ABSTRACT
On 14 September 1814 Mary S. noted: ‘Shelley… brings home Wordsworth’s “Excursion”, of which we read a part, much disappointed. He is a slave’ (Mary Jnl i 25). The poem may reflect that initial disillusion with such passages as the ‘Poet’s Address to the State and Church of England’ opening Bk VI. But paradoxically S.’s interest in Wordsworth’s poetry only developed seriously during the following year; in 1815 he re-read The Excursion (Mary Jnl i 91), and procured the Poems immediately after their publication (21 April 1815; Mary Jnl i 76). But he never ceased to deplore Wordsworth’s change of views, and this sonnet may well date as late as September-October 1815.
