Ebook: Ceaseless Music: Sounding Wordsworth’s The Prelude

Through a series of critical reflections and poetic responses,Ceaseless Musicexplores the historical and contemporary influence of Wordsworth's landmark autobiographical poemThe Preludein literature, philosophy and life writing and the insights it can offer into the writing of poetry today.

Beginning with an exploration of the poem's genesis – from draft versions found in Wordsworth's notebooks, to the alternative published versions – the book goes on to explore the poem's impact on 19th century biographical writing, on American literature and philosophy and on contemporary prose writing. In the final chapter, Steven Matthews reflects on what the study of Wordsworth's writing and influence can teach us about writing poetry in the 21st century.