Wordsworth at Play

In The Spirit of the Age, William Wordsworth appears with an air somewhat stately and Quixotic grave, saturnine, with a slight indication of sly humor. An awareness of something tacit held in reserve has been shared by later critics of the poetry, who from time to time have noted the ludicrous brought teasingly near the surface, a severe variety of wit, a glimmer of poker-faced fun. Such comments are picking up on a trait which, while not central to his style, is not exactly peripheral to it either. It might provisionally be described as a feeling for comedy, rather than comedy itself. Here, he comments that the poet's quixotic creativity owes much to this feeling, which is vitally related to his hopes for poetry, and to his sense of the risks and embarrassments that such hopes may entail. Moreover, he could not be described as a poet who was comfortable with humor; yet this discomfort may be felt not only as an awkwardness or dilemma but also as part of the strength of the humor that provoked it in the first place.