Date of Award
1991
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract
The interaction between mind (consciousness) and world (sensory phenomena) is explored in depth by poets William Wordsworth and Wallace Stevens, with particular attention given to the role of imagination. In The Prelude, Wordsworth describes events from his own early life, encounters between mind and world, leading to the development of a poetic sensibility. Stevens, writing in a playful, improvisational style very different from Wordsworth's, examines a variety of encounters between characters such as Crispin in "The Comedian as the Letter C" and external reality. For both poets, the boundaries between mind and world are indeterminate, and the question of supremacy in their dynamic relationship is unresolved. Yet the sense of a "something" that grounds this interplay, what Stevens identifies as "Being," leads the ever-active imagination to do its work, at home in the world.
Extent
81 p.
Recommended Citation
Sakal, Nancy., "Encounters between mind and world in the poetry of William Wordsworth and Wallace Stevens" (1991). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1990 - 1999. 172.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_4/172
Identifier
FADT14740
Comments
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters