ABSTRACT
This brief final section is both a “Retrospect” and “the Turn.” On the one hand, it sums up this volume’s most important conclusions, concerning, among other things, the uncertain chronology of Wordsworth’s “conversions.” I also argue that although historians of literary criticism like to associate Wordsworth with Plato, Plato’s categories seem useless when considering the character of the religious discourse in The Poetical Works of Wordsworth. Inspiration fails, the “emotive transport” hardly carries the poet; Aristotle with his treatment of poetry as a craft seems a more enlightening guide through this province. On the other hand, this final section of the book is “the Turn” in that it points to the companion volume, The Absent God in the Works of William Wordsworth, which can be treated as a book-length conclusion of The Presence of God in the Works of William Wordsworth. That twin monograph reflects on the forms of presence of God in Wordsworth’s poetry from a different angle; it throws a light on the character, scope, and quality of this representation. The six chapters of The Absent God . . . follow the eight chapters of The Presence of God . . . like a sestet which complements the octave. Combined, these two monographs constitute a tribute to one of the most prolific sonnet masters in history: the composition of each of these books, and the conception of the manner in which they interact with each other rehearse the formula engaged in over half a thousand works composed by Wordsworth.
