ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that animals are problematic - and important - to William Wordsworth because they not only lie outside 'Nature', but are also outside 'Man': both inside and outside 'the natural environment', and also both within and without 'culture'. One proto-ecological theme which is often found in both the 'hard' and the 'soft' varieties of pastoral is conspicuous by its absence from Wordsworth's approaches to animals. Jonathan Wordsworth opens his study of Wordsworth's 'borderers' with a demonstration of how the poet sees animals, as well as marginal human beings, as inhabitants of a 'hinter-world' between different states. Dorothy Wordsworth's writing for children demonstrates her knowledge of the way contemporary educational theory and practice deployed animals as subject-matter and object-lessons for children. In marked contrast to the symbolic use of an animal are the autobiographical recollections of beasts and birds recorded in The Prelude.
