ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the exploration of narrative, authority and voice in the poem in relation to the later ‘epitaph’ books. It considers William Wordsworth's view of the epitaph as a form which releases the reader from absolute poetic authority and words from their scribe, and which forms the core of his later poetics. Full understanding of the narrative depends on more than just the tale related, needing also a knowledge of audience and purpose. The Pastor's narratives assert the value of the oral over the written record, the humble poor over the ‘proud’. From the first it is clear that the narratives of the unmarked graves, which need the Pastor to utter them, are intended to contrast with the chiselled records of the rich. The act of man communicating to man is internalised and translated into something lasting with the ‘power’ of narrative being not individual but cumulative, overcoming distinct subjective positions.
