What were the poems that William Wordsworth read, the ones that entered his poetic blood stream, whose rhythms he felt on his pulse? What helped to shape him into the poet he became, what did he copy down, what did he advocate to his friends? What defined the taste of the first great English Romantic poet?

Duncan Wu, one of our leading experts on Romanticism and on Wordsworth, has assembled Wordsworth's Poets, providing headnotes that, usually in Wordsworth's own words from letters, journals or other writings, give his reason for the selection. The texts used are those he himself read. Most items are short, the aim to present them as complete in themselves; some are necessarily extracted.

The anthology begins with his earliest reading and continues through his long life, though from 1815 on there are fewer entries because after that point it becomes harder to pin down evidence for readings; many readings are in fact re-readings, and most of the extant commentary by Wordsworth on literary works after that point is on poetry or prose he had read before.