In the long history of English literature William Wordsworth (1770-1850) is the writer who achieved the most dramatic transformations of the poetic scene almost singlehanded. A leading figure among the Romantic generation which included Coleridge and Scott, he created out of his personal communion with nature a new poetic which had a profound moral and spiritual influence on the entire nineteenth century. The present selection includes all his famous lyrics and substantial extracts from narrative poems including The Prelude.