(no subject)

[proximoception]

I liked "Marriage of Heaven and Hell" in Blake best again, that and some grumpy sex lyrics, but "The Ruined Cottage" hit me hardest in Wordsworth so far, superb as an experience and not just something finely written to agree with. Fascinating how central it is--the defining influence on The Sensitive Plant and Mariana, big in Keats' slanting of Isabella (perhaps Eve of St Agnes is something of a deliberate reversal), in the background imagery of Byron's many non-comic self-representations (e.g. A Dream), probably Great Expectations--probably Dickens passim, I always feel like Wordsworth is the most crucial ghost presence in him, especially in the many places where his prose approaches blank verse.

Directive, ultimately. For when the Ruined Cottage is your life but you're still alive.