En avant! Book

It has taken me a long time to work my way through this, and deliberately so, first because I wanted to take time over a poet I hadn't really read much of beyond the few we were forced to read at school, and, sadly the further on I got, because I found it a bit of a chore. I have highlighted poems and passages I want to go back and re-read, but for too much of this anthology the lack of a common point of reference and Wordsworth's sheer wordiness reduced my enjoyment. On the plus side this was a man who lived through and witnessed close up a period of massive social upheaval (especially the French Revolution) with an ability to see beyond the obvious or the accepted wisdom of the time, was willing to revise his opinion in the light of new developments, and retained a sense of compassion for others less fortunate than himself. His essays on poetry and the power of words are worth reading though again his love affair with words make them a more wearisome experience than they might have been.