# Wordsworth — On the Art of Writing character guide

> Wordsworth in On the Art of Writing by Arthur Quiller-Couch.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0005-lecture-iii-on-the-difference-between-verse-and-prose

## Snapshot

The Romantic poet whose living, breathing diction Quiller-Couch enlists as proof that great literature traffics in human hope and heartbreak, not cold celestial certainties.

## Who they are

Wordsworth hovers over these lectures as a test case in a running argument: is poetic language a set of rules to be obeyed, or the pulse of a man speaking to men? Quiller-Couch summons his verse against the pedants who would fence literature about with notice-boards, insisting that a poem lives because it is personal and various, not because it is correct. For the reader, Wordsworth becomes the hinge on which the whole question of diction turns — and the reason to keep reading.

## In the story

### [Lecture I: Inaugural](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/chapters/lecture-i-inaugural)

Referenced for his phrase 'feel that we are greater than we know' and as an example of expressing common feelings.

### [Lecture III: On the Difference Between Verse and Prose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/chapters/lecture-iii-on-the-difference-between-verse-and-prose)

Quoted in a couplet about measuring, used to illustrate the limitations of scanning prose rhythm.

### [Lecture VII: Some Principles Reaffirmed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/chapters/lecture-vii-some-principles-reaffirmed)

Mentioned in a simile comparing the lecturer's pleasure to Wordsworth's Kitten with falling leaves.

### [Lecture VIII: On the Lineage of English Literature (I)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/chapters/lecture-viii-on-the-lineage-of-english-literature-i)

Quoted on the tongue that Shakespeare spake and the faith and morals Milton held.

### [Lecture IX: On the Lineage of English Literature (II)](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/chapters/lecture-ix-on-the-lineage-of-english-literature-ii)

Mentioned as part of the great English poets and for his debt to France of the early Revolution.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/characters/wordsworth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_art_of_writing_se/characters