STUART ALLEN is Assistant Professor of English at Bridgewater State College, Massachusetts, USA. He has published articles on Wordsworth, Romanticism and James Joyce.

"Wordsworth's push and pull through emotional turbulence to conciliatory consciousness, alienation into affection, is sharply explored by Allen throughout the study and his simultaneous focus on the aesthetic, political, affective and material through both historical philosophy and modern theory keeps the book lively and percipient throughout." - Emma Mason, Warwick University, UK

• Introduction: Poetry, Feeling and Criticism Shaftesbury, Wordsworth and Affective Critique  Burke, Wordsworth and the Poet  Poetry and the Liberty of Feeling  Wordsworth's Ear and the Place of Aesthetic Autonomy  Poetry and Embodiment  Melancholy and Affirmation Conclusion