Widmer, M. (2017) Wordsworth's Aeneid and the influence of its eighteenth-century predecessors. Translation and Literature, 26(1), pp. 23-51. (doi: 10.3366/tal.2017.0274)
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Abstract
William Wordsworth's attempt at translating Virgil's Aeneid reached as far as Book 4, and mostly survives in manuscript drafts. The literary influences behind it can be illuminated through the poet's correspondence, and analysed more fully by tracing verbal echoes and other resonances in his translation. Despite the hostility he expressed towards Dryden and Pope, the foremost translators of the previous age, Wordsworth followed them in using heroic couplets, and, as has previously been argued, his translation draws increasingly on Dryden's Aeneis the further he advanced with his project. But Wordsworth owes an equally large debt, hitherto unrecognized, to the eighteenth-century blank verse renderings by Joseph Trapp and others, who anticipated many of his supposed stylistic innovations.
Item Type: | Articles |
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Keywords: | Linguistics and language, literature and literary theory, language and linguistics. |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Widmer, Dr Matthias |
Authors: | Widmer, M. |
College/School: | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature |
Journal Name: | Translation and Literature |
Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press |
ISSN: | 0968-1361 |
ISSN (Online): | 1750-0214 |
Published Online: | 01 February 2017 |
Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2016 Edinburgh University Press |
First Published: | First published in Translation and Literature 26(1):23-51 |
Publisher Policy: | Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher |
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