Revisiting Wordsworth’s Turncoatism: From Radical Idealism to Conservative Realism

Abstract

This essay examines William Wordsworth`s political turn from early Paineite radicalism to later Burkean conservatism. In order to better understand Wordsworth`s early political position and interest in social reform, this essay will primarily focus on A Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff written in 1793 right after the poet came back from France witnessing the revolution in France. At the same time, The Prelude (1805, 1850) is investigated to show his changing political position to conservative realism and meta-poetic composition. Taking the oppressive socio-political milieu in the early 1790s into consideration, this essay also talks about why Wordsworth did not publish the Letter. Moreover, I argue that the purpose in writing the Letter was initially to draw public attention, which was not archived for several reasons discussed in detail. Wordsworth`s early determination to become an ardent republican is investigated by looking closely at the poet`s acquaintances with the radical leaders during the French Revolution in Blois and Paris. Wordsworth`s gradually increasing skeptical view on the extreme violence of the Revolution, especially the September Masscares, the Reign of Terror, and the suppression by the British government, I argue, has led him to change his political stance.