ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the work of William Wordsworth as representative of one instance of the romantic sublime. The difference between the beautiful and the sublime must be acknowledged in claiming the sublime is necessary to any declaration of moral authority. The sublime of the infinitely divisible is important in Wordsworth partly because the object of his sublime of the infinitely divisible is the lower class, an important factor to consider if the sublime of the infinitely divisible is tied to divisions of power. Wordsworth overcomes the anxiety that can come of the infinitely divisible by reinstating a sublime of sovereignty. The beautiful seems to provide the bourgeois subject with the sort of universality that would allow for the creation of societal norms without the sublime as a corollary. Wordsworth’s feminized soul is unruly, but it can be made to seem under control by superimposing a masculine sublime that will only brook its interference for so long.
