The disappointment of Wordsworth's letters

• 19th Century seminar

Speaker: Dr Oliver Clarkson (University College, Oxford)

Venue: Arts Building, Lecture Room 5

Abstract

Wordsworth once told his friend Thomas Moore that he hoped to make his letters ‘as bad & dull as possible’, and a lot of readers have thought such dullness was duly achieved. But one reason the letters disappoint is that they themselves reflect repeatedly upon disappointments. I want to think about the role disappointment plays in the letters, arguing ultimately that what comes in its wake is rarely disappointing.