‘A Strong Confusion’: Coleridge's Presence in The Prelude

Wordsworth's triumph in The Prelude rests not just on his inability to write The Recluse, but on his refusal to do so. And if he succeeds in asserting his independence, he must accept the guilt involved. This chapter looks at the various complications to which this guilt gives rise. Arguing further, that there are, in effect, two Coleridges in The Prelude: one mythologized beyond recognition, and needed by Wordsworth to support the values of his past; the other more flawed and human, but used by him merely as a foil. By looking at them in detail, the chapter hopes to establish that The Preludenull...

Wordsworth's triumph in The Prelude rests not just on his inability to write The Recluse, but on his refusal to do so. And if he succeeds in asserting his independence, he must accept the guilt involved. This chapter looks at the various complications to which this guilt gives rise. Arguing further, that there are, in effect, two Coleridges in The Prelude: one mythologized beyond recognition, and needed by Wordsworth to support the values of his past; the other more flawed and human, but used by him merely as a foil. By looking at them in detail, the chapter hopes to establish that The Prelude — is in fact a solitary quest, to which friendship itself is finally irrelevant.