This original study is the first fully to acknowledge the impact of early grief on Wordsworth's poetry and to integrate it into a critical account of how his art developed from 1787 to 1813. Looks at the impact of grief on Wordsworth's great poetry. Explains the importance of the poet's great, unfinished epic 'The Recluse' to his work as a whole. Includes 20 illustrations from original notebooks. Contains the first annotated text of 'The White Doe of Rylstone'.