The Ecclesiastical Sonnets of William Wordsworth a Critical
Edition (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Ecclesiastical Sonnets of William Wordsworth a Critical: Edition

A century has gone by since the publication of the Ecclesiastical Sketches; but the problems of social life in 1922 are not unlike those on which Wordsworth meditated in 1822. With us, also, recovery from war, rash industrial and political adventure, hunger for novelty or variety in the management of schools and churches, have confused the national mind, and we still need this poet's interpretation of the spiritual history of his country. Nor may we without a careful review assert that we are a hundred years wiser. Therefore the time and the circumstances appear fitting for a critical edition of the series finally known as Ecclesiastical Sonnets.

Professor Lane Cooper of Cornell University suggested that I prepare this edition, and has throughout the undertaking directed my research. I am deeply indebted to him for scholarly counsel, and for aid as well in the humbler concerns of my task. I wish also to acknowledge the friendly and expert guidance of Professor Benton S. Monroe and Professor George P. Bristol in other, but allied, subjects; and to the members of the Committee charged with the Cornell Studies in English I here express my gratitude for their courtesy and support in publishing a centennial edition of the Ecclesiastical Sonnets.

For the permission to photograph and to print manuscripts I am obliged to the late Mrs. Henry A. St. John, and to her daughter, Mrs. David Kennedy Fraser; with great kindness they allowed me the use of their Wordsworth collection, and made my labors in it the easier by their cordial interest. Miss Georgina Melville, whose preliminary investigation of this series had not been completed, generously placed in my hands the results of her study. My obligation to previous editors and students of Wordsworth is elsewhere indicated in detail.

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