Wordsworth and Helen Maria Williams; or, the Perils of Sensibility

Why did Wordsworth write his first published poem

to Helen Maria Williams? What role did she play in

forming his views of poetry, and of the French

Revolution? Why was Wordsworth able to recite in

1820 a poem by Miss Williams that he first read in

1790? Was his own poetical sensibility comparable

with that of the older woman? Did the reception of

Wordsworth’s *Poems, in Two Volumes* by Francis

Jeffrey and others—as ‘puerile’, ‘namby-pamby’,

‘lisping’ and ‘affected’—reflect a belief that manly

sense and feminine sensibility, are not compatible?

If so, why did Wordsworth run that risk? This little

book attempts to suggest answers to some of those

questions, and to provoke more systematic

considerations of them all.