Wordsworth's vagrant muse

William Wordsworth's poems are inhabited by beggars, vagrants, peddlers, and paupers. This book analyzes how a few key poems from Wordsworth's early years constitute a direct engagement with and intervention into the politics of poverty and reform that swept the social, political, and cultural landscape in England during the 1790s.

Harrison brilliantly demonstrates the socio-political significance of Wordsworth's poetry as a critical force in the debate over the Poor Laws, offering evidence that nineteenth-century readers recognized both the reactionary and utopian potentials of his work, depending upon their political orientation.