How William Wordsworth, Selected Poems drew on Paradise Lost
A documented line of influence: William Wordsworth demonstrably engaged John Milton’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Paradise Lost
John Milton · 1667
RenaissanceThe influenced
William Wordsworth, Selected Poems
William Wordsworth · 1815
PoetsRelevance
8/10
On William Wordsworth, Selected Poems’s page
- Wordsworth's epic ambition is Miltonic to the core — after Coleridge, no poet shaped him more than Milton
- The Prelude answers Paradise Lost in its own blank verse: a paradise lost and recovered, relocated from Eden to the growth of the poet's mind
- Wordsworth's allusions actively summon Milton — read Paradise Lost first to catch what he's reaching for, and against
On Paradise Lost’s page
- After Coleridge, Milton was Wordsworth's greatest idol — and Paradise Lost was the model he measured himself against
- The Prelude is a deliberate Miltonic blank-verse epic, recast as the story of a lost paradise and its recovery inside a single mind
- The allusions are insistent, inviting the comparison — Wordsworth wanted you to hear Milton behind him