Introduction

Abstract

After establishing the parameters and critical context for the book, the Introduction argues that, for Wordsworth, monasticism registers as something much more than ‘Roman Catholicism’. Monasticism in England exists as a residual presence or religious legacy, which is inscribed in the landscape, in ruined architecture, in graveyards, even in trees. Wordsworth’s thematic engagement with monasticism is thus not restricted to theological or ecclesiastical issues; rather it is revealed to have a local topographical inflection. In this context, Wordsworth’s visits to monastic ruins differ from conventional picturesque activity. The affinity Wordsworth felt for St Francis when he visited the monastery of Laverna in Tuscany in 1837 then serves to explain the processes through which the poet chiefly came to conceive an appreciation for monastic history, and to demonstrate how opinions regarding monasticism shifted during the first decades of the nineteenth century.