Versed in Living Nature
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€43.99
This is the first book to address William Wordsworth’s profound identification of the spirit of nature in trees. It looks at what trees meant to him, and how he represented them in his poetry and prose: the symbolic charm of blasted trees, a hawthorn at the heart of Irish folk belief, great oaks that embodied naval strength, yews that tell us about both longevity and the brevity of human life. Linking poetry and literary history with ecology, Versed in Living Nature explores intricate patterns of personal and local connections that enabled trees – as living things, cultural topics, horticultural objects and even commodities – to be imagined, theorized, discussed and exchanged. In this book, the literary past becomes the urgent present.
Peter Dale (Author)
Peter Dale lives in Essex, UK. He has written extensively on literature, music and gardens, and his previous books include The Irish Garden: A Cultural History (2018) and (with Brandon Yen) Versed in Living Nature: Wordsworth’s Trees (Reaktion Books, 2022).
Brandon C. Yen (Author)
Brandon C. Yen divides his time between the UK and Taiwan. He is the author of ‘The Excursion’ and Wordsworth’s Iconography (2018).
Peter Dale lives in Essex, UK. He has written extensively on literature, music and gardens, and his previous books include The Irish Garden: A Cultural History (2018) and (with Brandon Yen) Versed in Living Nature: Wordsworth’s Trees (Reaktion Books, 2022).
Brandon C. Yen (Author)
Brandon C. Yen divides his time between the UK and Taiwan. He is the author of ‘The Excursion’ and Wordsworth’s Iconography (2018).