ABSTRACT
In terms of the reading public's reception of the poem, there is evidence for William Wordsworth being very conscious of the way in which the poem would be read and of some attempt on his part to make use of contemporary reading habits. For both Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge successful communication of the poem is ideally achieved in an oral, social context whilst the ‘reader left to himself is in a position of vulnerability. Equally, with completed poems, Wordsworth shows a strong awareness of the importance of setting and context for the reading of his work, treating it as a creative act involving the reader. Response to the suffering of others ideally exists within a controlled frame of consideration and analysis of that suffering, and of its effect upon the recipient. Wordsworth's comments on the pathetic in 1815 suggest that he is trying to create a more complex response than that depicted in poems such as ‘The Childless Father’.
