William Wordsworth's long poem
The Prelude
is a fascinating work-as autobiography, the fruit of many attempts at understanding the formative period of Wordsworth's life; as a fragment of historical evidence from the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years; as an unstable literary text, which mutated through at least five discernable versions from 1799-1839; and as a poem offering the pleasures of blank verse in a variety and to an intensity unmatched in English non-dramatic poetry. In this collection, leading Wordsworth scholar Stephen Gill, gathers together thirteen influential essays on
. The volume as a whole is a useful and inspiring companion for students and general readers of Wordsworth's greatest, but most demanding poem.