Ceaseless Music

Through a series of poetic responses and critical reflections, Ceaseless Music explores the afterlives of Wordsworth’s landmark autobiographical poem The Prelude in literature, philosophy and life writing, together with the insights it can offer into the writing of poetry today.

Beginning with an exploration of the poem’s genesis, from draft versions found in Wordsworth’s notebooks onwards, the book goes on to sound out The Prelude’s radical versions of selfhood through its attention to the ‘musics’ of place and of experience. The scope of the book ranges from biographical writings, to American literature and philosophy, neuroscience, musicology, and British and American poetries. The reader will discover new creative work in various modes, together with many re-echoings of Wordworth’s text in later writers, across history, and from across the globe.