Originally published in 1974. This book concerns the archetypal quality of Wordsworthampamp39s The Prelude specifically the ways in which it develops and defines concepts of language time and narrative that influenced writers who came after Wordsworth. Frank D. McConnell sees the philosopher and theologian St. Augustine as the most suggestive analogue for the Wordsworthian quest for lost time and for the redemptive power of memory. McConnell maps similarities and dissimilarities between Wordsworthampamp39s Prelude and Augustineampamp39s Confessions. Each chapter of the book centers on an aspect of Wordsworthampamp39s confessional procedure in writing the poem. Chapter 1 ascribes peculiarities in the mode of address to The Preludeampamp39s definitive auditor Coleridge as a felt presence that shapes the overall form of the poem. Chapter 2 discusses the confessionaland Wordsworthianview of the human career contrasting the holistic and organic ideal of manampamp39s development with a more ancient and allegorical or daemonic view against which the confessional vision struggles. Chapter 3 carries the argument to the more fundamental level of the senses of sight and hearing. And chapter 4 deals with language itself the irreducible counters of Wordsworthampamp39s vision and the highly specialized confessional language of ampampquotEdenic words.ampampquot The general direction of the authorampamp39s reading is a narrowing of focus from the most general to the most specific features of the confessional act.