitle. It begins with Wordsworth's earliest childhood memories in the Lake District (the 'spots of time' that shaped his sensibility), moves through his education at Cambridge, his London experiences, his years in France during the Revolution and their disillusionment, and his spiritual crisis and recovery. The poem concludes with a vision on Snowdon that figures the imagination as the supreme human faculty. It was addressed to Coleridge and remained unpublished in Wordsworth's lifetime.
What are the 'spots of time' in The Prelude?
'Spots of time' are Wordsworth's term for moments from childhood that retain, years later, a 'renovating virtue' — a power to restore the imagination in times of depression. The term appears in Book XI (1805 version) and the spots Wordsworth identifies — stealing a bird from a snare and feeling himself watched, the skating episode on Esthwaite Water, the moment on the mountain after stealing a boat when the peak seemed to pursue him — are among the most famous passages of visionary autobiography in any language. Wordsworth's argument is that these formative moments, obscure in themselves, are the real education of the imagination — not school, not books, but these charged instants in nature that the mind returns to throughout a life.
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