Issues of Wordsworth’s “Poems on the Naming of Places”

Abstract

This essay examines the thematic and aesthetic dimensions of Wordsworth’s place-naming poems, published under a collective heading and introduced by a separate Advertisement in the 1800 Lyrical Ballads—a structure that suggests a unifying thematic framework. Wordsworth’s place-naming acts assert his presence while acknowledging the limitations of human attempts to impose meaning on the natural world. Through naming, places become palimpsestic spaces layered with the name-giver’s desires, memories, wishes, and fears. Key questions explored include: How does naming reflect Wordsworth’s concerns with memory, emotion, and imagination? How does he intertwine the physical environment with his creative self-conception? In what ways does the presence of others complicate the poet-narrator’s authority? To what extent do these poems critique humanity’s impulse to impose meaning on the natural world? Additional themes emerge throughout, further illuminating Wordsworth’s naming vision.