The contemporary critical reception of Wordsworth’s Poems, In Two Volumes is, according to John O. Hayden, “one of the most disgraceful in the annals of reviewing” (81). It is hard to disagree with this statement after reading these reviews and then reading the collection itself, which features such famous poems as “Resolution and Independence”, “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1803”, “I wandered lonely as a Cloud”, “The Solitary Reaper”, and, most notably, the poem that Wordsworth later would entitle “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”, which concludes the collection.
Aside from raising significant debate about issues of canonicity, critical reception, and taste, the contents of Poems, in Two Volumes are also important in that they mark the first time that Wordsworth began categorising his poems—so that, to list a few instances,...
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Citation: White, Adam. "Poems in Two Volumes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 October 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2685, accessed 10 June 2026.]
