ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the modem reader some historical and social context for reading habits which no longer exist and which allows to see that the kind of response the nineteenth-century poet might anticipate would involve multiple readings – and re-readings – of his work. It argues that acts of re-reading are also of great significance for the intended dynamics presented within the poem, and of the poem with the reader. The chapter draws upon reader-response criticism, in particular the work of Wolfgang Iser and Tzvetan Todorov. The chapter looks at the way the poem itself seems to draw upon earlier traditions of philosophical dialogue as well as articulating a desire to present itself as a kind of ‘conversation’. From the time of publication onwards the poem has been treated as a failed monologic utterance rather than a ‘dramatic’ poem of many voices. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
