The first extended examination of the influence of monasticism on Wordsworth's writing. Covering the poet's development between 1806 and 1822, it considers how a series of sources describing medieval monastic life in the north of England influenced Wordsworth's thinking about regional attachment, trans-historical community, and national cohesion.

• Introduction


• 1: Wordsworth's Creation of Taste


• 2: Quakerism, Cultivation, and the Coleorton Period


• 3: 'My second Self when I am gone': Legacy, Memorialization, and Incarnation


• 4: Pastoral Reclusion and The Excursion


• 5: Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Heritage


• Epilogue: The Medieval Revival


• Appendix I: Table of the Monastic Sites Visited and/or Studied by Wordsworth


• Appendix II: Map of Monastic Sites Visited and/or Studied by Wordsworth


• Bibliography

Jessica Fay is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. She holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and has published articles in Romanticism, European Romantic Review, and the Modern Language Review. Her research is focused on the poetry and prose of William Wordsworth; she has a special interest in Wordsworth's relationship with his patron and friend, Sir George Beaumont.