Abstract
The four poems which have been called ‘the credal lyrics’ present some problems. The stanza from ‘The Tables Turned’
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man;
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
was described by A. C. Bradley as ‘outrageous’,1 and if its meaning is paraphrased it certainly seems to be so. It is true that the stanza appears in a somewhat jocular poem: the title, ‘The Tables Turned’, suggests a certain amount of japing, and the tone of the first verse seems facetious and exaggerated:
Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks,
Why all this toil and trouble?
Up! up! my friend, and quit your books
Or surely you’ll grow double.
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Notes and References
A. C. Bradley, Oxford Lectures on Poetry (London, 1909) p. 102n.
Sydney G. Dimond, The Psychology of the Methodist Revival (London, 1926) p. 173.
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (London, 1902) p. 248.
Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. J. W. Swain (London, 1915) p. 240.
Copyright information
© 1982 J. R. Watson
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Watson, J.R. (1982). Lyrical Ballads: Time, Place and Nature. In: Wordsworth’s Vital Soul. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05911-9_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05911-9_9
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