WORDSWORTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 235, 3 October 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

WORDSWORTH.

Messrs. Duckworth have made "Wordsworth" the 63rd. "Life" in their series of Great Lives. Peter Burra, who, in an earlier number of the series, wrote a fascinating account of Van Gogh, the painter, has written a 110 less fascinating study of the greatest of the Lake poets and one of the greatest of all English poets. He traces his career from childhood on to the close of his long life, shows how he disciplined his mind and his heart, how he was influenced by his sister Dorothy, the French revolution, and his love of nature. His intimacies, his associations with Coleridge, Southey, and the other notable men of letters of his day, the development of hie poetic bent, and the quality of his work—all arc made clear and interesting, all the more so by Mr. Burra's illuminating excerpts from his poems and letters and comments on them. His evaluation of Wordsworth's poetry, and of the extent to which he improved poetic diction, is as candid and just an iiis judgment of Wordsworth as a man. It is an admirable piece of work, and will prove an excellent handbook to re,aders who wish to make the acquaintance through his writings.